AL parent problems

[Dmmetler]

I know I can't be the only one who has those things that you can't post on FB or share because they'll be misunderstood...

 

DD10 has a new tumbling coach, and had her first practice yesterday. She commented that they'd "forgotten" conditioning. Today when I came in she was gushing about how smart DD is and how she knows EVERYTHING-and my heart sank because it means that DD has learned that this is someone she can just talk circles around and get away with everything-like getting away without doing conditioning, her least favorite part of practice!

[Arcadia]

I totally get it :lol: DS10 gets away with mild "misbehavior" while DS9 unintentionally talk in circles and ends up confusing whoever the person is.  Thank goodness for their firm German teachers.

[Dmmetler]

I like it much better when she has male coaches. They seem a lot less inclined to get drawn into conversation than the girls do. (most of her coaches are college students who are coaching as a part time job, since the university here has a nationally competitive cheer program and a good gymnastics team-neither of which give scholarships to girls).

[rebcoola]

Totally understand we will only work with certain coaches because DD6 gets away with murder with the younger and or inexperienced coaches.

[Arcadia]

My kids' no nonsense lady cello teacher is old enough to be around my mom's age. DS10's first violin teacher was a Russian lady and he learn a lot despite giving up on the violin.   All his prior violin skills transferred to cello despite a 7 years gap.  DS10 prefers firm teachers rather than wishy washy ones.  He can then concentrate on learning instead of testing boundaries.  Their current German teacher and homeschool science teacher are no nonsense ladies too.  I don't know who this year's Chinese teacher will be but he had firm Chinese lady teachers before.

 

Didn't realize that all their teachers might be ladies this academic year :lol:  For gym, guy coaches are definitely better for my boys. I have seen big improvements when they were under the male coaches in an all boys class.

[sportsmom]

You aren't the only one.  Though younger, my DD will probably be like that.  As it is, she will do EXACTLY what is asked of her, even if she is capable of doing far more.  So it takes a firmer/more insightful instructor to really get the most out of her.  

 

The idea of PS Kindergarten is terrifying to me.

[lewelma]

I was just at a friend's house and mentioned that my ds had just written a response paper on Brothers Karamazov, and that he decided to discuss free will from the point of view of neural nets and quantum mechanics.  Oops.  I guess that was not something to share.  :thumbdown:  The dad just stared at me.  :tongue_smilie:

[Grover]

I have one of those... talk you in circles until your head is spinning and there's no time for anythig you'd planned to do.  ARGH!  Her martial arts instructors have her pegged, but the trampoline coaches are much too nice.  One music teacher has her sussed, the other one, not so much. 

 

This child has decided she'd like to try school.  I cannot see this ending well for any party :-)

[lewelma]

Lucky for us, compared to his violin teacher's other students, ds's music abilities are not so great. DS might be ready to start a post secondary diploma at age 15, but the other students are the best in the nation.  So ds knows he just doesn't match up.  It's quite good for a kid who is used to being the best at everything.  :001_smile:   The violin teacher is always like ,"is that all you got done this week? You need to work harder!" But in a very supportive, encouraging sort of way.  My kids don't get away with anything!  Worth every dime I spend, and it is a LOT.

[SKL]

You aren't the only one.  Though younger, my DD will probably be like that.  As it is, she will do EXACTLY what is asked of her, even if she is capable of doing far more.  So it takes a firmer/more insightful instructor to really get the most out of her.  

 

The idea of PS Kindergarten is terrifying to me.

 

When my AL entered 1st grade, she had been reading chapter books for about a year.

 

They used the AR program and for kids who couldn't really read yet, they would have a volunteer read them the questions and enter their answers on the computer.  The AR record would reflect "read to."  My AL was choosing KG level books and reporting via the "read to" option.  :/  I figured this would be corrected soon once the teacher got to know the kids a little, but no.  (They do not have reading groups in that school, at least not through 3rd grade.)

 

After some time, I approached the teacher and pointed out that Miss E was reading at the Harry Potter level and should probably not be allowed to choose the "read to" option or read super easy readers.  :/

 

It wasn't a big deal since she continued to read a ton at home.  I was more concerned that they would think she should not have been an early entrant, since she pretended to be a weak reader.

 

Eventually she tried reading at her actual level for AR, but they wouldn't let her go that high.  :/

[sportsmom]

When my AL entered 1st grade, she had been reading chapter books for about a year.

 

They used the AR program and for kids who couldn't really read yet, they would have a volunteer read them the questions and enter their answers on the computer.  The AR record would reflect "read to."  My AL was choosing KG level books and reporting via the "read to" option.  :/  I figured this would be corrected soon once the teacher got to know the kids a little, but no.  (They do not have reading groups in that school, at least not through 3rd grade.)

 

After some time, I approached the teacher and pointed out that Miss E was reading at the Harry Potter level and should probably not be allowed to choose the "read to" option or read super easy readers.  :/

 

It wasn't a big deal since she continued to read a ton at home.  I was more concerned that they would think she should not have been an early entrant, since she pretended to be a weak reader.

 

Eventually she tried reading at her actual level for AR, but they wouldn't let her go that high.  :/

 

This sounds like I almost wrote it myself.  My DS went to PS for K-2.  By the end of 1st grade, he was reading the Harry Potter books independently.  Yet, he was barely getting any AR points.  Turned out, his teachers were allowing him to take AR tests on the easy readers he had read while waiting for his classmates to complete classwork.  They were books that counted for about 1/2 of a point.  If memory serves, the Harry Potter books were 15-18 points each.  He ended up taking AR tests in 2nd that he had read in 1st grade and never even considered taking the test on.

