My son hates the 1st grade. He is bored and he says the kids are mean to him. No one wants to play with him and every day is a bad day. I've talked to his teacher and she did confirm that he stays to himself a lot. That is not my son at home. He has been in a preschool program since he was 3 and we have never had any issues. He is in soccer and cub scouts so he has other interactions with kids. It's just the kids at school and I don't know how to help him. I can't go to school with him. He wants to change schools. Has anyone else gone through this?
My son still doesn't like school but after a meeting with his teacher we understand a few more things now. We learned that my son sort of takes things in and doesn't say anything. He basically holds everything inside and that is something we need to work with him on. He still loves soccer and cub scouts. The teacher said that the kids in class are just ready for summer and tend to get on each others nerves after spending the whole year together.
Maybe it's the teacher or some of the kids (not that all teachers and classmates are bad) sometimes people just clash for no reason. Before you pull your hair out and change schools maybe you should try and have him put in another teacher's calss. It will be like a fresh start.
GOOD LUCK!!!!
Sounds like your son is bored....have you had him evaluated? He might very well be socially advanced. Try talking to your schools councilor. By no means am I suggesting advance placement for a first grader...however, he can learn skills and tolerance and may even be introduced to peers at playtime who struggle with the same delima. :)
If he's got scouts & soccer AND doing fine in the neighborhood that's plenty of positive interaction. Why not homeschool?
My son had lots of other activites that he was doing very well at. When it came to school, the children would gang up & just tear him down. This started to affect his grades. He came to me in tears, "Why can't school just be about learning, not all these dumb rules on the playground!" When I heard in middle school, some bullies were cornering him in the bathroom, pulling on his shirt, getting right in his face, etc. I went to the principal. It didn't much help, he was a bully magnet at school. We have him involved in lots of activites now, but learning is done is a quiet, peaceful, stress free environment. He has taken off!
Good luck, do what's right for ya'll. I like the advice about the councelor bit too, so maybe start there and keep homeschooling in the back of your mind, but don't wait til his grades suffer to consider it.
Are you able to observe or help in his class? It might be good to see for yourself what is going on. Is there anyone in the class that he likes? Maybe you could meet that child's mom and set up a play date.
Does he have a friend in another class at school? Maybe he can make friends through that child.
What do you know about him being picked on? The school should have a no tolerance for bullying. That might need some more investigation.
I have a third grade son and a son in Kindergarten.
Good Luck,
L.
My daughter is much like your son in the way that she is very active and has a lot of social involvement, but when my husband and I went looking into the schools we found a lot of things to be lacking in both private and public schools. We looked for maybe 2 years before we decided that we would just home school. I was scared at first. (I didnt do very well in school) but there is so much support out there it isnt hard to find help. There are many home schooling co-ops that can help and many of them are very low in cost (maybe $100 a year). I obviously don't know if this is possible for you but you might consider it as an option. If you do decide to go this way and need any information I might be able to help. Good luck to you and yours.
S.
