Reply to Personal Advice Needed

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Personal Advice Needed"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]In 2nd grade kids are still learning to read.  By 3rd grade they are reading to learn, and things are very different.  If DC can read at or above grade level then sure, he is going to be bored in 2nd grade.  But I am hard-pressed to think of a school, whether public or private, where that would _not_ be true.

If he is receptive to talking about school and about learning, let him know that the better he does on the work he has, the more interesting the work he gets will be.  In order to qualify for the interesting stuff, he has to knock the boring stuff out of the park.  That's his job.  And this really is the year/age that he can actually gain the psychological maturity to do that, but it won't be overnight.  In the meantime, ask his teacher to notice for you what engages him and holds his attention, and make a plan with the teacher for what he can/should do as a reward (a book?  5 minutes of computer time?  yoga mat?) if he finishes everything _well_ that is expected of him.  Tell the teacher to return his work for re-visitation if it is anything less than what he is capable of - and let him know that his teacher will be helping him learn how to do an even better job at _showing_ what he knows so he can be congratulated for it.

Some of the pressure points with kids who are quick learners is that they can be afraid to take risks because they don't like to fail (since they feel like they know so much, admitting they don't know or can't do something can be very hard for them); they can discard authority figures whom they decide they do not like or respect with really breathtaking speed, and doubly so if it is a defense mechanism against criticism; they can rush through things unduly because they want everyone to see that they are the first one done (this can be problematic on standardized tests, too); they can have a hard time learning challenging new things, especially those that require gradual practice and especially in this age group, because they have tended to get through on intuition or instantaneous mastery of what was easier in the past.

In other words, it actually takes a lot of patience to teach _any_ kid (or every kid) how to use the school environment to actually learn.  Your DC is right at the point where that whole transformation is supposed to start.  It's no wonder he's not processing it all yet.  And it's not a sign that he's in the wrong school, either: all you need to do is keep in touch with his teachers, and provide lots of stimulation at home.  Think Legos, role-playing games, challenging books, crafts, hobbies, music, or even the right sport.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics