Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School 1st/2nd Grade 2010-2011

Oh, and FYI - there's a big to do about Charter Schools & Funding happening in my state. I found all this out the day AFTER I was supposed to sign DC up for the Charter in my area. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad I did not!

Just a quickie Got ds7's report cards this week - I had to laugh at the 2nd grade reading section - he has always been marked as "above grade level" - but on this on, it says "at grade level". He's had a sub, as his teacher is on maternity leave, and the sub is actually a library assistant, so I'm sure she just didn't know there was an "above grade level" to select. Ah well, I think we'll survive. He also gets a 3rd grade report card for math only - and he got 99%. As well as going to math, he has been going to 3rd grade to work on a "Dream Clubhouse" project every day, which sounds like fun ! His 2nd grade class have been on field trips the past 3 days - Friday they went to the National Weather Service office, yesterday to the "Outdoor Campus" (nature oriented), and today to the washington Pavilion (science center). School sounds like SUCH hard work these days ! Oh - and he was also named his class "Top Dog" a couple of weeks ago (they choose one child from each class each quarter) - so he was pretty excited about that

NCPMom: Sounds great! Funny about the report card.

Glad to hear so many good reports about everyone's kids.

Question for you guys: Do your kids make some of their work harder than it needs to be if the work is too easy? I had to make DS redo math homework tonight b/c:

1. Homework was about capacity in containers and how much liquid was in them. There were two identical looking containers, one with a capacity of 4, one with 9. DS decided that b/c they were identical looking, every number on the one with 9 must have been a half and gave all answers based on the halfs.

2. Simple measurement in grams. DS decided to explain all his answers in pounds. Only no one has told him how many g = a pound, so he simply guessed that 100 grams must equal a pound. I asked him questions before explaining what he did wrong and he totally got that the scales were measuring in g, he just felt like converting them. ... He now knows what the g to pound conversion table is ;-)

NCP - oh to have so much fun during a work week!!!! ha!

mom2twoboys - it's amazing how muchy your DS sounds like mine... like he's bored, so he'll make the questions/answers even more of a challenge than what they are asking!

JJsmom: It's always nice to know there are others like him. He had to write a small thing about goals in school. He listed: Reading goal: To read longer books (Note: He's reading the 5th Percy Jackson book right now.) Math: To learn devision [sic] tables.

I do worry a little b/c he's starting to separate himself. We hosted a neighborhood party this weekend with lots of kids. I thought he was playing with the other kids, including one who he's been good friends with his whole life. It was only at bedtime that I discovered he'd been up in his bedroom reading all night. It's not the first time he's avoided playing with other kids. A couple of months ago, he spent an hour at a friend's house avoiding the kids and reading on someone's kindle.

Maybe he's just going through a learning spurt...

Since we are at the end of the school year (5 weeks left for us). I was wondering how everyone's kids did this year. I am kicking myself for not insisting on the math acceleration back in the fall. First grade math (everyday math at that) has been less then thrilling. Frannie's homework is completed in 5 minutes. We may work on second and third grade math over the summer. She will finish the year reading at a mid third grade level. We are MAP testing this week. She did not get into the gifted program (just missed). She scored no points on the non verbal section of the CogAT.. which I don't understand how that happened.

We are hoping they will skip our ds5 into first grade. He will MAP test sometime in late June early July. He will need to score 90% of the end of year kindergarten in both math and reading. If he doesn't .. we will at least have an idea of where he is and look at subject acceleration in at least math. (He completes first grade enrichment math now).

DD8, who is bright but not necessarily gifted, has been asking for more challenging math to work on at home. She has a tendency to rush through her work at school and often makes silly mistakes. Also, although she's reading at a fourth grade level, she sometimes struggles with reading comprehension. So, I ordered the Life of Fred - Fractions book for her. I'm hoping that it will combine reading practice with some fun math.

I can hardly believe that school is almost done - 18 May is the last day !! I just peeked online at ds7's 2nd grade math district testing results - 96.9%. Hope missing a couple of multiple choice questions doesn't affect his going to 4th grade for math in the fall They did the district reading tests last week - don't know when the results will be in, though. I also peeked at his end of year report card - it isn't filled out yet, but in the reading section, he started out at level 40, and end of year says 40+ - guess the teacher couldn't be bothered to test his ACTUAL level. Grrrr. ( his 1st grade teacher tested him up to level 50, right at the end of 1st grade, but that didn't make it onto his report card for some reason) !

I asked his teacher how many questions were on the math test - 64, and he missed 2 - one of which, is a very poorly written word problem. The district average for the test - 78% !

I only have a brief moment to post. We are done with 2nd grade... amazing. DS got 11 3+s (exceeds - usually he gets one or two) on his report card and qualified to do Target (ALP) next year. I cannot believe he will be a 3rd grader in a few months!!!!