Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Kindergarten 2009-2010

shellymos - GREAT news!

skyward, i hope you get the answers you're looking for!

So, apparently DS5 has been crying uncontrollably at school in the mornings after he gets into his class. He leaves me happy and comes home happy- I felt like a complete schmuck when I got a not from his teacher today telling about this. He refuses to ever talk about his feelings, so I tried cuddled him a lot and tried to get him to open up, but eventually it just felt like prying since he was so close lipped.

I have no idea if he's sad because his work is boring (they're identifying letters and practiced identifying and writing 3 yesterday), if he's sad that DS7 is still homeschooling and we aren't here just pining away for him- we're out doing just what we've always done, or if he just honestly misses me and needs some time to adjust since he's never been away from home on a regular basis. So, overlooking the world's longest run-on sentence, any ideas on how to help him?

I don't want to over-react to the situation, it does seem fairly minor since he calms down after about 10 minutes, but my first thought is to just bring him home. Unfortunately, Mr. Stiff Upper Lip won't tell me how he feels about any of it- coming home, staying at school, being carried off by wild monkeys- *nothing*.

day 2 of first and although DS5 behavior was not great in the morning, he said that he asked the teacher for triple digit addition and she gave him problems. She said that later she told them that he had gotten them all correct. I thought that was great that she took time to write out problems for him. I think part of his behaviors today are in part due to him having never really been in school and also I think he is interested in experimenting with their 6 color national security behavior system that they have in class.

mamaandmore: so sorry to hear that DS5 is sad. The good news is that the teacher alerted you. And don't feel bad about him not telling you. Some kids just see their school and home worlds as completely separate and don't talk about one at the other. Hopefully, he'll get through it soon!

In the meantime, maybe you could have him put on a puppet show with animals who go to school? Maybe that would help you figure out what's going on?

shellymos: So glad to hear that the teacher wrote out problems for DS5!

I just wanted to say hi and that my DS started Kindergarten almost a month ago. He is at a public "Montessori" and so far it seems to be going ok. If you read my post in the Parenting and Advocacy section you'll see my issue so far.

I'm going to go back tomorrow morning and read this whole thread but just wanted to say hi.

*waves*

DS FINALLY is like "yeah, that'd be cool" when asked about going into first now! yee haw. Now I just hope he actually gets the opportunity. I'm on pins and needles waiting for this testing process to "end".

I'm not sure if this was covered or not. Last year as we were going through first grade (our DS was 5 1/2 at that time--so the same age range) we found it very frustrating to get information from him on what went on during the day. The school didn't send us a whole lot of information and every time we asked him about it, it was "I don't know..." Seeing these posts reminds me of those days...

Someone gave me a tip about midway through the year: ask at bedtime. I found that if, after book, and after tuck-in, after all of that, when we turned off the lights if I asked him about his day, he'd tell me quite a bit more about it. It was very interesting, as this almost always works. DS is a bit more talkative about his day now (he actually enjoys telling us the highs and lows of the day) but we still talk about our days right at bedtime. I'll tell him a little bit about my day and then he'll tell me all about his.

Hope that helps.

JB

It always makes me feel better reading here (I read more than I post). DS gets so bored and then gets a little nutty in class and in a lot of trouble

How did all of you get the schools to let them skip K?

I'm sorry that it's not going well When you move will he go to a different school?