Bright child in early elementary- what are my options?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle School parent chiming in. The things that everyone else has suggested are great, but in my opinion the most important thing that you can do in these years is foster their social-emotional abilities. This is not easy for many bright kids and it is so very, very important especially as they get older.

+1

Worry more about their mental heath. So much anxiety going around. Trust me.

Also a kid who is highly gifted at math will jump from 3rd grade math to 9th grade math in 3rd grade. Or roughly there about. There is no reason to push it earlier. What I’m saying was a that it isn’t important that he learn 2nd grade math in kindergarten, 3rd grade math in 1st grade etc. He will naturally jump to his needs when he is older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many parents with highly able kids struggle with this. A friend tried adamantly to skip K but teachers/admin refused. My DC was highly gifted in math (taught himself to multiply and divide fluently in K). But there was nothing short of homeschooling that we could have done. He’s in 4th now and was bored in math throughout but now is at least enjoying the faster paced compacted math. It’s really not fair that these kids have to go through the same curriculum as their slower counterparts. It’s almost as we’re punished for teaching our kids to read before K. But I’ve always hated this aspect about public school. Everyone has to learn at the same pace. Admin says the slower kids catch up, sure but at the expense of the rest of the kids not learning anything for several years.
I heard of this charter school in DC where kids learn on their own via videos that they can pause and repeat if needed and have small group discussions with the teacher. Sounds like that is the way to go. Sorry OP, join the club

My DC can multiply and divide and is in K. He is a regular kid who can read, write and speaks 3 languages. Are you sure yours is gifted?

This. That doesn’t sound highly gifted.

It was just an example of what he can do, he’s calculated things in his head that have blown my mind away. (I’m no math whiz but I at least took AP calc) But that’s not the point, I don’t care if he’s labeled or not it’s just my opinion. Anyways the point is wouldn’t it be nice if we could springboard these kids who are advanced in K and keep that momentum going? Yes there are many many bright kids out there, but why are they in classes with kids who don’t even know their letters? I encouraged DC to read but I hardly had to teach, he picked up on his own so quickly like so many other bright kids. I just wish that kids like that could start off school focusing on the skills they need instead of ones they’ve already mastered.

NO. This would not be nice. It would lead to an arms race that does nothing but reinforce privilege. It is ridiculous to expect a social good like public education to provide a concierge education to each child. It is doubly ridiculous to expect that the school will cater a curriculum to keep kids one step ahead of what their parents are teaching them at home (or paying someone else to teach them).

"Springboarding" kids who show up to kindergarten ahead of their peers is a nightmare idea, designed to create a permanent underclass and to hoard advantages that can only be attained through time/income that many parents do not have. It creates a system that reward family income over potential, and is bad for society, in that it means gifted kids who didn't get enrichment before they turned 5 would be left behind.

Separately, just because kids are advanced in K doesn't mean they necessarily continue to be advanced or hit other cognitive milestones earlier than other children. The difference between "middle grades" fiction and "YA" fiction is not so much about what kind of vocabulary and sentence structure are used but about themes and content of the book (sexuality, violence, "where do I fit into society") which require a more mature reader to process. Just because kids can read at a high level doesn't mean they're ready to analyze material at a middle school level in 4th grade. Their analytical skills are limited by their brain maturity.

It's never good for kids to be bored in school. But there are a variety of ways to engage kids who already know their letters in kindergarten, and I honestly don't know any MCPS parents in real life who feel like their kid was completely bored in ELA in the early grades because they came in reading. Those kids are working on writing, in which they are usually not nearly as advanced as they are in reading, and they are offered beginning chapter books to read during their "reading" time. Kids are sometimes pulled into a different class for a reading "group" if there's not a group in their class at the right level.

I have seen problems with the math being boring. I really haven't seen problems with ELA being boring. I have seen kids who spend a fair amount of time on free choice reading during school if they are good/fast readers, but I don't see a huge problem with that.