Were your High-performing Child(ren) Bored in Class??? Pleae share your insight

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to the research literature, linguistically advantaged children have an oral vocabulary of about 10,000 words starting 1st grade and acquire about 50,000 words by high school, whereas less advantaged children have half that for both reference points because 1st grade differences in vocabulary tend to persist. In other words, it's important to arrive with a solid understanding and works towards continuous improvement. Only about 1,000-3,000 words are taught in school per year, so students have to acquire words outside of school as well.

From personal experience, this requires being on top of your child's reading level, spelling stages, and so on, and working with the teacher to ensure correct placement. Depending on the teacher, it can involve extra in-classroom work, etc. It is btw very easy to challenge even what parents might consider an 'advanced' child, the art is to do it in a way to which the child responds well. In my view, OP is not obsessed but planning ahead. Before our DC was identified as GT (and we received CoGAT, MAP scores etc.) we received very little information from the Kindergarten/1st grade teacher. We regret that and if we had to do it over we would be more cognizant from day one and asking more pointed questions about reading/spelling group placement.

On the other hand, I have zero worries that my advantaged child will be somehow hurt by being in a reading group with a less advantaged kid. He lives in an extremely language-rich environment, and there are huge advantages to being paired with kids he can help along in terms of social-emotional development. In fact when he was paired with a same-level advantaged kid he got bullied, so ...

Anyway, there's planning ahead, and there's assuming that you know better than your child's teacher about how to challenge kids in K and what they are actually learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality is that kindergarten is not about academics. When I entered kindergarten I could do math and read at 4th-5th grade level. But I learned about ecology, and coloring and playing in the sandbox and my class had a guinea pig. Some schools may have a gifted program that starts in K to identify kids and that can help. But in APS there will also be lots of other advanced kids and that fact will mean the material by any decent teacher will not be boring.

The advanced part becomes a much bigger problem at about 3rd grade where things are much more academic (and to some extent 1st where they start doing phonics etc in seats and as a class) but kindergarten will be fine. Don't make this is a problem unless it is one. You'll have much more to worry about!

OP here. VDOE recently revised their K standards, and basically lowered the K standards, and created a huge gap between K/1 and 2nd grade (in my opinion).

Is your observation of Arlington students' ability from your experience with APS? I don't know if many are that advanced, but I can be wrong.

omg. there is SO MUCH more to kindergarten than the standards on paper. the standards are outcomes, and tell you very little about what/how the teacher teaches and how they can differentiate. They don't even tell you anything about the curriculum. Chill out!

[Anonymous]

I was bored in elementary apparently because I was disruptive. I would finish my work and then bug other kids. Before we moved to a district with a gifted program, I had extra worksheets and a sketchbook to draw in for when I was waiting for other kids to catch up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was bored in elementary apparently because I was disruptive. I would finish my work and then bug other kids. Before we moved to a district with a gifted program, I had extra worksheets and a sketchbook to draw in for when I was waiting for other kids to catch up.

Also my son is starting APS Kindergarten this fall and he’s pretty smart and beyond ready despite having a late summer birthday. There are plenty of kids on his large preschool that run circles around him. It’s Arlington - you know it’s basically Lake Wobegone right? Lots of advanced kids with well educated parents. Your kid will not be alone. She’ll have plenty of peers at her level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyway, there's planning ahead, and there's assuming that you know better than your child's teacher about how to challenge kids in K and what they are actually learning.

It's not as though you can choose your Kindergarten teacher if you're in a public school. Needless to say, teachers have different approaches. There's a fair percentage of teachers opposed to gifted education. For instance, our Kindergarten teacher - who was otherwise very good, we believe - told us that in order to be identified as GT in Kindergarten you had to read and write at a 5th grade level coming in, and that that happens to only one child in the entire school every 4 to 5 years, which turned out to be complete BS. She also wouldn't tell us which reading group our child was in.

[Anonymous]

Your child will jot be bored because there is so much more to kindergarten, and school, than reading and math. There is music and art and science and PE but also learning to be a good citizen of the classroom, learning how recess and the lunch line work, being kind to classmates, doing group projects. Also, for my perhaps more advanced children in early grades, they got to learn how to help their classmates kindly, to develop leadership skills, to develop coping skills, social skills, so many many things. Learning how to handle your iwn ability level in relation to others also. Your child will nit be bored and will have peers amongst all the other kids who share a reading and/or math level.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't all have to be about school. Enrich elsewhere. DC took piano starting in K from a serious and rather demanding teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of children already know everything in the K, 1st, 2nd grade curriculum. They still learn, how to be a student, how to be a friend, etc.

This. my kid had probably mastered all of the 1st grade curriculum before starting K but he was not bored at all. Now, in 1st and 2nd, he was a little bored, but his teachers were good about differentiating, too. But K, not bored one bit.

