1St Grade - School? EDITED

I can't give you advice on what you should do, that is too personal, and I have too many opinions to make a fair judgement.

I just wanted to say, on your statement about private schools being more advanced.
I went to a private Christian school from preschool to 4th grade. I then went to public school in 5th grade.
I was so far behind the other kids in my class I didn't know what they were studying and ended up having to repeat 5th grade.

It is not always true that private is better.
Just my opinion.
Good luck.

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Hmmmm....If I had moved my child every time he assured me he "didn't like" his school, we'd be on school #479 right about now. And he's in 3rd grade! LOL

Are you believing him that only he gets no warning, while "everyone else" gets "many" warnings?

That said, the rules and consequences should apply equally to all students and I'm confused by the fact that the teacher told you "she think(s) that my son needed to have a stricter policy". ???? Than the rest of the class? Does he have underlying discipline issues?

As far as the curriculum goes, if you feel the private school offers more, why not go back? It doesn't matter a hill of beans what church you go to if you send your child to a Catholic school! It just plain does NOT matter.

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Give it some time. He needs to stay in one school for a while and HAVE to adjust to the way the classroom runs. If you move him again, you're just going to have the same problems with him not learning the new system. Even worse, he might think that he doesn't have to because you will find another situation for him. That's never good.

You can give him spelling tests at home. Start out with sight words if you like. If you think he is really ready, then go for it! First grade is really hard, and there's a steep learning curve. We don't actually know HOW kids learn to read, but teachers generally use a conglomeration of different methods in order to teach it, including phonics and whole language. And many schools allow "invented spelling" in first grade in order to get the kids comfortable trying to write. You may see bad spelling at first, outside of the spelling words they will be given to learn. Don't worry about this - what's important is that your child learn FIRST to put thoughts down on paper. If you fuss about the spelling over and over, he won't want to write anymore. You act excited about his story - the content, and his effort.

D.

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You should start by having a parent teacher conference. Every district is different so you shouldn't base your decision on what your friend's child is doing. Get a copy of the first grade rubric for your son's school so you know exactly what's expected in first grade throughout the year.
Private/Catholic schools vary a lot, some are easier, some are harder. Again, if you consider looking at other schools get a copy of their rubric so you know ahead of time what is expected.
If you have already changed schools once based on the fact that your son didn't "like" it then I imagine he's having some behavioral issues in class. When you sit down with the teacher you can get a better picture of what's going on and work together to support your son. If you are able to volunteer in the classroom at all that's also a great way to observe the learning environment as well as your son's behavior in the classroom.

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I think you need to bring your concerns to the teacher in a parent-teacher conference. You might also speak to other parents to see what they experienced with the school.

You have a LOT in this message. I get that 1) you are concerned about your child's mental health and quality of education but 2) you need to consider the costs of private school and would prefer a non-denominational academy and 3) your son is testing you. Those are all different issues.

I think you need to be "all in" on this school year if you don't want to move your kid around a lot. Think about the private school but unless you are going to move him ASAP, then you are eating up his year and it can be very disruptive to move mid-year, especially if you feel one school is more advanced.

You may want to speak with the principal or someone else at the school to find out if the other 1st grade classes are the same. Do all the 1st grade classes have the same schedule for learning spelling, do they group the advanced readers together? Aside from the behavior issues, is your son learning and are they doing assessments to find out what level each child is at? Ask if they have any other teachers that are more experienced in dealing with behavior problems, or if they have a behavior specialist that can give this new teacher some advice.

Wow, sounds like you have a few issues going on. My daughter has not liked school since she started, but knows its something she has to do.

In regards to the spelling tests, yes my daughter is doing them weekly, but whose to say your sons school doesn't have something in mind.

You can always study words with him at home, that is pretty much all I'm doing with my daughter anyway. Every week we get a list, every week we study at home, then she goes in to take the test. It isn't like she is studying these words at school anyway. Oh and this is on top of practicing sight words at home. :)

In regards to your sons behavior at school, my daughter has had it both ways, without warning and the now the option to improve behavior. When it all comes down to it, you need to set something at home to reward/discipline him for good/bad behavior. That should help.

I would sit down and talk with the teacher. Also is it your son that tells you he's the only one that does not give warnings to him and not the other kids. I have found with my boys I don't always get the entire story. My son was one that I had to talk to the teacher regularly. But if you don't feel you are being hurd after talking to her talk to the school counclior or the principle. The color chart works for some kids but not for others. With my youngest I learned to ask what he did from him. At one point the teacher started writing down on his daily folder what it was so I knew. And I would deal with him acordingly. As a parent you need to feel they are listening to your concerns. If you can't get anywhere with the teacher, councilor or principle then I would consider moving him. But not till you use all avenues. My son's principle had leaned that if there is an issue that if I am notified it will be delt with. Not all teachers are reseptive and I have had some that where are to deal with and his may be one of them. But do everythign you can before moving him. In the end you have got to do what's best for your son!

Good luck and God Bless!

If you can't the teacher to work with you then you need to go to the next level to the principal. If she is a new teacher she should have a teacher mentor guiding her. There is no way she should be this inflexible already. If you want you can ask for an evaluation by the school psychologist to make sure they are doing things right. It will also help by identifying any behavioral issues that may or may not exist. But at least it would bring your child to the attention of the administrators that something is not working in the classroom.

Unless there is a HUGE issue regarding the well-being of your child, I vote for hanging in there with your child and making the best of the school he's already at. In the grand scheme of things, it won't matter if he starts spelling now or two years from now. It's like walking or potty training, he'll learn it eventually. Even if spelling ends up being a weakness of his, I doubt it'll be because this school didn't start it soon enough. I prefer waiting until they're reading more fluently until they start spelling. Reading is more important at this stage, in my opinion. I think your son is doing great. I wish you the best!

I have four kids and they are all grown now--but I have to tell you that one of the hardest things we did was suffer through a lousy teacher for a full school year. In hindsight, I should have transferred my son to a different class. One of the parents of a fellow student, who was also a teacher, sat through some of this teacher's classes and was shocked at how terrible she was. With another child, in another school district, I was recently looking at my daughter's report card--and it was terrible. The teacher was a new teacher, and she spent the school year screaming at the children--fortunately, she decided to go back to school, and hopefully, not to teach again, since that obviously didn't work for her. It was a tough year for my child, but fortunately, she had a couple of good teachers along the way, and she became an outstanding student and person. Hindsight is always 20/20.

Our 1st graders don't have regular spelling test either. We have sight words, words they should know by sight (duh!). We have a list of 200 words that they have to know by sight by the end of the year. Each quarter has about 50 words. I made flash cards and just this last Friday Syd one the blue ribbon for knowing all her sight words in less than 2 minutes. She is able to spell them correctly without having the standard spelling test.

Find out from the teacher if maybe that is what they are doing. If you'd like PM me and I can give you the list if you want to work on them with your first grader.