Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For DD second grade was difficult because her teacher hated her and treated her terribly. But academically none of elementary school was hard at all.

Same for DS but in third grade. The academic expectations were always things he could easily do. We think that’s why the teacher hated him. She refused to call on him in class and was upset about his privilege.

I wonder where he got his attitude from.

My DS did multiplication and division in 2nd grade. He loves math so it wasn’t hard but he finds the writing and weekly spelling tests challenging in 2nd grade. I am anticipating 3rd will be a tough adjustment in expectations around writing and being organized.

So far 4th grade has been a great. But it’s a Montessori. After 6, we will do public.

Anonymous wrote:For DD second grade was difficult because her teacher hated her and treated her terribly. But academically none of elementary school was hard at all.

Same for DS but in third grade. The academic expectations were always things he could easily do. We think that’s why the teacher hated him. She refused to call on him in class and was upset about his privilege.

3rd

If your child has been doing distance learning in public school, it's whatever grade your child is going into next year. Welcome back homework and dusting off social skills that may be rusty. It's going to be rough for a lot of kids. Hopefully, teachers adjust.

None.

There is a jump in reading expectations in 3rd, a jump in writing expectations in 4th, a jump in multiplication expectations in 5th, but truly, this is NOTHING compared to what awaits your child in high school.

Elementary school, whether public or private, goes very slowly. It's time meant to be spent solidifying knowledge so that students start of their secondary education with rock-solid bases in English and arithmetic.

Pay attention to math and writing, the two skills that build on each other every year, and tracking in math. You can't expect your child to do a handful of APs in high school and have a very attractive profile for college if they're not completely at ease with writing and logical reasoning in middle school.

Anonymous wrote:First and third. Second and fourth build on concepts introduced the previous years, but first and third introduce tons of new concepts.

+1

The hardest one is whichever one where they get a bad teacher or have social issues. Or where undiagnosed ADD or a learning disability impacts their academic performance. Or if they haven’t been taught a skill well like addition or phonics and it catches up with them.

2nd and 4th for my older DS but only the math part of 4th. My younger one is breezing through 2nd and I think it has a lot to do with the teacher. DS1's 2nd grade teacher had high expectations and gave a lot of individual work.