Bragging on my baby

Caly's current math grade sucks right now (F+) because she hasn't turned in some makeup work from when she was sick, BUT she has a 100% on everything that's turned in and all her quizzes and tests. And the software that they use to evaluate their math skills says she has the basic math skills (non-algebra) of a high school graduate. It advises that she be moved to an Algebra class room if possible. She's in 7th grade. I sent an e-mail to her teacher to see if we could move her out of math and into Algebra. It should be possible because they offer an eighth grade Algebra for the gifted kids (they even get high school credit if they get an A or a B) and even if it was full, the middle school and high school are in the same building. She could sit in on one of the freshman classes.

Way to go, Caly! That is quite an achievement.

Go Caly!

Good for her -- it sounds like she's doing great!

Awesome!! I was horrible at math, except Algebra. Loved that class the most! Very proud of her! Way to go!!

This is me, glowing with pride, LOL! I just hope the school will work with us and let her move to a more advanced class. Some schools and/or teachers aren't flexible at all on this sort of thing. Keep your fingers crossed.

I imagine they should be. Teachers and schools should be proud to have children like that! They can take some pride in knowing they helped.

I had the same thing happen in my English class when i was her age, and I definately benefited from being with the older kids, and in the advanced classes. I wish her luck and hope for the best!

That's awesome Karen!
Go Caly!

Schools get extra funding for gifted students, they like to get kids placed in those classes if they can.
So are we also to assume that she likes math ? So many careers these days are centered around high mathmatical skills ...... it's a great asset!

She does like math. She sees it as kind of a puzzle, like sudoko, so she enjoys working on it.

thebigscott wrote: This is me, glowing with pride, LOL! I just hope the school will work with us and let her move to a more advanced class. Some schools and/or teachers aren't flexible at all on this sort of thing. Keep your fingers crossed.

That would be ideal. As long as she's having fun and feeling challenged but not intimidated they should push her to excel to the best of her abilities. Our high school offers free tuition for some college-level classes that are held after school for some students. They earn free college credits that way and get a head start on their college classes.

That sounds great karen!!

I liked geometry. hated algebra. I add letters together in english class. wasnt gona waste my time adding letters in math class too.

LOL! I'm supposed to meet with her teacher for a conference today, so I hope I'll find out that they're willing to move her up.

How did the meeting go?

Not well.

The teacher acknowledges that she's super bright and has no problem doing the work, that she gets perfect scores with virtually no effort. But she wouldn't move her up to Algebra because that would be skipping two grades. So I asked if I could move her up to 8th grade math and she said she could, but there's really no point, because 8th grade math is basically the same class as 7th grade math. They just offer a test at the end of 7th grade to see which kids are ready for Algebra and which need more practice on the basics. So she's going to offer Caly the option of doing harder homework instead. Not for more credit, mind you. Just for fun. The extra difficulty won't show on her report card. But of course if she opts to do the harder work and does worse because it's harder, then the lower score will show up.

What I'm wondering is, if 7th and 8th are the same class then why would moving her to Algebra be skipping two grades? And why can't they offer her that test now instead of at the end of the school year? And WTF? Extra work that can only hurt her grade?

I was real calm and did get the teacher to let Caly get bonus points if she did both sets of homework (the regular assignment and the harder one), but I didn't even try to address the rest of it. I'm going to have Scott call and ask to conference since he couldn't come. He was doing his own parent teacher conferences where he was the teacher. And I'm gonna have him be a hard ass and raise a little hell about this.

Caly has the exact same standardized test scores that Zaven does. I mean EXACTLY the same. But she's never been invited to be in their gifted and talented program. He's been in since grade school. I love certain things about this school, but they are the worst at letting kids advance and skip grades or take harder classes. They didn't let Zaven and I knew in my heart that they wouldn't let Caly.

With Zaven, we wanted him to skip a grade. They actually told us that if he were more popular, they would have let him. But they thought that a kid who was having trouble fitting in with kids his own age would have a harder time fitting in with older kids so they weren't going to let him advance. I kept thinking, maybe he's having a harder time fitting in because he's not in the right place. And even if he's a square peg, holding him back academically isn't going to suddenly make him popular. Caly on the other hand IS popular, which is probably why she's not in the gifted class.

That's not right

So Sorry karen!!

I'm not as pissed as I sound. Because I really suspected that they wouldn't do squat. It's enough for me to know that she's excellling. If I can't get her in an advanced program at school I'll get something else for her outside of school. And if I do it right, I'll get it scholarshiped and it'll be something that looks great on her records. That's what I do with Zaven. But I've decided to raise hell at the school just on principle.

That has to be extremely frustrating for you Karen. This is how the situation went for Dalton, and what i've been willing and not willing to do about it:

Dalton's school has been really good at maximizing his skills and talents ..... but his IQ didn't test gifted in the 2nd grade, and they haven't re-tested him. He received straight A's every quarter in the 4th grade gifted class, and didn't miss a single math question on the stanford 9 (and only missed 1 in reading). In 4th grade he won a speech competition, came in first place for the 4th grade, and 2nd place for the school.
He's currently in the 5th grade gifted class. They have seperate math class in 5th grade according to skill. He's in the highest level of 5th grade math at the school, and he's bored. His teacher mentioned to Dalton that he might want to re-take the IQ test, but no one's approached it with me.