 

His teachers never mentioned to me that he was taking AR tests significantly below his reading level.  He was just taking the same tests that his friends were doing.  Once he realized that he could accumulate points that quickly, he had it as his personal challenge to see how many points he could get for the year and as a second grader for the most points in the whole elementary school.  But even then his teacher suggested that he "slow down" some.  Sigh.

[SKL]

This sounds like I almost wrote it myself.  My DS went to PS for K-2.  By the end of 1st grade, he was reading the Harry Potter books independently.  Yet, he was barely getting any AR points.  Turned out, his teachers were allowing him to take AR tests on the easy readers he had read while waiting for his classmates to complete classwork.  They were books that counted for about 1/2 of a point.  If memory serves, the Harry Potter books were 15-18 points each.  He ended up taking AR tests in 2nd that he had read in 1st grade and never even considered taking the test on.

 

His teachers never mentioned to me that he was taking AR tests significantly below his reading level.  He was just taking the same tests that his friends were doing.  Once he realized that he could accumulate points that quickly, he had it as his personal challenge to see how many points he could get for the year and as a second grader for the most points in the whole elementary school.  But even then his teacher suggested that he "slow down" some.  Sigh.

 

I was able to track my kids' AR progress online.  Otherwise I don't know how long that would have gone on.

 

Miss E also caught on to the points and won awards in 1st and 3rd grade for getting the most.  She slacked off a bit in 2nd because of a dispute with the teacher over her ZPD range.  She can be very stubborn.  ;)

 

My kid still does not like to do "extra," other than free reading.  I don't know why.  I know she gets nervous about not knowing everything.  Maybe this will change as she gets older.

[sportsmom]

I was able to track my kids' AR progress online.  Otherwise I don't know how long that would have gone on.

 

Miss E also caught on to the points and won awards in 1st and 3rd grade for getting the most.  She slacked off a bit in 2nd because of a dispute with the teacher over her ZPD range.  She can be very stubborn.  ;)

 

My kid still does not like to do "extra," other than free reading.  I don't know why.  I know she gets nervous about not knowing everything.  Maybe this will change as she gets older.

 

I didn't understand the AR system for the first year he used it.  Finally his teacher told me that he was only taking 1-2 AR tests a month, enough to meet the minimum requirement for his classwork grade.  He had no idea that he was allowed to take tests on the "fun" books he read.

 

My DS is a perfectionist in many ways.  If he is unsure of his ability to answer, he will shut down and not answer at all.  We've been working on it over the past few years, but his default is still non-response if he isn't confident that he is correct.

[Nart]

I took my four year old to a speech therapist because he had some difficulty with mild stuttering and pronouncing longer words in connected speech (he has a history of intermittent hearing loss due to fluid and has had three sets of ear tubes).  I stayed in the waiting room and after an hour the speech therapist came out and started discussing how well my child read. She said they were looking at books and he started reading. She got harder books and was amazed he could read those too. I kept asking about his SPEECH and she kept bringing up his reading ability and asking how long he knew how to read, how he learned to read, etc.  I never got a straight answer and left really annoyed that she never discussed in detail his speech. Ugh! We never went back. 

[luuknam]

When I was 11, I was sent to a test psych to test my social-emotional development. On one of the questionnaires, one of the questions was something like "do you ever feel angry?". So, I asked the psych why that question was there, because doesn't everyone feel angry sometimes? He answered that yes, everybody does, and the question is there to catch kids who lie on the test. My thoughts were "wow, why would anyone be stupid enough to lie that obviously?". I'd been mildly lying throughout the test* (and continued to do so), but not in such a blatant way as to get caught, lol. Apparently, my social-emotional skills are fine according to the test. :lol: 

 

Maybe not that funny though, since I was lying because I was worried about what might happen if I answered truthfully.

 

*Mostly just choosing a slightly better option for many of the questions than the actual truth. I don't remember the exact questions, but for example, if one of the questions was "how many friends do you have", picking 1-3 instead of 0... not picking 10+.

[sportsmom]

When I was 11, I was sent to a test psych to test my social-emotional development. On one of the questionnaires, one of the questions was something like "do you ever feel angry?". So, I asked the psych why that question was there, because doesn't everyone feel angry sometimes? He answered that yes, everybody does, and the question is there to catch kids who lie on the test. My thoughts were "wow, why would anyone be stupid enough to lie that obviously?". I'd been mildly lying throughout the test* (and continued to do so), but not in such a blatant way as to get caught, lol. Apparently, my social-emotional skills are fine according to the test. :lol:

 

Maybe not that funny though, since I was lying because I was worried about what might happen if I answered truthfully.

 

*Mostly just choosing a slightly better option for many of the questions than the actual truth. I don't remember the exact questions, but for example, if one of the questions was "how many friends do you have", picking 1-3 instead of 0... not picking 10+.

 

After I had my daughter, when I took her to the pediatrician for her infant checkups, the military made me fill out a questionnaire that was meant to screen for postpartum depression.  The whole thing seemed silly to me, do people really answer truthfully on those questions that ask you if you consider harming your child?  It felt like one of those ideas that is good in theory, but doesn't work at all practically.  CLEARLY the choices had a "correct" and "incorrect" answer.

 

Maybe I'm not the best judge since I never dealt with PPD.  I'm sure some people would answer honestly, but I just never believed that most people (especially the ones who are taking their child in for regular checkups) would admit in stark black and white answers like that.  I talked to my OB about the questionnaire and he said that he usually has a pretty good idea after having a conversation with his new moms.  And honestly, I'd be far more likely to be honest in a conversation and saying that something wasn't right than putting on paper that I was considering harming my child.

 

Sidetracked, but your response made me think of that.