[chel]

Anyone with below average dc, or bottom of the barrel

? dd is special in her own way

: but academics aren't it. She way behind in both reading and math (knows 20 sight words, can't sound out words, and can count to 30 but only write to 10). She's going into 1st this month and I'm not sure how to prepare her. At the end of K she was kinda figuring it out that all the dc perform better than her. Now she's going to have weekly spelling test. (kinda hard to pass a spelling test when you can't read the word

: )
Currently I have no game plan.

 

[iamama]

From what you say I don't think she is behind. I know I didn't do those things at that age. Read to her and find out what she is interested in. Learning comes when she is ready let her live in her imagination and not put presure on test and learning.

 

[eminer]

How about switching schools (or just pulling her out)??? Weekly spelling tests in the first grade sound crazy to me, and not at all consistent with research on how children learn. Think about this for a moment: You are saying that she has already internalized a negative self-image with respect to learning, even though she just finished kindergarten. I have known so many people -- women, mostly -- who were affected into adulthood by the mistakes (or rather culpable "mistakes") of their earliest teachers. Her ability to read and count at the end of kindergarten should not be seen as, or allowed to become, a predictor of how academically special she may or may not be!

 

[sarahmae1]

Would it be possible for her to repeat K? Perhaps at another school? If you and/or her teacher(s) feel she is behind and may/will struggle in 1st maybe that would be an option.

 

[chel]

While everything was fine at the mid-year parent teacher conference, by spring she was way behind. Sounds odd, but I think dd came in knowing enough to get her to mid-year and just didn't "learn" anything the rest of the year. She had a brand new teacher but honestly dd has never been that into letters or numbers (she's more artsy-crafty type of gal). The teacher kinda mentioned (threat) repeating in the beginning of April and said dd would meet with a "reading specialist" to catch her up. Well dd met with this person twice and after tallking to other parents our district doesn't hold back K (it's a half day) and often has the dc repeat 1st. They do offer a "special needs" full day K but I didn't think dd would need it at the beginning of the year and now she's too advance. Only 4 schools in the district and all the same.
While I'm concerned with dd having a negative outlook about learning, she loves the social aspect of school and wants to go and is very accepting of repeating 1st to the point where she doesn't feel the need to even try. I mean someone has to be at the bottom of the class, right? It's just she's so far behind the rest. I'm just hoping that eventually things will kick in. I don't think I could handle homeschooling as I'm finding it near impossible working with sounding out words and counting. She just doesn't want to. She does love being read to and doing "science projects".

 

[ASusan]

I think part of your game plan should be to do what she loves -- read to her, a lot, and do science projects together. The further you go with both, the more she will learn. Don't pressure her at this point to "learn" anything, just go with her interests. These may, eventually, lead to the academic advancement that you (or the school) is looking for. A 'science project' might require reading instructions, for example (after several months of just playing on her own, or being guided by you), after she advances beyond the basics.

When you read to her, just read. Try reading (for yourself) the book, Reading Magic, I think it's called. It's about how to read aloud to children. (Sounds silly, but there are some good pointers there).

BTW, I don't have children, but I teach child development.

 

[eminer]

chel, I really truly don't want to impose on your judgment about your dd, since you know her best. And I appreciate that some students do have learning difficulties and deserve to have their needs met! Just tell me to shut up if you don't find my comments helpful.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chel Sounds odd, but I think dd came in knowing enough to get her to mid-year and just didn't "learn" anything the rest of the year.

Yes, it does sound odd. Worth exploring for sure: why did she not learn anything all year?

Quote:

Well dd met with this person twice

You have it from your dd's teacher that she is hopelessly behind and will probably have to repeat first grade (after spending an entire year feeling like she is failing), and yet she was only able to see the reading specialist twice?

Quote:

While I'm concerned with dd having a negative outlook about learning, she loves the social aspect of school and wants to go and is very accepting of repeating 1st to the point where she doesn't feel the need to even try. I mean someone has to be at the bottom of the class, right?

So are you saying that you think it's ok that she is so discouraged she doesn't even want to try any more? No, IMO, no one has to be at the bottom of the class in kindergarten, because there is no discernible reason not to simply facilitate each child's individual learning, realizing that there will be varying levels of readiness for acquiring (these completely basic, mechanical, non-intellectual, insignificant as a long-term reflection on a person) skills, at this age.

Quote:

I don't think I could handle homeschooling as I'm finding it near impossible working with sounding out words and counting. She just doesn't want to. She does love being read to and doing "science projects".

I don't want to try to sell unschooling per se on the Learning at School board, obviously. However, could it be that she just isn't ready to work on sounding out words and counting? Maybe after a few months of deschooling from this stressful experience, things would look different? It seems like there should really be some educational option, somewhere, that could present an alternative to branding your dd as a slow learner because she "only" has 30 sight words.

 

[chel]

As for not learning all year. It's just half the stuff she already knew (color, shapes, measurements, coins) and all the new stuff (counting, reading, etc) she just "didn't pick up"

I think it's not that dd is so discouraged that she doesn't try but rather she doesn't want to try, no desire? It's like she an ideal unschooling child. Learns through life experiences (we do lots of camping and she loves to do ranger programs at the national parks -as long as she can draw or speak her answers). I do take her out of school when I think there's an enriching program offered in our community that are targeted to homeschoolers. I was looking forward to dd being in 1/2day K as we were able to attend many homeschooling programs. Thing is dd is very social and craves the social life of a traditional school. I'm prepared to take her out of the public school if this changes and would look deeper into homeschooling at that point. We did look into Montessori but they weren't happy with dd not reading and stated that all their dc were reading by K. Plus, dd wanted to be in the "lower school" classes (preschool to K) - more hands on stuff, but the school wanted her in the "upper school"(1-5) which was more paper work.

I do read to her. I think it's getting to the point where books that are on her reading level are for infants/toddlers and she's has no desire to try to read "baby books" and likes to listen to books that are too advanced to even attempt with her limited sight words.