My youngest is 9 years old and is in 3rd grade. Since the age of 3 we've known she was a little different. She learned to read on her own when she was 3 and she's been excelling ever since. For the last 3 years, she would say that she was bored in school but that it was okay because her teachers made it fun. That changed this year. Third grade is when school becomes more serious, they start getting grades in all classes, instead of just Language Arts & Math. Now school was just boring, no longer fun.
I contacted the school soon after school started because I was concerned about how bored she was. She said she was reading almost all day every day. It took a month to get the administration to actually respond to my requests for a meeting and after several meetings, tears, and lots of promises that turned out to be lies, I was still frustrated. She wound up with a new teacher, who was better than what she had but after 2 weeks with her new teacher she was still frustrated & bored.
So starting next week, we begin virtual school. It's been really interesting to see how people react to it. The biggest questions we've gotten are "what about the social aspect of school?" and "how will that work?"
Both valid questions but after you get asked the same question 900 million times, it gets a little old. Socially, she's in competitive dance and she's at the studio at least 4 days a week and she's in Girl Scouts and goes to church. I'm not worried about her social life. We've worked out how it will work for now. As she gets older, she can spend time at home alone but we aren't quite there yet so for now she'll spend time with friends of mine in the mornings while Dad is in class.
I really hope this is the answer she's looking for. It's a little scary to a mom to think of her kid trying to get through school faster because it means she will be leaving us that much sooner but I have tried very hard to let my kids find their own path in life, to let them make their own choices.
Wish us luck!!
