Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School homework expectations after partial grade skip

I respectively disagree. I think that is at the heart of the asynchrony in gifted kids. They think on a much higher level but their physical skills may still be on par w/ peers. That can be an issue with radical acceleration. If you have someone with dysgraphia, do you deny them higher level material b/c they can't write about it?

I agree that the child might not be ready for a high school chemistry class but that's quite different from saying the child isn't ready for high school chemistry.

Wolf writes his (pretested) spelling words once on Monday, twice on Tuesday, then DICTATES sentences on Wednesday, does a verbal pretest on Thursday and a test on Friday.

He is 5. If he was required to write them each five times it would take him at least an hour. Ditto if he wrote his own sentences (he never chooses short ones). Yes, homework needs to be the same, but some adjustments for the difference between mental age and physical age should be allowed (dictation, fewer repetitions, etc...) until the physical age catches up a little.

DS's teacher just gives him, for spelling words, the words that he mis-spells in his own writing. (Plus the occasional sheet demonstrating a "rule" of English - that was where the printed sheet came in.) His teacher last year did the same, so I just assumed it was standard. Seems like an obviously sensible idea, and maybe one to suggest?

I know of several schools were if DC pretests on the spelling words and gets them correct, then DC doesn't have to do spelling that week.

I think it really varies with each family. While I respect the families that never make age based exceptions, I'd hate to see that as the 'only' way to subject accelerate. First lets look at why the subject acceleration was instituted in the first place - there must have been a good reason! Most kids who do get subject acceleration aren't getting any challenging homework from their other classes - is this busy work she is getting? If so, try to get that cut first.

Does she love and live for the extracurriculars? Perhaps you started them as a stop-gap measure before the Math came through? Can you cut back somewhat without cutting back entirely?

Can you scribe for her 1/3 to 1/2 of her Math homework? Is the class challenging, or still boring for her? Can you sound out the teacher about
a) sending in a note when family circumstances erupt or
b) having her do the hardest ones and cutting down on the amount of handwritting.

Just some thoughts,
Best Wishes,
Grinity

pretesting out of spelling words would make sense. DS5 doesn't normally spell words wrong so the teacher can't use those words for his sentences. Not that he can spell every word in the world, but he does know tons of words and he doesn't like to write really long words because it takes too much time. Although once he wanted to write about miniature golfing and did spell miniature wrong (one letter off), so the teacher did use that word one week. I have to laugh about Wyldkat about your DS never choosing short sentences. DS5 would definitely choose long ones if he could type them out or dictate...but for writing it is quite different. Last week he had the word "because" and he cringed when he saw it and said "great....with that word I know it is going to have to be a LONG sentence because I have to explain why something happens" The teacher has expressed that she wants him to be more "creative" in his journal and more "descriptive" I explained to her that I agreed....but he still has 5yo hands and for him those two words = longer sentences. She did seem to get that thankfully.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts. I would like dd to be regarded in terms of her own drive, critical thinking and organizational skills, rather than my or DH's own, or lack there of...

I probably just need to be more direct with the teacher about establishing realistic time limits.