Going from homeschooling to school - what if they are ahead?

[Heavenly]

My kids are most likely going to be going to a private Christian school in September. My daughter turned 5 at the beginning of November and my son will be 7 in January so by age they will be in grade 1 and grade 2. The thing is they are both ahead of that in math and reading. I haven't done much work on other subjects so I am going to review the ministry of education guidelines to get them up to par on the other subjects but I am worried they will be very bored with math and reading. My daughter is 1/3 of the way through grade 1 language arts already and just about finished K Math (she'll be moving on to grade 1 math within the next month). My son is almost done grade 1 language arts and 1/3 of the way through grade 1 math. They aren't way ahead in the math but if we keep working at the pace we've been working they will be by Sept. But in the language arts they will be way ahead. My daughter would be offended if someone was trying to teach her how to read "cat" when she can already read complex words. Will they let them work on harder stuff or will they just have to sit there and be bored?

[ManiacMama]

They may be bored, but they may not. It really depends on how well the school you choose meets their individual needs and that really varies from school to school, district to district, state to state.

We live in MN, and our schools are pretty good here. We transitioned from homeschooling this year and I was worried about math and reading too. In some ways my boys have been bored, mostly with math. My 3rd grader is still doing things that he learned at home last year. Schools may have programs like challenge math or challenge reading, but these are weekly pull out programs that we've found just offer extra busywork than anything else. In reading, however, I've been more pleased with how well our school has accomodated our children at their own level. In September they tested each child to find their reading level, then they formed small reading groups with kids of similar levels. The kids read books at their level and discuss the plot and characters with their group members. They learn the elements of literature too, even in first grade. I have seen a huge jump in reading ability for my first grader, though I'm not sure that this is entirely or even partially due to school, but just that he happened to "click" in his reading ability toward the first few weeks of school. Still, I have seen him progress nicely and I've seen him blossom in other ways too. I've been less impressed with what my third grader is getting in the way of academics, but he was more advanced. But it has probably worked out well for him since he really lacks motivation and isn't interested in working hard to learn things. Right now is more adjustment mode for him.

Schools have come a long way since I was in school and each child got identical textbooks from which to read. I was always done within the first month of school and bored silly since I was such a voracious reader, but they don't do it this way anymore. I doubt reading will be much of an issue for your children, but math may be. I recommend that you call the school in which you are planning to enroll your children and discuss your concerns with them. See if they can explain to you what measures they have in place to meet each students' needs. Good luck to your family!

[kmeyrick]

Maniacmama, I am not surprised to hear what you said about math. With all the shrieking in public school about how there needs to be more differentiation, math is getting more and more tightly rigid with everyone needing to be on the same page. How do you differentiate that?

In my area we use Saxon math, and it is fantastic in many ways. I would say it's only flaw is the requirement that everyone be at the same level no matter what, since it is supposed to be "classroom community" learning.