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We also got some more insight on her "boring" comments. Much as someone suggested previously, it seems likely that although she uses this word to describe lessons on things she already knows (e.g., sight words), it is also our daughter's word for things she doesn't like to do. Like, wait in line And spelling. She loves to write but has been reluctant in class (and home) to pause and look up or ask how to spell a word. She'd rather spell it wrong and just keep going. She also often knows the answer in math, but can't or won't explain how she got it. So we're going to gently work with her on the importance of sometimes slowing down, and of learning the basics.
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Spelling can be a game, OP. In fact, IMO, that's the only effective way to teach English spelling. Words with silent letters, or odd vowel combinations, or other tricky elements can be learned by making a silly game of pronouncing them in one's imagination, the way they look, as a mnemonic device. You can say, "Look how silly that word looks! What are those extra letters doing there?" Then pronounce it just the way it looks (the word "daughter", for ex.) Make it really exaggerated. "Can you say that?" ask her. Play around with it. Make a list of words she misspells, and make a game of them.
Also, you can explain that even adults look up spellings online or in the dictionary when they need to, if they have a career that involves writing. Even university professors check their spelling. It's just part of making sure you do a good job, like crossing all your "T"-s.
It sounds like she got a good teacher. It sounds like she'll be fine, and prior to 3rd grade, she can be re-evaluated.
Spelling can be a game, OP. In fact, IMO, that's the only effective way to teach English spelling. Words with silent letters, or odd vowel combinations, or other tricky elements can be learned by making a silly game of pronouncing them in one's imagination, the way they look, as a mnemonic device. You can say, "Look how silly that word looks! What are those extra letters doing there?" Then pronounce it just the way it looks (the word "daughter", for ex.) Make it really exaggerated. "Can you say that?" ask her. Play around with it. Make a list of words she misspells, and make a game of them.
Also, you can explain that even adults look up spellings online or in the dictionary when they need to, if they have a career that involves writing. Even university professors check their spelling. It's just part of making sure you do a good job, like crossing all your "T"-s.
It sounds like she got a good teacher. It sounds like she'll be fine, and prior to 3rd grade, she can be re-evaluated.
One thing that worked well for us, especially when our children were young, was to model the behavior that we wanted them to emulate. Before our children were born hubby and I kept a number of dictionaries ( mini-dictionaries, College dictionaries and at least one large, 2,000 plus page dictionary) around the house so the kids were used to seeing us look up words to see their meaning or to double check spelling.
But, when they were preschoolers or in early elementary school we sometimes said what we were doing "I want to make sure that I spell "name of word" correctly in my letter to Grandma & Grandpa" or "I wonder what "word heard on news program" means. I'm going to look it up." And, of course, we had children's dictionaries available, at all levels, when they were young.
Another thing that hubby and I did our entire married life was to turn off the TV and just have quiet reading time each day. After our kids were born we just continued that. It was so natural for our children to just take out some of their books and read while Mom & Dad was reading. Obviously, we read plenty of books to them, too, but modeling that reading was an enjoyable activity thatadults did for fun was a nice plus. When they were tiny sometimes it was a struggle to even find 10 minutes to sit down and read the newspaper, but we really tried to do it each day, in front of the kids.
BTW, the kids are long gone, hubby has dementia and a Traumatic Brain Injury and we still have quiet reading time each day. Up until his dementia got bad, he also looked up every new word that he saw or heard in one of our dictionaries.
One thing that worked well for us, especially when our children were young, was to model the behavior that we wanted them to emulate. Before our children were born hubby and I kept a number of dictionaries (a mini-dictionaries, a College dictionaries and at least one large, 2,000 plus page dictionary) around the house so the kids were used to seeing us look up words to see their meaning or to double check spelling.
But, when they were preschoolers we sometimes said what we were doing "I want to make sure that I spell "name of word" correctly in my letter to Grandma & Grandpa" or "I wonder what "word heard on news program" means. I'm going to look it up." And, of course, we had children's dictionaries available, at all levels.
