Discuss this further with him

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Discuss this further with him
By Cathy-Dee

Ask him why he thinks the work is boring. Ask him about recess and if he likes to play outside during recess.

Sometimes grade 1 students have other issues but just don't know how to talk about them so saying something
is boring is the easy way out.
- perhaps he hasn't made friends so recess is intimidating and he'd prefer staying inside. Thus by not doing his work....
- or find out if kids are bothering him outside.
- ask him if any students in his class are bothering him when he does his work.
If it is simply that he doesn't like the work - what parts doesn't he like - the printing - perhaps

he finds printing difficult -

Or if he is really bright perhaps the work is truly boring for him.

When you go in for your parent-teacher interview.

- make notes
- have a few questions - such as where is he sitting, what are the students like around him, does he seem to have friends to play with, what is he working on in class.
- find out if it is in all subject areas or just one. Perhaps he just doesn't like one subject in particular.
- ask if any other students need to stay in at recess at well (this can be an interesting question - if the teacher has 5 or 6 students staying in then she may have too high of expectations from her students).

If it just seems that he can't stay on task at school and some students have this problem just because they are not used to the noise level and can't put it in words. Being an only child he hasn't had the disruption of other children around him when doing his homework. So perhaps doing his homework at night in other locations will give you more insight into how he's handling things at school. Go to your local library, or other locations that are a bit more active (even outside in the backyard) and see if he is able to keep on task as well as when he is in the house. It may just be classroom noise he is having difficulty adjusting to.

Ask for a communication system to be set up - a daily notebook to go back and forth so that you know which days are good and which days he's had trouble. You may see a pattern that the teacher has missed.

While staying in at recess is a good alternative for some of the time - he shouldn't be staying in every recess. Offer to help him do some of the work at home if necessary.

Also if you can come in and help in the class for a few days you can also watch him yourself and see what he is doing in class.

And in a worse case scenario - the work is truly boring because it is way below his level. In this case you should ask the teacher if she is prepared to create more challenging work for your son. While I would never expect any teacher to put in massive amounts of time to prepare challenging work - it's not that difficult or time-consuming to prepare some extra work.

Hope this helps.