(WARNING: long, wordy post)
I am frustrated with Isaac's school.
Let me give you a little background on Isaac.
He has always done things early . . . earlier than most kids, anyway.
At two weeks, he laughed. A full, hearty laugh; not the I-have-gas laugh.
He rolled over at two and a half months. At first I thought it was an accident and that he had just wiggled himself over. But nope. I rolled him back and he flipped again, on purpose.
He was army crawling at four and a half months.
It just kept going like this!
Right around his third birthday, I noticed he could read.
And this is the kid who would never sit to listen to more than half a story. He just wasn't interested in books.
But here we were walking into Home Depot (which we called The Wood Store b/c that's where we bought wood), and he says, "Mom, does that say 'home'?" I was taken aback. How could my little man be reading when we hardly ever read together?
In December or January (2-3 months after he turned three), he read
Go, Dog, Go! by Dr. Seuss.
He was in preschool and his teachers were constantly telling me how smart he was and how they've never seen a kid like him. He was writing words and other peoples names (in addition to his own) when all the other kids were barely doing their own names.
I knew he was smart (obviously) but thought they were just being nice.
Here begins the frustrations.
His birthday falls a mere five (
FIVE!) days after the birthday cutoff for North Carolina. (Note: they have since changed it to Aug. 31, but at the time, it was still Oct. 16).
We naively thought that five days shouldn't make a difference, especially since he was reading chapter books and doing math at a near first grade level.
After a very long, emotional, drawn out process, the answer was a resounding NO. There was no way they would let him into Kindergarten. I was beyond angry. How could a school do this? How could any person look at this child and think he
shouldn't be in Kindergarten?
So, we enrolled him in a local Montessori school.
When I went in to pick him up on the second day, his teacher told me how amazed she was that he could read the word "cool". I told her that he was reading Magic Tree House at home (when I asked him to b/c he still wasn't into books). She looked at me and said, "You know that's not normal." Yes, I knew that wasn't normal. Normal kids don't teach themselves to read at three either.
Around this time Isaac was also going through a geography phase which was awesome since he was at Montessori. He could tell you half of the state capitals and point to all of them on the map . . . without names! Better than most adults, I would assume.
During the Montessori year, he would come home after school and do challenging work with me. Montessori still wasn't challenging him they way he wanted/needed.
Montessori school year ends, and I spend the summer doing homeschool activities with him. He reads, answers questions, does math, etc.
We finally get to enroll him into Kindergarten.
Now, the principal knows our situation (though is not sympathetic), but after the intitial Kindergarten evaluation, he is moved into First Grade.
I thought everything would be fine. We knew this teacher; Olivia had been in her class two years ago.
But it's not fine.
This boy, my boy, is doing Olivia's third grade math. Not all of it, mind you, because he still has some gaps due to all of the different cirriculums he's had. However, if the kid can take a 25 problem, 3 minute timed test in MULTIPLICATION at age six and only not finish two (and get all of the ones he finished correct), why is he still having to do one digit addition? He did three and four digit addition last summer. I have explained what he's doing at home, and this teacher, for whatever reason, still refuses to move him forward to an appropriate level. She says, "He has to prove it to me."
I will give her a little credit, as she has given him some "advanced" work. It's not really advanced. It's what we did while he was in Montessori.
She just doesn't get him. She just doesn't get what he needs.
And to top it off, he got a
down slip on Tuesday. A down slip! In what? READING. Yeah, she says he's not reading on level. On level being the lowest of the low for first grade (which if you look at the standards is way too low). REALLY??? "He summarized the story correctly, but wouldn't give supporting details without my having to ask." That's what she said. I'm not an elementary teacher, but this seems a bit outrageous. He answered your questions correctly? So, what's the problem?
I'm very frustrated.
We're having a conference after school on Monday. Hopefully it will go well, and there will be some resolve.
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