RitaG Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 I wanted to introduce myself, finally, to the board. I have been following the forum for awhile. I have 2 daughters, age 10 and 8. They attended preschool, but I have homeschooled them since Kindergarten. With the oldest, I started with Calvert 1st grade and Saxon 1, she did really well with both programs. I switched to Math Mammoth for the next year because she did not retain the math facts and continued with Calvert 2nd grade. Half way through the year, things fell apart. She was throwing fits, that is when I discovered the Well Trained Mind. I slowly switched to new curriculum and everything was great until the end of last year. DD1 was in 4th grade, but doing Level 5 work, without difficulty. She is an extrovert and it was a rough year socially. It seems like a lot of people in the area end up enrolling their kids in school so the homeschool kids dropped off to no one her age. She was in lots of extra curricular activities but they all have their school friends and she felt left out. She has always dawdled with everything, but she really started dragging school out all day. I felt like my nagging and her dawdling was affecting my younger child. There was a new classical school opening so we went to visit. My husband, who travels out of state Monday-Thursday, and I went to visiti 4 times. They reassured us they would work with my daughter at her level. Well, things have not turned out this way. She is in 5th grade, but did all 5th grade work last year, which included MM5, CWP, LOF, IEW SWI-B, Hake Grammar 5, La Clase Divertida 3, SOTW 3, Elemental Biology Logic Stage. The school did a math placement test on the second day of school and everyone bombed it. They had planned to do Singapore 5 in 5th grade and then based on the test results they started Singapore 4 instead. I had to meet with the principal to get her moved up. He was acommodating, after lots of pressure from me, to 7th grade math, which is Singapore 6. We were happy about it and DD is doing great. I really need advice on Language Arts. My DD's strength is in this area. She is an amazing reader. She can read and comprehend a 400 page book in 3 hours. She will read any book she is given. She LOVES grammar, too. She did FLL 2-4, Grammar Island and Grammar Voyage, and Hake 5. The original class plan was to assign the students a classic book to read at home and then, the teacher would do a read aloud. The first book assigned to read at home was Black Ships before Troy. My DD read it in 30 minutes on the way home from school (about 150 pages). Most of the other students did not understand it so it was switched to a read aloud book. They are still working on it 5 weeks later. Some of the kids have never had grammar so they are starting at a 3rd grade level. I was aware that my DD would be repeating some of the same material, but I thought she would be repeating 5th grade material. She is also starting at the beginning with Spanish. They are also doing SOTW 1 and unfortunately, Elemental Science Biology Logic Stage. I don't know how much I should worry about the grammar and literature. She says she is bored. She said she is so bored she is making up her own sentences to diagram. Her progress note came out last week and they said she is doing well, but not paying attention in class sometimes. The teacher is aware of her background, but wants her to stay engaged. My DD loves going to school. She said it is like summer camp. She would be devastated if I pulled her out. The school will eventually be a great school. I think all the teachers were overwhelmed with the number of kids not up to the level they had planned. What would you do? Let it go and let her have a fun year? Afterschool? Meet with teacher and principal again? What would you say? He does not want to move her to 6th and I'm not sure I want to either because of her maturity level. I'm sure I could convince him to do it, the question is, do I want to? Thanks for any advice and I am looking forward to participating in this forum. I am still homeschooling my younger DD, who is also accelerated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSprout Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 Have they seen the work she's completed? They might work with you if you show up with a binder of the completed pages the teacher has yet to assign. If you are paying tuition especially. What is sixth grade doing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 If she is 8 years old as in your signature I would not want her in 6th grade. Would the school allow part time enrollment? She could be there to meet her extroverted social needs but continue to work at her academic level at home? