Public or private schoolers: How do you keep your dc from being bored in class?

[BabyBre]

I think this is my first post on the Accelerated Board, and I'm not really sure why. Both dc still in my educational care have always been accelerated. Maybe I'm joining the board at this time because some issues are beginning to arise as a result of dc being ahead of their ps peers. We're enrolled in ps full-time, but afterschooling almost a full load. My question is particularly in math, and particularly for any afterschoolers and/or public schoolers.

 

How do you or your dc's teachers keep them from being bored to tears in the classroom? Volunteering in ds8's classroom this morning, I actually watched him fall asleep on his desk and begin drooling on his worksheet! My heart breaks for him! It's like torture...for both of us.

 

Any thoughts?

[Laura Corin]

I have found it easier in later grades. Calvin went to school from age 4 1/2 to 6 and was bored the whole time. He was home educated from then until going back to school at 13. He skipped a grade when he reentered school - this has helped a bit. He's also in a private school which tries hard to accommodate him. For example, his classmates were asked to read a novel during the holidays; he was asked to read a Shakespeare play as well, and write an essay to compare them. He appreciates the recognition implied by the extra tasks. Finally, the school puts pupils into different streams based on ability in that subject: he's in the top stream for everything except English and History, which they've decided not to stream. His teachers in those two subjects are doing their best to give him appropriate challenges.

 

Hobbes is also very bright, but he doesn't seem worried by the pace of work - he is very interested in the social side of school at present. In a couple of years he will be streamed too.

 

Laura

[ORP]

We never found a solution. We are going to homeschool 7th grade DD next year because of it. Even with an IEP, just frustrating.

 

I used to send books and additional work to her teacher to fill her time. She also would run errands and volunteer with the autistic kids.

 

Ever year they ttold us the next would be better. We are just tired of waiting.:rolleyes:

[BabyBre]

We never found a solution. We are going to homeschool 7th grade DD next year because of it. Even with an IEP, just frustrating.

 

I used to send books and additional work to her teacher to fill her time. She also would run errands and volunteer with the autistic kids.

 

Ever year they ttold us the next would be better. We are just tired of waiting.:rolleyes:

 

 

I've never heard of a child having an IEP because he/she was advanced. What benefit was that supposed to have for her? Did it get her pull-out time for special instruction?

[boscopup]

I think it'd get a lot better once you get to high school. My son was in K and first grade in private school, and he was bored to tears. The teachers tried to challenge him. They gave him work from a different grade when possible (resources were limited though, so for example, she couldn't give him the math work from the next grade up that he was ready for, so he was stuck doing Saxon 1 in first grade... that was torture for him AND me :lol:). The teacher had the class split into groups, so one group was the accelerated group which took home higher level reading books and such, and she worked with each group separately each week. It's just hard to really handle it though because they still have to do the regular work, and then they get the extra challenging work on top of that. Well, some kids will figure it out and decide they need to act like they aren't accelerated so they only get the regular work. My friend's brother did that.

 

My solution to the problem was ultimately to pull him out and homeschool, because yeah, I was spending so much time afterschooling that it just wasn't worth it to send him to school AND do all that work later (during the "witching hour" while I'm making dinner and the younger kids are melting down). I understand that that probably isn't a solution for you though, as you obviously had a reason for putting them in school in the first place.

[BabyBre]

I think it'd get a lot better once you get to high school. ...

 

 

My solution to the problem was ultimately to pull him out and homeschool, because yeah, I was spending so much time afterschooling that it just wasn't worth it to send him to school AND do all that work later (during the "witching hour" while I'm making dinner and the younger kids are melting down). I understand that that probably isn't a solution for you though, as you obviously had a reason for putting them in school in the first place.

 

 

I think there are more oportunities to customize their education in high school - Running Start, AP, etc. But what are the consequences of their not being challenged for the 8 or 9 years previous?

 

I interviewed our 5th grade teachers so I can make a request for dd's placement for next year, and I am very impressed with one of them. She pretests each unit and most kids bomb, as they should because they haven't been taught the information yet. The ones who ace it are grouped and given 6th grade work for that unit. Of course they have to be able to work fairly independently, but that's one of the best public school solutions I've heard.

 

You're right, I don't have the option to homeschool. I wish I did.

[Donna]

I think there are more oportunities to customize their education in high school - Running Start, AP, etc. But what are the consequences of their not being challenged for the 8 or 9 years previous?

