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Forum -> Chinuch, Education & Schooling
Being ahead of class
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amother
OP


 

Post Tue, Nov 24 2020, 2:16 pm
Some people mentioned enrichment at home. She reads a book a day and is reading on a 7th/8th grade level at this point. My husband is teaching her coding. She had lot's of puzzle and logic games that she spends a lot of time on. She has science books and experiments. She needs stimulation at home too so we have been exploring different things.
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Hashem_Yaazor




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Nov 24 2020, 2:33 pm
She should get enrichment that broadens what she is learning instead of moving forward in curriculum.
In math, it may mean more complex word problems applying the math skills being taught. In English Language classes, she should utilize higher vocabulary in her writing, she should write paragraphs with spelling/vocabulary words. Etc
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amother
OP


 

Post Tue, Nov 24 2020, 2:44 pm
Hashem_Yaazor wrote:
She should get enrichment that broadens what she is learning instead of moving forward in curriculum.
In math, it may mean more complex word problems applying the math skills being taught. In English Language classes, she should utilize higher vocabulary in her writing, she should write paragraphs with spelling/vocabulary words. Etc


She does that too, she has workbooks on grade level with more complex problems but she finishes them really fast. She also writes short stories. I think all that is covered.
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Hashem_Yaazor




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Nov 24 2020, 2:49 pm
One of the wonderful teachers my kids have (had) has the students create bonus sheets for others.
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salt




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Nov 25 2020, 3:06 am
Remember she can also have fun. Can she invite a friend? Play outside? Ride a bike? Bake? Hang laundry?
Not everything has to be studying and enrichment from an academic point of view.

All kids can get bored at home and need to be kept busy - maybe just the smarter ones finish their homework quicker so they have more spare time.
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sara_s




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Nov 25 2020, 5:15 am
amother [ OP ] wrote:
She does that too, she has workbooks on grade level with more complex problems but she finishes them really fast. She also writes short stories. I think all that is covered.



There are specially currriculums created for gifted children which broaden the math curriculum. Thats very important because simply learning the next grade level will mean she is even more bored later on. Weizman institute in Israel has a math correspondence course for gifted children (university level foundations in math taught in a kid friendly way, with stories and mysteries to solve etc. There is probably something similar in the US. Perhaps she can work on something like that when she is bored in school.
It's horrible to be bored. I needed to take a Drivers Ed Refresher course, during which I was horribly bored, and suddenly all my memories of school came flooding back. I have no idea how I survived that boredom!
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Hashem_Yaazor




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Nov 25 2020, 9:41 am
One of the best teachers I had (in high school) had me looking up mekoros and things for what he was teaching in chumash/nach/halacha
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amother
Bronze


 

Post Wed, Nov 25 2020, 10:15 am
The "even" grades will be more boring than the "odd" ones as those are repetition years. Generally the bulk of new curriculum is taught in 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th grades (high school is a different story). So, it makes sense that 4th grade will be super boring for a bright student who retained what she learned in 3rd grade. Not every school works this way, but if that is true for your daughter's school, 5th grade may be better.

I ended up skipping 6th grade and had no issues socially. It was the right decision so don't completely dismiss it in the future, but I wouldn't do it yet. As girls get older the differences in maturity between grades lessen from year to year.
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Hashem_Yaazor




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Nov 25 2020, 11:54 am
I am not so sure. I see a much larger spectrum of maturity (and I mean emotional, not even touching on physical) in 7th graders than I do in 3rd and 4th graders.

I am not a huge proponent of skipping (though I skipped midway through 4th and I did skip a son). I didn't really have any drawbacks to skipping due to my circumstances, but there are other things that come into play. E.g. executive functioning skills that the brain might not be ready for younger but that is expected later on in school.
Definitely the social aspect.
But also keep in mind what was mentioned earlier, smart kids just usually grasp things quickly; it's not really a matter of knowing everything before they entered the grade, so they will still be bored in an older grade (mine and my son's experience)
I have kids who are the youngest (or second to youngest) in their classes, some with more than a year gap between the oldest and them, and they are still bored. Skipping is not the answer for boredom. It should be considered in specific cases (in mine, it was due to enrichment classes I was in and scheduling conflicts and the fact that I socially did better with older kids; with my son it was due to a move to a new schooling experience) but with creative and flexible thinking, a child can be successful in school despite being the top of the class.

And depending how flexible the administration is, there can be some very creative solutions. (I'm exploring a totally non-academic one for one of my kids right now.)

Also if the school utilizes technology, that can be put to good use. I've had kids on individualized math curriculum online, for example.
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ggdm




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Nov 25 2020, 11:56 am
amother [ OP ] wrote:
Are there negatives to a kid being ahead of the class and finding all new material too easy? She's very well behaved and does extra work if her teacher gives her any. She's small and socially on age level so I don't think skipping grades is a good idea. I'm just wondering if there is a drawback I'm not thinking of.
I was always ahead. I was bullied a lot for being the smart one. I had few friends. I was also bored a lot and some teachers were better at dealing with that than others. All this became more relevant as a teenager, in lower grade it was ok. I then skipped a grade and it was the best for me. I was still mocked, but less. I was still bored, but less. I'd definitely do it again.

OP, if there is no problem, keep her where she is. Keep an eye on the situation and you can always reconsider and ask her if she wants to skip.
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Cheshire cat




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Nov 25 2020, 12:37 pm
Rappel wrote:
She needs a challenge to occupy her open time. The drawback of being so quick at her work is that she may become lazy and undisciplined (speaking from personal experience), since she has the brains to do whatever she likes, barring 5 minutes devoted to school work.

Beware that her enrichment opportunities don't hurt her socially. The example I'm thinking of: I was never socially popular, and when my teacher offered that I could play math games in the computer room during lessons, my jealous classmates punished me severely for it. After that one recess, I went back to the teacher and told her I didn't want the games, and since this was in hearing of the other students, I couldn't explain why.

I think enrichment is both wonderful and important, but please be watchful that when your daughter is singled out for her intelligence, that she doesn't suffer in other aspects.


Wow. Just wow.

This encapsulated my daughter's school experience exactly.

She is lightning quick, over reliant on her intellectual and memorization abilities, has very poor studying habits, or discipline in general.

Also, the class does resent her special privileges sometimes. She is acutely aware of it.

She looks so poised and successful. Underneath is a very vulnerable young lady.
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