On Jun 29, 7:20 am, jaime wrote:
I am both a parent of a little girl that is gifted (she is going into
2nd grade) as well as a special education teacher in a primary school
building. I have also struggled with finding the appropriate balance
for her educational needs as well as her social needs. I have found
through Kindergarten and first grade that the best solution is to work
with the teacher on providing materials that are interesting as well
as ensuring that she has all of the basic skills needed. For example,
although my daughter already knew how to do basic addition and
subtraction (including regrouping) before entering school, I had
never even thought to expose her to pyramids and quadrilaterals, which
are part of the first grade curriculum. Likewise, in science, she
knew 90% of the curriculum but the other 10% was completely new to her
because she had never been exposed to it. I worked with the teacher
and we developed a plan for her that consisted of completing the
assigned activities with the class, and although sometimes it was new
information to her it was mostly a review. She then had the
opportunity to work on the computer or read new, higher level reading
books, to explore the topic in more depth. She was also given the
opportunity to help other students in the classroom and this was a
positive experience for both her and the other students resulting in a
more positive self image as well as friends. Reading was always
acceptable and she had many chapter books (some that I provided and
others from the higher grades within the school) to read. I have
found that this was a great solution. I worry about homeschooling
very gifted children (My husband and I have thought about it so many
times, I must admit) because these children tend to feel isolated as
it is. They tend to have more trouble in social situations because
they are simply in a different mind than the typical child. I want my
daughter to learn how to interact at this very very influential time.
She already knows she's different but is learning to play more than
ever by being around children (especially in PE and recess and
lunch). I feel that by the 4th grade we are going to have to
reevaluate the goals she has and we want her to have but also know
that many school programs offer gifted education programs by this
time. Outside agencies also provide accelerated curriculum classes
after school for interest areas (my daughter is a science kid and we
enrolled her in a science exploration class and it was so much fun!)
Good luck, I understand how difficult this can be but also urge you to
give the teacher and the school the opportunity to work with him. And
please remember that at this tender age it is almost as important that
the children learn problem solving, social and sharing (information)
skills as it is about basic skill mastery. Give your child a big hug
and remember to listen to what he wants as well . . . after a few
months and lots of work and collaboration with the teacher, you may be
surprised how happy he can be.

Jaime

I totally agree with you, we tend to put too much emphasis on one area
and ignore the others. academic achievement is important
but not the ONLY objective. Social skill, fun, and other activities
are all
important to develop a kid. Schools re-evaluate themselves constantly
with different criteria to improve their ratings and I have no doubt
public
schools in US are of high quality compared to others.

The key of successfully teaching is to keep kids interested in the
school itself (classroom, playground, friends) Earning good grade is
natural extension of understanding the materials,
having funs with friend is also important. Learning is a life long
process, make them think.