Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
User Journal

Journal ellem's Journal: Danny's First Day Of School (1st Grade) 30

Journal by ellem

Me: So Danny did you have a good day?

Danny: Yeah! We had some fun.

Me: Great. Do you like you teacher?

Danny: Yeah! She's nice. I don't think the first grade will be very challenging though.

Me: Oh?

Danny: Yeah, while the other kids were wasting time on the swings I asked the teacher what she would be teaching this year. She showed me her planbook. I wasn't too impressed.

Me: Great.

Danny: A lot of the kids don't even read.

Me: Well, Dan, they're six.

Danny: Dad! That's no excuse. They had a year to learn.

Me: Not everyone is like you.

Danny: Maybe they should be.

Me: Yeah... maybe they should.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Danny's First Day Of School (1st Grade) More

Danny's First Day Of School (1st Grade)

Comments Filter:
  • And it's affected his speech center (though oddly enough it's mild and has NOT affected his manual dexterity one bit). So where I was reading at age 3, I'm slowly getting used to the idea that by next May we'll be lucky to have Christopher speaking in 2-word sentences. It's a damn hard thing to get used to when it's your kid- and I keep catching myself trying to get him to read words I know he knows (like "Stop Dogs Stop the Light Is Red" even though in his mind and speech that's all one word).
    • Yeah that has to be extremely trying, frustrating and heartbreaking. But no to you. Sorry. You don't get that option Dad.

      I have no real parallel experience, except where Sophia is 2 and not speaking in full sentences and doing math like Danny was... which is confusing the Hell out of me.

      My best friends kid brother Jimmy (who's like 27 now) has sever Down's Syndrome. Which got us all involved in places like AHRC and Special Olympics and such... I have dealt with a tangent of what you deal with but certai
      • What I usually do- and it's not the best response by any means, but I've got my own learning disabilities to deal with in the form of Asperger's Syndrome- is just hug him very tight and give him kisses (He likes kisses. He likes hugs. He likes people sneaking up behind him and pulling his hair or tickling him. Hard for me to understand- I've seen him come up laughing from falls that would have me on the ground for an hour groaning in pain.) I try to put on the best face and show him it doesn't matter- a
        • That's funny... that's pretty much what I do.

          Sophia mostly says "Ahhh-oooooo" "DaddyDaddyDaddyDaddy" and "Up."

          I was (am) pretty sure she has a hearing problem but everyone keeps telling me I'm an idiot and frankly many signs point them being right.
          • Nice to know I'm pretty normal in my response- heartbreaking though it is. On the plus side- once we can communicate enough to keep him safe, the corporal punishment will end, and I think he's going to be quite the athlete (based on how he's climbing already!)
          • I was (am) pretty sure she has a hearing problem but everyone keeps telling me I'm an idiot and frankly many signs point them being right.

            If you think so - get her tested.

            Speaking as someone with a hearing problem..
  • that this kid is going to determine how much money I mooch off the government when I get old.

    *shudder* :D
  • try to bump him up a year
  • Seriously - he may be a gifted student like I was*, and you may want to supplement his education like my parents had to, or else he'll get really bored at school....

    either way - he's definitely a sharp kid.

    * spoke in full sentences at 6 months, read with full retention at 2.

    • We are doing that. Soon we'll need tutors. I don't want to skip him a grade because he's a social kid and he makes friends. I don't want to retard that by making him the littlest kid or anything like that. It's not a good thing.

      We have had him tested and the corallary results to an IQ test are he has like a 160-180 IQ.

      We're pushing languages on him now, German and Spanish.
      • I don't want to skip him a grade because he's a social kid and he makes friends. I don't want to retard that by making him the littlest kid or anything like that. It's not a good thing.

        Speaking from experience: It fucking sucks. Sorry for the strong langauge - but being a year in age behind your peers blows - not only was I a target for bullies (one year older, and one year more developed) for being a smaller kid, but I was doubly a target for being an A student. (Irony: The star of the high school footba

        • I had a similar problem. I ended up making deals with my teachers. If I can get 100% on my exams/quizzes (including pop-quizzes) I get an 'A' regardless of my homework scores. I had 3 or 4 teachers bite and they were sorry they did. With the exception of 3 teachers, most wanted to see me go down because I was a "Bad example of potential being applied the wrong way." Going into my junior year, I was already accepted into the college of my choice (Penn State) as well as 2 of my back-up schools (MIT and V
        • Part of it just has to do with how well the kid adjusts - some friends of mine have a 14 year old (15 in January) who is in the 10th grade. He's coping with it fine, and it was the only way to keep him interested in school.

          Course, he's a fairly good-looking kid and athletic too and has found an older girlfriend, despite being a huge geek.
      • Wow. Those are very impressive results. Gonna give Stewie a run for his money. ;-) Make sure Danny understands the value of community service and helping others though... As someone who went from the "slow" classes in elementary school to the "gifted" curriculum in high school, I've seen many peers who were blinded by arrogance.
  • Why are there six year olds that can't read? Maybe I'm a little out of touch, but six years - five years even - seems awfully bloody late to be just starting to teach kids to read.
    • Ya. I was reading Reader's Digest to my parents at around 3.

      I have progressed to heavier material since.

      Then again, given the state of schools (and parenting -- gee, ya think they might be connected?) these days, you never know.

      Cheers,

      Ethelred

    • I can speak with authority (my own experience, plus that of my mother and brother, both elementary school teachers) that 1st grade is indeed when children are expected to START learning to read.

      Preschool is when kids are expected to learn *basic* colors, shapes, and numbers (up to 5, I think). Kindergarten is about gaining phonemic awareness -- the actual sounds that the letters make, and I think they're supposed to learn to count to 20 or something.

      In first grade, they begin putting sounds together, le
      • Wow... that's mind-boggling to me. I was under the impression that it was normal for children to be reading around age 3...

        The answer, then, is yes TxMxP, you are out of touch...
      • Your local school systems must be very different from the ones here. My next door neighbor runs a daycare, and to be able to fit in the local schools, by the time the kids start kindergarten they know how to read (at least at a Dr. Seuss level) basic math skills, their address/phone number/parents' names, and how to draw. Granted, a lot of the kids come from educated backgrounds (we live in a pretty whitebread neighborhood), but in talking to my neighbor she refers to it as 'kindergarten preparedness' and
        • I live on Long Island... in the Sachem School District, the biggest on LI, maybe the planet :)

        • Granted, I'm in Georgia, and the schools here are pretty abysmal.

          But the information I have comes from a number of sources that include a very high-level private preschool, my family teaching in upper-middle class school districts in California, and curricula that are distributed nationally (the curricula were the most concrete reference of skills expected at various levels, and also the least geographically dependent).

          Your neighbor is doing a great job if she can get the kids doing these things by the

Slashdot Top Deals

Lo! Men have become the tool of their tools. -- Henry David Thoreau

Close