[Anonymous]

She did not mention any boredom at all until about 5th grade, and that was in math class. This was a student who was reading at the 6th grade level in kindergarten.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand how a kid can know everything they will learn in K, 1st and 2nd grade before they start that grade. They learn a lot of things - not just academically but socially. Even in academics, reading, writing and math are not the only thing they learn. They learn plenty of science, social studies, music, art, etc.

[Anonymous]

Both my kids entered K reading chapter books (things like Judy Moody, Ivy+Bean, Harry Potter, Dragonbreath, Wimpy Kid) and able to play complicated board games and the like. They both still LOVED kindergarten and just got free reading time during the minimal instruction time. Boredom set in more in 1st/2nd grade when there was a lot of basic instruction that they had mastered long ago. The AAP program helped after that lull.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to the research literature, linguistically advantaged children have an oral vocabulary of about 10,000 words starting 1st grade and acquire about 50,000 words by high school, whereas less advantaged children have half that for both reference points because 1st grade differences in vocabulary tend to persist. In other words, it's important to arrive with a solid understanding and works towards continuous improvement. Only about 1,000-3,000 words are taught in school per year, so students have to acquire words outside of school as well.

From personal experience, this requires being on top of your child's reading level, spelling stages, and so on, and working with the teacher to ensure correct placement. Depending on the teacher, it can involve extra in-classroom work, etc. It is btw very easy to challenge even what parents might consider an 'advanced' child, the art is to do it in a way to which the child responds well. In my view, OP is not obsessed but planning ahead. Before our DC was identified as GT (and we received CoGAT, MAP scores etc.) we received very little information from the Kindergarten/1st grade teacher. We regret that and if we had to do it over we would be more cognizant from day one and asking more pointed questions about reading/spelling group placement.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually live in Arlington, and APS doesn't have a program like AAP. My daughter is heading to Kindergarten in the fall, but she has pretty much mastered everything she needs to learn in K, I followed the Virginia standard of learning and taught her all those standards already (through fun activities, she is motivated there was no forcing her to learn). I went to a couple of K orientation where the teachers presented their Kindergarten curriculum and goals, I feel like my daughter is going to be so bored in class since she has met all those goals already...ugh, I am sure I am not alone in this situation.

What did you do when your child was bored in class? How did you help him/her learn beyond the required curriculum? Continue teaching her myself? I do think she is gifted (trust me, I and unfortunately the gifted service at APS is pretty much non existence.

I really appreciate your help in advance!

---- a worried mom.

— keep challenging your child with the material she can handle.

My advanced kindergartener lost his advantage in grade2. Gradebook full of 3s unlike 4s before. Many factors there but one of them is definitely that I could not keep up with providing him enough enrichment (only some but not enough) at home. Ft work + long commute >>> not much time left for the child>>> school system alone was not sufficient to keep him up as advanced.

[Anonymous]

My kid was bored in K. Know why? He is dyslexic and all the academic work he was asked to do made him feel terrible, and he hated it, so he checked out. And said he was bored all the time. The kids in his class who were academically advanced weren’t bored - they loved reading out loud, and writing stories, and describing the weather using words off the word wall in front of their friends. “Bored” for little kids is usually code for “I can’t do it” rather than “I know it already.” So I wouldn’t worry too much about boredom. I also would stop teaching your kid the material ahead of time, though, which cheats her out of the opportunity to learn in school with her friends. Some kids just go ahead and learn on their own, or beg to be taught, and if you have one of those kids, sure, you may need some different strategies or schooling come 3rd grade or so.

[Anonymous]

OP,
I am a former K and first grade teacher. There are always kids in the class who perform higher than others. And, those that perform at the bottom. EVen in AAP classes, there will be standouts at the top, and, I suspect some at the bottom.

When I taught first grade, I had kids who came in at the bottom and exceeded those that came in at the top by the end of the year. It was not common, but it also was not unusual for kids at the top to sink to the middle. This had a lot to do with how much preparation they had been given before coming to school. If your child learns easily--without much effort on your part or hers--it is likely that she will stay in the top tier.

She should not be bored. Boredom in school really does not have a lot to do with intellect--it has more to do with imagination. Really smart kids are seldom bored. In my experience, boredom has more to do with being entertained. Some kids expect constant entertainment. That has nothing to do with intellect.

Occasionally, she may be asked to do things that are way too easy for her. But, it is doubtful that she will spend her days in that manner. I used to tell kids that I had to give them work that they may or may not be able to do well in order for me to know what they needed to learn. Most kids can understand that concept.

Since she is already reading, be sure that she reads at home. It's fine to read books that are too "easy" because that helps her fluency and comfort levvel. But, she should also read books that are a tad challenging. And, you should still be reading to her. This is how she develops vocabulary, etc.