[living~in~the~no...]

Ok eb mummies I need your advice.

Yes I am a teacher. . . .seems silly but . . .

(I am sure DH thinks I am one - or about to become one of - THOSE mums).

Here is my problem . . .

DD#2

FYOS

Recognises random numbers (in numeral not written form) up to 100

At school is learning 1 - 10

Reads most of her magic 200 words and sounds out or picture ques lots of others that astound me.

Is not bringing home readers yet.

I am in no way saying she is gifted but she is above what they are seemingly learning about at school - she did it all last year in preprep (something like 4 year old kinder).

Have made an appointment with her teacher but am not sure what to say.

I want to make sure she is extended but I do not want to be a pushy mum or seen as a "teacher" trying to be pushy IYKWIM.

So how do I put it to her teacher? Who I honestly find absolutely wonderful and DD loves her so I don't want to rock the boat.

DH can't believe that I am even bothering!

This post has been edited by living~in~the~now: 22/02/2012, 10:14 PM

[Swahili]

I think it is far too early in the school year to be approaching the teacher- they are still assessing kids and getting things in order, you know that!

I'm not sure what you want to say? You obviously feel your child is gifted or at least above average and not being extended? It's only a month into her entire schooling!!

Personally, I would leave it until closer to the end of term, if that, to be honest. FYOS is not about academic prowess.

ETA: I would definitely approach my child's teacher if my child was not enjoying school, was being bullied or was having trouble settling in to the routine etc, but NEVER in a pink fit for not being extended in FYOS, first term.

This post has been edited by Swahili: 22/02/2012, 09:20 PM

[howdo]

It's not even halfway through term 1 - wait for parent teacher interviews. Not only will the teacher than have more data collected but you'll be able to speak to the work collected.

With regard to maths though - not sure how much T&D you've done on the maths curriculum yet?

Bear in mind that the new way of extension in maths is through the proficiencies, not the next level.

This is one of the content descriptors that relates to counting to ten:

Connect number names, numerals and quantities, including zero, initially up to 10 and then beyond

So "counting to ten" is not just counting to ten. She'd be doing all the rest of it - starting to subitise, linking numerals, written names, sequencing, one to one correspondence etc etc.

They will move beyond ten, for sure but can she do ALL those things with 0-10?

[MummaDiva]

I had the same kind of errrrm "issue" with my DD1.
I have great respect for my DDs teachers, and I kind of brought up the issue after getting a "feel" for how much she knew about DD.
DD seems like she is having fun at school. What do you do with her that she seems to enjoy? How can we carry that over into what we do at home? What things do you think she needs to work on?
Then move to the questions you really want to ask:
I have noticed that DD can read XX YY ZZ, have you noticed this too? Is there any way that we can capitalise on her maths / reading / comprehension skills? Are you planning to do any extension work to?? Are there any other kids in her class that are at a similar level?
I know some people would think, why waste time asking the first lot of questions, but I felt it really important to know that I respected that she was the teacher IYKWIM.

[Aqua Kitty Kat]

I would give the teacher a few more weeks at an absolute minimum with your child before even mentioning extension work.

Your child is in their first few weeks of kindergarten. Why on earth are you already worried about her being offered extension work? I think you are being OTT. I would give it more time and if the teacher is any good they will recognise IF she needs extra work and provide it. If it's not provided, then you could raise it with the teacher.

My child was reading 18 months before starting school but still started on basic readers. And also didn't start home readers for several weeks. I was not worried. She ended up getting extension work and was the top academic kindy kid without me intervening unneccessarily.

[living~in~the~no...]

double post when I edited!

This post has been edited by living~in~the~now: 22/02/2012, 09:28 PM

[TinyTeddys]

My DS1 is in his FYOS and we were told they would start to get homeworks as of Monday. They gave then a few weeks to settle in first, maybe your DD school is doing something similar...

[Froyo]

Recognising random numerals up to 100 doesn't mean she has a thorough understanding of place value concepts (and the lead into multiplicative thinking).
Also it is vital that children develop number sense, beginning with numbers to 10, i.e. part-part-whole concepts to scaffold addition and subtraction.
Once these concepts are consolidated they can then be extrapolated into the next place value, and the next, and the next etc as we use a base 10 number system.

So there's a lot more to prep maths than just counting and reading numbers to 10.

In regard to reading it's good she is using sounding stategies and picture cues, but reading the words is only half the story. Showing adequate comprehension is vital before moving up levels. Otherwise they are just barking at text.

And they have only had a few weeks. The teacher will be establishing routines and expectations to begin. They will also be doing initial assessments, so the data will show what standard your DD should be working at.

See how it goes.

Edits-typos

This post has been edited by Froyo: 22/02/2012, 09:28 PM

[living~in~the~no...]

Thanks keep them coming! Seriously!

But it is almost her second year of school as she basically had 4 days a week with a teacher who treated her like a prep last year and yes I think she is above average but I am not sure if she is being extended and I would like to know if there is a plan in place for extension of preps.

Does that make sense? So confused! Very different being on the other side of the fence!

Edited

She recognises numerals to 100, (in random order) counts to 100 in sequence, adds 2 add ends to 10. And not cause I am a teacher and have taught her but because she is interested and partially learned from her sister who is a year older.

Also she recognises all of her singular sounds (and sounds out words) and they haven't started sounds yet - which I totally get as there are kids who aren't where she is but I don't want her to go backwards

[bmieke]

I agree with holding off until at least the end of first term. If she is not bringing home readers home yet, then chances are they are not assessing the kids regularly yet (just in the settling in period for most kids). Once the readers start, I am sure the teacher will be on top of assessing and moving her up levels in that respect (as long as she has good comprehension skills to match). Although each teacher at our school seems to test differently.... last year there was a kindy teacher who assessed every fortnight (moving kids one or 2 levels at a time), whereas DS' teacher would assess less regularly but move him up 5 grades at a time.

As for maths.... DS was the same..... way ahead of what they were teaching in class. The teacher just made sure she was extending him individually (they tended to have 2 teacher in class for maths groups).

ETA - overall, DS started ahead of most of the kids in his class, but ended the year way ahead.... so I can't complain that he was held back.

This post has been edited by bmieke: 22/02/2012, 09:34 PM