Language Arts/advice for first grader

[bluecouch85]

My daughter is 7 and in first grade in public school. We are just starting down this path of exploring other options for her as her class is way behind grade level in terms of reading and math. I've spoken with her teacher who said she doesn't have time for differentiation because she is "teaching down" to the rest of the class so she can't "teach up" to DD.  Things I'm considering are part time homeschooling (I work full time so in an ideal world we'd pull her for language arts/math and have her attend with her peers for everything else), after-schooling, or just sending in curriculum she can work on while the rest of her class is STILL learning their letters and numbers. As of right now she is begging for harder stuff to work on when she gets home from school, we don't have time afterschool to do something every day, but I'd love to make a basket of things she could pull on that we could work on together or independently.

For math, I just bought Beast Academy 2A after reading lots of recommendations here and I think that will be perfect for her to do at home whenever she wants after school because it feels fun and different than regular work. 

I'm struggling with what to give her for Language Arts - she is reading way above grade level and LOVES to read. I don't think I need to "assign" her anything in terms of reading, and I don't think she needs any phonics help as she seems to be beyond that. I gave her the All About Reading Mastery test because its the only thing I could find to see if she is "done" with the learning part of reading and she did great on it. So I think we should probably focus on grammar, vocabulary, spelling, writing, comprehension, etc. Any suggestions? I just recently got her a Scholastic Success with Writing workbook that just goes over simple capital letters / punctuation and stuff and she has really enjoyed working on it but its really short. 

Thanks so much for any recommendations, there is SO much out there which makes it hard to figure this out, especially when we're not 100% sure what path we are going to end up on. 

[Momto6inIN]

The single best thing you can do is continue to read aloud to her books that are above her reading level even though she can read fluently on her own and keep doing it until she tells you to stop (FWIW, my oldest is a sophomore in college and he never asked the entire time he lived at home).

If her public school class is still working on numbers and letters, I'm guessing they're not getting to the fun stuff like history and science very frequently. Perhaps you'd want to focus your efforts  on enrichment there? When I was an advanced elementary student, I would just read read read while my class did other things. You could find interesting above grade level books (either buy or borrow at the library) and send them to school with her. Then you could do more writing and grammar at home in the after school hours.

I like IEW for writing/composition, but that's a big investment of $$$ and time for afterschooling. Writing With Ease is an excellent program as well. For grammar you can get Fix It Grammar and it only takes about 15 minutes a day and is a really great intro to grammar for young students who read well.

[bluecouch85]

That is such a great point that they are probably skipping the more "fun" subjects in order to get everyone to where they need to be, I bet she'd love to do science or history stuff at home. She still loves being read to so at bedtime we always read something together. Thanks so much!

[PeterPan]

On October 23, 2019 at 9:49 AM, bluecouch85 said:

just sending in curriculum

Or let her read. Will the teacher allow her to bring in books to read? I agree with the suggestion to bring in material for her to read diversely, so she's exploring history, science, etc. The COFAs were wonderful for my dd at that age. (=childhood of famous americans series) You could also get her access to the VP self-paced history, as it's enjoyable done independently.

You should also be bringing the principal into the discussion, as this is not an unheard of situation. 

On October 23, 2019 at 9:49 AM, bluecouch85 said:

I just recently got her a Scholastic Success with Writing workbook that just goes over simple capital letters / punctuation and stuff and she has really enjoyed working on it but its really short. 

This is wonderful! I like the Success with Writing books, yes. You might broaden it out with things that appeal to her gifted or creative side. Anti-Coloring books, the Don't Forget to Write series, a progym based writing curriculum (Writing Tales 1 or the series from CAP).

Are you going to be able to change schools or change placements within the school to get her more appropriately placed? There have been lawsuits where people have WON over issues of not teaching to ability and just saying bottom of the run was good enough. They need to do something for her and you need some options. A dc who is performing at this level will, if appropriately taught, continue to perform at a high level. My dd was like that, a crazy advanced reader, kind of easy at almost everything except spelling (haha), and she ended up with top scholarships, high scores. It's just who she was, not my great teaching, kwim? So don't let them deny who your dd is. You could make a request for testing and get her identified as gifted and get those protections. My ds has an IEP, so I've been in that room fighting, sigh. Go for it, intrude a bit, see what can happen.

As far as what else, if she's liking workbooks, keep looking for stuff. I use workbooks quite a bit with my ds because it allows me to give him one page at a time to keep his anxiety and ASD calm. My favorite haunts are 

Teacher Created Resources-nonfiction reading comprehension science/social studies, graph art

Teacher Created Materials--180 Days of geography, social studies, etc. 

Evan Moor--Daily Word Problems

Carson Dellosa--Brain Teasers, Fast Finishers, Bible puzzles, graph art

Scholastic--I use them less. Try their Daily Word Ladders.

I can't remember the publisher, probably scholastic, but there's a document-based history workbook my ds has enjoyed. It's differentiated, so you would only print the page with her level of text and then the questions. Very thinky.

If she enjoys word searches and crosswords, the publishers will also have those. 

Also consider having her get time to work on typing. Make sure she's actually learning to touch type, not just pecking. Like start at home to build good habits. Talking Fingers would be good for that age or she could go with any program you liked. 

READING, just having time to read, will drive a lot forward for her. 80% of reading comprehension is prior knowledge, so you don't need to teach "reading comprehension" with a dc this bright, not right now. You just need to let her read. Read widely and read a LOT. At that age my dd was reading 2-3 hours a day. If she can read that much at school and then come home and do work with you, that may work out well.

Edited October 28, 2019 by PeterPan

[Clemsondana]

The Critical Thinking Company has all sorts of workbooks that might be a good fit.  Some are regular school subjects and others are critical thinking puzzles.  one year my m mom made arrangements with my teacher for me to go to the school library every morning and get a book to read during my spare time each day - would that be an option?