About 5 miles south, we have a school for the gifted. Often, when kids test gifted, parents move them to that school and the local schools 'lose out' on some really smart kids. This causes them to invest more in the education of the kids in the school, because they don't have those 'easy A' kids to count on. I think it's great we have that school for the gifted, but I also think it's necessary to have kids of all skills at a school, it helps to motivate other kids, and keep the teachers on their game. ( Not to mention, that gifted school is REALLY challenging, I had already made the determination that if Dalton tested gifted, it would be HIS choice if he wanted to take on all that work).

Anyway, Dalton is bored in the highest level of math they offer in 5th grade. His stanford 9's from 4th grade put him at the 8th grade level.
I started going to algebra websites and pulling up pre-algebra and simple algebra problems. ( I figure this is all I'll remember, so it's all I can teach him!). He does simple algebra for a learning challenge at home now.

I'm worried about middle school next year. The rumor is that kids go in learning 6th grade education and come out of 8th grade with a 6th grade education.
I want him to stay challenged in school so he doesn't succumb to his hormones!

I'm going to meet with his teacher in October and discuss my options. His teacher has been at the school for 17 years teaching gifted classes, so I think she's my best option for information.

Other than that, I have a friend who's a math whiz and wants to move Dalton through algerbra and into basic calculus. In the 2nd quarter of school, they should be offering an I-movie extra curricular, and I'll enroll him in that. I want to challenge his math skills in enjoyable ways so it keeps him interested. I'm concerned that no matter what 'skill' class they put Dalton in, it might just seem like hard work and no fun, and he'll lose interest, so I'm trying to move in the direction of math games and math as it relates to computers, and things that will hold his interest. (If you ask him, he wants to grow up and design video games for a career).

At Caly's age, do they really consider what's on a transcript or do they just look at grades ? I haven't ever thought about a 'transcript' before high school. Now I'm nervous. lol

Also, I think schools worry about boys in general, because they seem to be the ones that struggle more with puberty and get distracted away from school easier. If a school notices a smart boy, I think they are more likely to invest time into challenging them, so they don't get bored. Girls, in general, are better able to maintain concentration. That's what I percieve to be the difference in treatment between Caly and Zaven (which doesn't make it right).

I never went to kindergarten. I started 1st grade when I was 5. It was a combo class of 1st and 2nd grade.
In 2nd grade they wanted to skip me to 3rd.
In 3rd grade they wanted to skip me to 5th.
Because of my age, my mother decided that I shouldn't skip grades.
I look back now, and I'm glad that she kept me in the grades I was in. I do, however, wish that she and the school had challenged me more. She worked full time and was a single mom, so she didn't have the time to challenge me on her own. There were no outside resources available back then either.

Are there extra curricular activities that you can sign Caly up for that will challenge her in fun ways ? Do they have a peer mentoring/tutoring program? Do that have things like the science fair or academic olympics ? Those are some of the tools that I plan to use for Dalton ....

Although, your post about Caly has me a little fired up now. The school should be doing these things, and it shouldn't fall on to the parents to ensure their child has the right challenges.

Please keep us updated on your conversations with the school. Some of the actions you take may influence how I handle things with Dalton's education

Beachy, I will keep you updated. I was in gifted programs in school, but for the most part there was either just extra work with no reward, or the program was designed more around having us do puzzles and games that were supposed to be intellectually stimulating, but didn't actually teach us any new skills. (Like doing suduko will make you think hard, but doesn't teach you algebra or chemistry.) I didn't skip grades, but I do know that I got in trouble in Kindergarten because I didn't want to practice my alphabet drills. Seeing as I was already reading chapter books, I don't think I needed it.

But, I did have a few teachers who really challenged me and I'm trying to remember the things they did with me and do those with my kids. Zaven is a reader by nature. When he doesn't have a book on his person, he almost looks naked. So, I'm working on coming up with a reading list that challenges him. We're actuallly looking for "boring" books because he's supposed to bring a book to school to read during certain activities, but he has trouble because he's tempted to read it whenever he's bored... like when the teacher is talking. He thinks a boring book will be less tempting, LOL. And if it's a challenging book with new vocabulary and concepts, all the better.

Both of the kids take music lessons and are involved in the swim team. And they both have friends. Zaven is much less the square peg than he used to be and verges on popular. He finally just embraced his wierdness and is comfortable with himself and that is what allowed him to be well-liked, if that makes sense. In the summers, Zaven is involved with Upward Bound, which is academic in nature but is also a well-rounded program. When Caly is old enough, she'll do that, too. Caly in the science club and Zaven is in the art club. But I really want something for their math.

I WILL keep you updated, and please do the same for me. It's nice to talk to someone who understands.