What do you do when your child says 'school is too easy' and they are getting bored?

[Marne]

Wasn't sure where to post this as it may not be a G&T problem.

Dd1 is 8 and has Aspergers syndrome, she's bright (not sure if G&T), she's been at this school for a year and is in a mixed class of year 3 and 4, she's currently working with the year 4's so gets given the harder work in the class (hope that makes sense).

She keeps coming home and saying 'the work is too easy' and 'they are going over the same work which she has already done and can do easily', its got to the point where i'm struggling to get her motivated to go to school in the mornings as she's finding it a bit boring.

Trouble is she has Aspergers and she thinks she knows a lot of things (everything) when a lot of the time she probably doesn't so i am unsure how bright she actually is. I have spoken to her teacher several taime and have been told that dd1 is doing very well and they say 'we will move her up a level in maths etc...' but dd1 is still moaning.

So what do i do? i don't want to seem pushy by keeping on at the teacher but i don't want dd1 moaning because she's bored and losing interest.

Also, is it possable to find out how bright she is? (are their IQ tests for kids?) as its hard to tell with her (as i said before 'she thinks she knows everything).

How can i get more intersted in school? she started piano lessons last term and is enjoying it but again 'things are not moving fast enough for her liking' .

Bump (as MN went all odd on me so my post may have got lost).

Just wondering if they did an IQ test as part of your DD's Aspergers assessment? I don't know if it's standard but we took my son for an assessment and that was the first (and only) thing they did. He has dyslexia rather than Aspergers. You could try contacting the NAGC for advice. Try also doing a Google on "twice exceptional" which means children that are g&t and also have a SN such as Aspergers, ADHD or dyslexia.

SALT did some tests but were mainly based around language, she was 4 at the time and her language skills were that of a 12 year old (she can talk for england).

Will google 'twice exceptional', thank you xx

Talk to the teacher about extension work. You might well find that there's at least one other child who would also benefit and the working together would keep them ion their toes.

Ds is not imv g+t but got a lot of extension work with another pupil who up till his arrival had just been bored but then they struck sparks off each other. It was good for the social development too and kept them out of mischief.

Thanks spendthrift, i will try and talk to her teacher (she's not the easiest person to talk too), her teacher is also the SENCO so should be able to help .

I struggle to get her to do her homework, its not much but it is rather easy (probably for most of the kids in her class), tonight she spent an hour doing maths papers online (which she found on google). It might not be that she's g&t but more that she needs more exciting work set for her?

She may well be v good at specific subjects? Or is it everything?

If the format, your trick will be to encourage her interests in those subjects but also make sure she covers the rest as well.

One of my colleagues had a child who was brilliant at maths. World class. So they took him to maths competitions, seminars, chess comps and the like outside school. I think he had to do the same tests as everyone else but worked with others nearer his level as much as possible and was given lots of extension work.

If you can help.her on the social side it will pay off later. Brownies, a choir, drama, a sport, anything where she prob meets some different people from school.

Former, not format!

According to dd its all subjects but i'm unsure, she loves maths but finds it boring at school, she loves science and nature and would love to do it more often ?(there is a science club after school but i can't aford to send her as well as pay for piano lessons), she loves writing stories but her hand writting is not great due to hypermobility in her hands. At home she spends a lot of time on the computer researching the subjects she's learning at school (the romans, rain forests etc...).

She was going to brownies but our local group has packed up as there was only 3 girls going , she doesn't have many girl friends, all her friends are boys (she loves pokemon and has several friends who like it).

She would love to learn chess, she does try and play at school but has never been taught to play, maybe its something we can look into.

Dependent on where you live, if there us a local museum they will have an education programme and check to see if the science museum and the natural history museum have young explorer things she could join.

You could make her a junior member of the Rspb which combines the scholarly with child friendly stuff. And the good thing about bird watching is that it is cheap. The downside is that you'd need to go too. And it can be cold and wet if not in your own garden or balcony.

Could she type her stories on the computer? I don't know about hypermibility, but typing skills are really useful and there are some great child friendly online courses that Ds and I have used.

Stars are another really good one. Attracts the same sort of person as bird watching but less hearty and more physicists.

If she has friends then don't worry. But chess is good and you can make friends that way.

And you can get good chess programmes on line for beginners.

It's all very well coming up with ideas to stimulate your child outside of school-great and I have barrels of them.

However, the school has them in their premises, not yours, for the best part of the day, most days of the year. They should have their needs met during that time too.

I have 2 DDs who are G&T (no longer ashamed or worried about saying it) and I have been much better the second time around at getting the primary school to do their job better. Changing schools helped, but I still have to be assertive which does not come naturally. I'm currently gearing up to moan about the dullness of the science material and teaching approach that makes dd2 (Y4) hate Tuesdays, and the French she is doing she learned in Reception, so she hates that day too.

Do not worry about being pushy, or how you appear to the teachers. I regret that so much now for poor DD1. She was SOOOO BORED through primary even in subjects that she clearly loved at home, and was given mediocre marks, so then she decided she was no good at those subjects! I disagreed but the reality is, unfortunately I was thinking of myself and the embarrassment of being seen as pushy. Then I began to doubt her myself, thinking that my clever toddler had disappeared and now was a very unenthusiastic average student. Now she's in secondary she is amazing her friends and teachers and is blossoming, luckily.

So by looking bored but not playing up, she got not only given even more too-easy work, but also had her confidence reduced.

Think of your child sitting there hour after hour year after year, doing repetitive things that they already know and MOTs (more-of-the-same) if they do make an effort to get it over with, until they hate "X, Y, Z" subjects. It's damaging! She is a kid and she needs your help to deal with the school.

Thank you for your posts,

I had trouble getting her to school again today (she said she was poorly when she was clearly ok), she would rather stay home and do maths on the computer and read Harry potter.

I will have a look at chess online to see if i can get her playing and then maybe she can play at school. The main thing that anoys her is doing the same work over and over again (once she knows something she likes to move on to something harder), we are having the same problem with piano as she has one lesson a week, practices every night but is not beeing given enough homework (she wont move onto the next song in her book unless the teacher has said so as she has to stick to rules).

Marne- for piano, could you get her a book of pieces that are the same sort of level as her lessons are, but that she can play whatever ones she wants to play? So she practises her lessons first and then uses this different book for pleasure?

I could try SecretNutellaFix, she's very stuburn and likes to stick to doing as she has been told by her teacher (she doesn't listen to me as i have no idea about playing piano, i'm not musical). She practiced loads over half term but has now lost interest as her she didn't have a lesson until last week (so had already mastered the songs she had been given without having to read the music).

Hopfully she will be happier when she gets home tonight, she has been a bit down and fed up. I will see if i can find her some other piano music.