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSprout Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 I didn't look at her age. Part-time might be your best option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 Wanting them to stay engaged with material that is far beneath them is a big red flag for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incognito Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 The OP's signature is old (from when she joined WTM). I don't know what I'd do in your case, but I know that in choosing school you do choose to compromise on some things for benefits in other areas. You have to decide for yourself if it is worth it. Sounds like a neat school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RitaG Posted September 22, 2014 Author Share Posted September 22, 2014 Thanks for the replies. She is 10 and she will be 11 soon. I joined a long time ago, but never came back to the WTM due to moving around a lot. I need to find my profile and change it. They have seen her work and know she needs to be in 6th grade academically. I knew I would be compromising some of her academics, but I was not expecting, like the teachers, below 5th grade work. The 6th grade teacher has not participated in our conversations because I think she is a little overwhelmed with the students she already has in her class. All the lesson plans the teachers did over the summer have to be redone to try and remediate the students coming from mostly the local public school. They were not prepared to remediate such a large amount of the children and all the behavior problems they are having with the students. I am shocked with how some kids behave. I have another meeting at the end of the week so I need to decide what I am doing with her. I am going to request that the 6th grade teacher be involved. For middle school, part time is an option, but not elementary. The elementary school is through 6th grade. I asked if I could take her out of school early and just homeschool language arts, but he said no. As it stands today, they said if I assigned her some work, they would pull her out of class and put her by herself to do the work. She could do the worksheets at home and the tests the class is doing during school so she can get a grade. Sounds good, but planning it may be difficult to coincide with the class. I own the MCT trilogy with Treasure Island, Call of the Wild and Invisible Man so I could assign her those books, when the class is doing their read aloud. It is a private classical school and she loves it, but it just seems like a lot of work. They bragged that they would meet the students where they were academically, but I guess that only means if you are average or below, not advanced:( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space station Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 No wonder she isn't paying attention in class! Neither would I if everything was review. If you want to keep her in school, then I would move her up to 6th grade entirely and then after school her to meet her enrichment needs. Then in 7th grade go to part time. That is just my gut reaction on what I would ask for my similarly aged child. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Thanks for the replies. She is 10 and she will be 11 soon. I joined a long time ago, but never came back to the WTM due to moving around a lot. I need to find my profile and change it. They have seen her work and know she needs to be in 6th grade academically. I knew I would be compromising some of her academics, but I was not expecting, like the teachers, below 5th grade work. The 6th grade teacher has not participated in our conversations because I think she is a little overwhelmed with the students she already has in her class. All the lesson plans the teachers did over the summer have to be redone to try and remediate the students coming from mostly the local public school. They were not prepared to remediate such a large amount of the children and all the behavior problems they are having with the students. I am shocked with how some kids behave. I have another meeting at the end of the week so I need to decide what I am doing with her. I am going to request that the 6th grade teacher be involved. For middle school, part time is an option, but not elementary. The elementary school is through 6th grade. I asked if I could take her out of school early and just homeschool language arts, but he said no. As it stands today, they said if I assigned her some work, they would pull her out of class and put her by herself to do the work. She could do the worksheets at home and the tests the class is doing during school so she can get a grade. Sounds good, but planning it may be difficult to coincide with the class. I own the MCT trilogy with Treasure Island, Call of the Wild and Invisible Man so I could assign her those books, when the class is doing their read aloud. It is a private classical school and she loves it, but it just seems like a lot of work. They bragged that they would meet the students where they were academically, but I guess that only means if you are average or below, not advanced:( It sounds like they really thought they could but were overwhelmed by remedial work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RitaG Posted September 26, 2014 Author Share Posted September 26, 2014 Thank you Space station! I met with her teacher today. She will move up to 6th grade on Monday. I really like the idea of doing part time for the remainder of middle school, if full time doesn't work out. I was so stressed about everything that I would have never thought of it on my own😊. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space station Posted September 26, 2014 Share Posted September 26, 2014 Thank you Space station! I met with her teacher today. She will move up to 6th grade on Monday. I really like the idea of doing part time for the remainder of middle school, if full time doesn't work out. I was so stressed about everything that I would have never thought of it on my own😊. That's great! I'm glad the school was willing to work with you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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