 

I interviewed our 5th grade teachers so I can make a request for dd's placement for next year, and I am very impressed with one of them. She pretests each unit and most kids bomb, as they should because they haven't been taught the information yet. The ones who ace it are grouped and given 6th grade work for that unit. Of course they have to be able to work fairly independently, but that's one of the best public school solutions I've heard.

 

You're right, I don't have the option to homeschool. I wish I did.

 

That sounds like a good solution in a public school. The only problem is when the teacher in 6th grade doesn't do the same and the child is in 6th grade re-doing what they already did. I had a wonderful 3rd grade teacher who had me reading adult level books and discussing them with her...my own reading group and I still remember her as the best teacher I ever had. My 4th grade teacher said he "didn't have the time" to differentiate for one student. Going back to being bored was really difficult after seeing that it could be different. Prior to 3rd grade I didn't know there could be more to school.

 

I think it is easier to have them in public school without boredom in high school. There are AP classes they can take in the upper grades at least. I never had to study to get A's in school. My son complains he's bored in school and wishes there was more to his classes. I told him he could homeschool again and he said, "Are you kidding? I had to do way more work when I was home!"

 

I guess as a teen, he'd rather be bored than do more work. :glare:

 

The real reason he won't come home now is that he wouldn't be able to wrestle and he likes being with his friends.

[regentrude]

We never found a solution. It ultimately forced us to homeschool form 5th/6th grade on.

The teachers always said they were willing - but they had their hands full. DD read fiction during class for five years, with teacher's knowledge and OK. What a waste of time.

[BabyBre]

That sounds like a good solution in a public school. The only problem is when the teacher in 6th grade doesn't do the same and the child is in 6th grade re-doing what they already did.

 

 

I know, but being accelerated, that's what's going on now and since third grade.

 

We're waiting to hear if dd's been accepted into our district's GT program for next year. Praying!

[lisamarie]

I'm taking a risk and giving the charter school we pulled DS out of another try next year. DS's K teacher told us that the only way DS would get advanced work is if parents (me) came in and worked with the 3 kids who were beyond K skills. I decided I'd do just that by pulling DS and teach him at home. He is skipping a grade (sort of, we delayed his start by having him do Young 5s so he's really going into his age-true grade) and reentering into an all boys classroom.

 

From my understanding, the kids are tested 3 times a year and then the teacher makes individual goals for each child and the teacher's bonus is directly tied to the kids meeting their individual goals demonstrated by the next testing cycle. I am praying that this combined with an all boys class will result in DS getting a sound education. The all boys class is structured to teach how boys learn--they can stand at their desk to do their work, do way more hands on physical projects, build robots, etc. If not, I will be meeting with the teacher and will ask to either send our own work to school with DS, have the teacher give him harder work that the school provides, or pull DS again and return to HSing.

 

DS essentially teaches himself now--he works best that way. He reads his saxon lesson and does the work all on his own and gets no more than 2 problems wrong. So having him work independently on his own harder work wouldn't be a problem at all for him at school.

[junepep]

I've never heard of a child having an IEP because he/she was advanced. What benefit was that supposed to have for her? Did it get her pull-out time for special instruction?

 

IEPs for advanced students are common in some states. It's called GIEP here.

 

Here's what it covers in my state:

(1) Enable the provision of appropriate specially designed instruction based on the student’s need and ability.

(2) Ensure that the student is able to benefit meaningfully from the rate, level and manner of instruction.

(3) Provide opportunities to participate in acceleration or enrichment, or both, as appropriate for the student’s needs. These opportunities must go beyond the program that the student would receive as part of a general education.

 

 

 

Basically, it really just means that they're expected to do their "grade level" work in addition to bringing home (or working on in class) the IEP level work. It usually only covers Math and Reading. But as part of the process your child will be fully evaluated for giftedness and be assigned support staff in addition to the teacher to help manufacture challenges within the school day. From what I've heard it is only moderately successful, to not at all, in relieving boredom in students who are gifted in subjects other than LA, but I'm literally saying this purely on hearsay.

 

Oh, and when your child both suffers from a disability (ie dyslexia) in addition to being gifted then they're actually covered under the term IEP rather than GIEP, because IEP apparently has different services.

 

I hope that this was helpful, I only chimed in because I didn't see that anyone had addressed your question about IEPs for gifted students :) and I plead ignorance to anything other than their existence and the public regulations!