My sister’s child will be 6 in April. She has started grade R in a French school in the African Country in which she lives. Grade R is the equivalent of kindergarten - most children here enter grade 1 the year they turn 7. My sister placed her there in the hope that she would learn French which would be something new for her. They also apparently teach cursive writing in grade R which is also new for her as my sister only taught her to print. However now less than 3 months in the teachers are asking why she is in grade R as she reads better than any of the children in both grade R and grade 1 and I do not think they know what to do with her. She is also ahead in math though they have been slower to pick this up (she is at grade 2 level with math I think though it could be further by now)
The school has suggested advancing her to grade 1 or moving her to the other international school in the town, but more than likely neither of these options will help. The child herself is getting upset and says: “We go to school and just sit, then we do a worksheet and sit, then we go out to break and sit some more.”
My sister is not able to homeschool as she is a single parent and must work. Does anyone have any ideas of what she could request from the school. Apparently the French is only taught twice a week and the children are not really learning it (bad teaching? - I am not sure) I have no idea how good the library facilities are at that school either.
Based on this I am also worried about my own child - I am more likely to have the option to homeschool but may possibly have to put my own daughter in school and the facilities are the same here if not worse (as in they are more likely to expect my child to just fit the mould and less likely to allow advancement) I suspect that my daughter will be at about the same level academically as my sister’s child is now since up to now they have been at about the same level although have very different personalities.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
Edited to say: My sister herself was advanced at school entering grade 2 the year she turned 6 - she is not keen to advance her daughter because of the many difficulties she faced being at school with a class essentially two years older than she was, however she also can’t leave her child at school bored out of her mind.
Thanks for the idea - our elementary grades do mostly English and Math - in fact in the early grades that is probably the curriculum except for the handwriting and French which she has. I have a feeling all the other subjects if they are covered would be done as theme based esepcially in Grade R which means she may have to be advanced for everything- else she would have very little time in the Grade R class at all. Because they see language arts and math as fundamental very little geography, science, history etc is covered at all and it is covered in a way in which it will teach language arts or math.
My sister is coming to visit over the Christmas period so we will probably chat about this a fair amount.
I know your sister is a single mom, but the value of homeschooling is so great that she should consider all possibilities before giving up on the idea. I homeschooled my first child, now 16, when I was a single mom. It wasn’t easy, but it is worth it. I am planning on homeschooling my second child now 16 months old. I am doing daycare for the sole purpose of finding the right child we can “borrow” and educate so that my youngest doesn’t have to go it alone. It is way easier to do two at the same level than one. Peer pressure does have a place in life.
There may be someone that is willing to educate or partially educate her. Or she could find a home daycare that would be willing to oversee her studies while mom is at work and she can do most of the teaching at night. She may even find someone she can barter with so the expense is not so great. I would check out the homeschool groups and see what is available. I mentioned this in a post somewhere else, this early education can be a blessing or a curse. If you don’t keep up with it, your kids are ahead when they start school, but eventually the other kids catch up. While the other kids are catching up they are learning valuable skills like time management, study habits, a work ethic and so on. Since the advanced ones usually don’t have to exert much effort to be at the same level, they never pick up those skills because they don’t have to. It is a huge problem when they get to college.
There may be a mom out there who could use the extra money and would be delighted to help your sister out. We’ll keep her in prayer.
Thanks - my sister has been very keen on homeschooling her child and has even talked of coming back to her home country and doing so although the father of the child may complain. It is the day care that she would need to look into and also the socialisation - she more than likely could get someone to look after her child during the day but certainly not teach her or even help with the work - and I am not sure at this age if she would be capable of doing independent work.
I will discuss all these options with her though and see if she doesn’t have an option that could work where she is living (the whole way of life there is fairly different to 1st world countries) This is a child who is very interested in academics and loves to learn and we would hate for her to lose that through the school system.
Yes it is a blessing and a curse. My daughter just spent a year at school staring at the wall waiting for the other kids to catch up. I will not allow it to happen again. It actually made her look less intelligent and her report card reflects her lack of effort, something that her teacher next year will read and make opinions on.
The trick to it is to be actively involved in the schooling in some way. For grade one I did A LOT in the classroom and will again this year as my second daughter enters grade one. I didn’t want to spend time at school this past year as I was poorly treated by certain staff members early in the year and was feeling used and unappreciated ( that won’t happen again either!!!) as your sister works I would suggest that she be actively involved through emails and constant requests for details on the curriculum adjustments being made for your child.
Personally if it was my daughter I would grade skip her with out hesitation. She will make friends and she will only be one year ahead. I have seen too many kids wasting away waiting for the rest to catch them up and that isn’t what I am aiming for. I want my kids to STAY ahead as a way to offer better solutions to humanities problems. I want the schools to see kids like ours and say why arnt ALL kids like that. Early education for every child!
This year I will be active again to ensure MY children are catered for with advanced work and extra opportunities to study in more depth. In the school they attend they don’t grade skip but they will allow advanced study in subjects. home schooling is not for me at the moment and I don’t think my children would enjoy it they are very very social. Homeschooling would solve the problem but it doesn’t solve the LONG TERM problem, which is the schools don’t cater well enough for advanced kids.
I do hope you and your sister come to a happy solution. My advice is lots of communication with the school, keep talking til they say yes!
UN schooling is really works,i felt it and proved healthy and sefty learning in your custody.the thing is that you have to spent quality time with your little master.