Another thing that hubby and I did our entire married life was to turn off the TV and just have quiet reading time each day. After our kids were born we just continued that. It was so natural for our children to just take out some of their books and read while Mom & Dad was reading. Obviously, we read plenty of books to them, too, but modeling that reading was an enjoyable activity that adults did for fun was a nice plus.
BTW, the kids are long gone, hubby has dementia and a Traumatic Brain Injury and we still have quiet reading time each day. Up until his dementia got bad, he also looked up every new word that he saw or heard in one of our dictionaries.
^^We didn't do quite the same, but we did have a rule about "no TV till homework done", which basically meant no TV all evening. We got into reading in the evenings, an activity that continues. Even now, DH and I don't have any favorite programs we watch. (Though DH was addicted to CNN during the campaign.)
My mother would keep a container filled with magazines in the bathroom.
Well, what are you going to do when you are waiting for something to happen while you are on the throne?
No distractions and you are not going anywhere.
My favorites were the stories and humor columns in Reader's Digest.
I think it was already mentioned, but you should encourage your child to play a musical instrument and learn to read music. Reading music will help with learning math and vice/versa. Although I think third grade is the typical time to start with musical instruments. Reading music will require some understanding of fractions which I think is introduced in 3rd grade.
Don't want to hijack OP's thread but how do you know if a gifted and talented program in school is good? What are some of the criteria? My son got an invitation to our school's gifted and talented program this year. He was in high honors last year and he is in 5th grade this year. I didn't even know our school had such a program. He mostly stays over after school to complete projects. They are currently involved in some robotics project which they will be entering a competition next week. I am not sure what else they will be doing this school year. He also gets to go to various science and math related competitions/presentations. Does this sound like a good program?
Having raised five "gifted" children and watched the development of another 30 or so kids designated as gifted or unusually talented - I think the whole thing is stupid.
"Gifted" comes and goes. The super advanced kids in elementary school are often average by high school. The things that make someone "gifted" academically have nothing to do with where they will end up in life. They can be the most brilliant thinker alive, and they will end up working for they not so brilliant thinker who is a better salesman, or better at kissing behinds. The "gifted" student becomes an engineer and works alongside the barely above average student in the carrol next to him. Who is going to get the first/most patents? Whomever is lucky.
We had a friend who never missed an opportunity to tell us about her daughters accomplishments. By kindergarten she was speaking three languages, playing violin, reading. . . . In elementary school she was in every gifted and advanced program there was. Math wizard, reading at 10th grade level, etc. She graduated in the top 30%, went to an ordinary college, got an ordinary degree, has an ordinary job.
One of my sons was such a math wizard in third grade, he got a full ride scholarship to a private school for two years.
In fifth grade, they wanted to put him in high school math classes, but later decided not to.
In high school he had some trouble with Algebra, then seemed to click and do reasonably well through graduation. He did OK in math, but he was no longer considered a math genius. In college he had to re-take Calc II (or III, I forget which).
Another son is a "gifted" trumpet player. That will help him little or not at all if he goes into a career that will provide food to eat. Luckily he is very strong academically so if he decides a paying career path, he will do fine. If he chooses engineering, or medicine, or architecture oor business, he will probably be sitting next to the "gifted" sculptor from high school. Or maybe the "gifted" fiction writer.
It is all well and good to put kids through the "gifted" program if you want. You can even choose to crow about it although it will make you odious to your friends (whose kids are likely in some sort of "gifted" program too). However please do not make it your life, or worse yet, your kids life.
Academically "gifted" is a bunch of shirts. Make your kid happy, well adjusted, confident, comfortable with is place int he world, humble, caring - that is a "gifted" kid.
Can't say we succeeded 100%, we fell for that "gifted" crup for a time. Pushed our kids (probably too much). AS did most parents we know. Eventually we realized what a load of hogwash it all is.
Some parents never did.
