Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Early middle school/ double skips?

This is along the lines of the starting-K thread that just started.

DS9 is skipping to middle school this fall and he's a little concerned about the homework load. For anyone out there with a child who started middle school early, how did things go with homework? I'm looking for any advice and/or coping skills.

Val

My DS will read and do problems without much in the way of reminders. Checking his work and writing essays are harder for him.

He's concerned about the amount of homework too. I was told to expect a couple hours per night, which seems like a lot. That said, that half hour per night in grade school rarely took him anywhere near that long. But I don't know if middle and high schools have busywork components or other things that require a certain amount of time, regardless of how bright you are.

Val

Thanks for helping.

The Headmaster told me to expect about a half-hour per subject. I'm planning on helping DS, and he knows he'll need to do things like reading assignments in study hall.

I don't want him to be overwhelmed and I'm trying to work out a plan for helping reduce overload if and when it happens.

Val

>social impact

That's good to hear. I'm a little concerned about that too. He'll be the youngest in the school, but only by a year. It's a school where they ability group and they're starting a GT recruitment push. Hopefully a few more kids his age will enter. He's also going to age into the school as well, so at least the age-peers problem will disappear in a couple years (max).

My DS had only a couple problems with "forgetting" an assignment. He did not use the planner I bought him to try to keep track. Many of his assignments were modified, so I'd hear about something from another parent, panic, and then find out DS didn't have to do it--for instance, he placed out of spelling and normal vocabulary, so he was mostly doing self-paced word root exercises. He made a couple poor judgement calls--like going on the Spanish field trip because they invited him when he should have been making up his standardized tests. Carpool time was great 'cause I could ask him about each subject and sometimes it would help him remember something he needed to do.

I'm going to give DS a planner; he used them in primary school and the new school seems reasonably organized, so getting him to record assignments will hopefully be successful. In my limited experience, if the teacher is on the ball about saying "Write your assignment down now" then the kids usually do.