I've posted before how & why I started making these seemingly boring videos. I've also talked about the successes I've had. Today, I received more evidence that these silly little videos I make actually do work.
At 7am, we had our first parent/teacher conference with my 1st grader's teacher. She had nothing but nice things to say (of course,) but we prodded her for more info. He's doing well, but HOW well?
Mind you, they school year just started less than two months ago. He's still early in his 1st grade year. But, she showed us on a chart where he is with reading (almost 3rd grade level.) She showed us where he is with writing (late 2nd grade level.) She showed us where he is with math, science, critical thinking and a few other "key performance areas." Without exception, he's way ahead of his class. They haven't started the formal "gifted" classes, yet, but says he's a shoe-in for them.
Hearing her bragging on him was one thing, but it wasn't until I saw examples of his classmate's school work on the wall that I started to understand just how far ahead he has gotten. On the wall outside the classroom were the results of a "research project" they had to do (yeah, first graders are doing research, now!) It was a very simple project with a picture of some type of weather (rain, sleet, sunshine, hurricanes etc,) with a few sentences describing it below.
Most of the kids' work were the type of thing where you try to decipher what the kid was trying to write. "Hrrcans are yuje stroms." Some of the letters are backwards, some are perfect, and some are impossible to figure out what they're supposed to be. Our son, the little genius, had perfectly written sentences that clearly described what sleet is. The punctuation was perfect, zero spelling errors, and the sentences actually flowed quite nicely.
Seeing this, I actually felt a tinge of guilt in that I realize just what a disparity there was between the bottom of the class and the top. Inadvertently, we'd made that challenge a bit worse for the teacher. I'm not saying my son is a super-student, but just that he's clearly at the top of the class. There was at least one other kid who seemed to be around the same level our kid is. But, if I were to choose between having my kid at the top or the bottom, I'd have to say I'm quite pleased he is where he is.
Plus, it must be said that the videos aren't ALL he ever had for preparation. We did plenty of other school work with him over the last few years, too. Now, he loves school, enjoys his homework, and seems to be off to a roaring start for his education.
Here they are, again... check 'em out!
My Educational Videos