Yes this is all anecdotal, however, between my kids and friends kids (about 30 gifted and talented), the results are 100% the same. While some have done well academically and professionally, none are remarkable (one daughter is in a PhD prgram for psychology, that is perhaps the most academically accomplished. One daughter graduated with triple honors, but then went to an ordinary job (She WAS teacher of the year, so she is doing well, but nothing spectacular, her job is the same job as any classmate in the middle of her graduating class)).
The point is the whole gifted and talented thing seems to amount to this - they are a good student. Hooray. It does not mean anything.
Having raised five "gifted" children and watched the development of another 30 or so kids designated as gifted or unusually talented - I think the whole thing is stupid.
"Gifted" comes and goes. The super advanced kids in elementary school are often average by high school. The things that make someone "gifted" academically have nothing to do with where they will end up in life. They can be the most brilliant thinker alive, and they will end up working for they not so brilliant thinker who is a better salesman, or better at kissing behinds. The "gifted" student becomes an engineer and works alongside the barely above average student in the carrol next to him. Who is going to get the first/most patents? Whomever is lucky.
I can definitely relate. I have a Masters degree from MIT, and it is very frequently pointed out to me at my job that I am sitting 5 feet away from people who openly admit to cheating their way through mediocre schools.
One thing that worked well for us, especially when our children were young, was to model the behavior that we wanted them to emulate. Before our children were born hubby and I kept a number of dictionaries ( mini-dictionaries, College dictionaries and at least one large, 2,000 plus page dictionary) around the house so the kids were used to seeing us look up words to see their meaning or to double check spelling.
But, when they were preschoolers or in early elementary school we sometimes said what we were doing "I want to make sure that I spell "name of word" correctly in my letter to Grandma & Grandpa" or "I wonder what "word heard on news program" means. I'm going to look it up." And, of course, we had children's dictionaries available, at all levels, when they were young.
Another thing that hubby and I did our entire married life was to turn off the TV and just have quiet reading time each day. After our kids were born we just continued that. It was so natural for our children to just take out some of their books and read while Mom & Dad was reading. Obviously, we read plenty of books to them, too, but modeling that reading was an enjoyable activity thatadults did for fun was a nice plus. When they were tiny sometimes it was a struggle to even find 10 minutes to sit down and read the newspaper, but we really tried to do it each day, in front of the kids.
BTW, the kids are long gone, hubby has dementia and a Traumatic Brain Injury and we still have quiet reading time each day. Up until his dementia got bad, he also looked up every new word that he saw or heard in one of our dictionaries.
This is great! My parents also had a regular dictionary plus one of those huge Oxford unabridged ones, on its own stand, so it was almost like a home appliance, lol! Whenever we'd ask how to spell something, they'd tell us to look it up. Curling up with the kids and getting cozy on the couch while reading is a great way to motivate them to read. I love the turning off the TV thing. It demonstrates that there are alternatives to TV that are equally enjoyable.
The kids tend to even out around the third grade. Support your daughter at home with books and day trips, but she wouldn't be considered for a G&T program for another couple of years anyway. Just let her be a six year old.
Yep! It sounds like your daughter has a good teacher and she will be fine. When our daughter was in kindergarten and first grade she scored in the 99% on the Iowa tests. She was an early reader and very well-behaved and everyone told us how gifted she was. Turns out she actually has a math learning disability and while she remains a strong writer and reader in middle school she has a pull out tutor for math.
When our son was in kindergarten his teacher recommended we have him tested because he was so incapable of sitting still and learning, he wasn't early to read because he didn't sit long enough. In first grade same story so we took him to get tested. 140 IQ. Now in 5th grade he's calmed down and is a spectacular student.
First grade is too young to really know much about academic performance.
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And spelling. She loves to write but has been reluctant in class (and home) to pause and look up or ask how to spell a word. She'd rather spell it wrong and just keep going. She also often knows the answer in math, but can't or won't explain how she got it. So we're going to gently work with her on the importance of sometimes slowing down, and of learning the basics. 
