Anyone's child fail a grade?

[momof3now]

My 6 1/2 year old DS just failed grade one.

I'll give you some background:

He was born 3 weeks early because he stopped growing inside of me at 33 weeks. He weighed 4lbs, 15 oz at birth. He was born November 19. He had breathing problems and was on a sleep apnea machine for 6 months. He had seizures for a couple years (brought on by pain) and he has tubes in his ears and wears glasses.

Here in Canada the kids start school part time at age 4, which is Junior Kindergarten. I did not send him to JK because he was SOOO little and could of never of gotten up the bus steps, plus he just was not ready!! Really if he was born 6 weeks later he wouldn't of even of gone!
Then I sent him the following year for Senior Kindergarten. He did Okay, but not exceptionally well. This was at a public school.
For grade one, we enrolled him into a private christian school that teaches A Beka curriculum. I'm not sure how many people are familiar with the curriculum, but it is harder than public system. He struggled all year and the principal and teacher suggested we keep him back in grade one for next year.
We have no idea how to break this to him. He has made so many friends as well as he has another 3 kids that will be joining for grade two from our church that he is close to. He does not play with anybody in the younger grades, so he really doesn't know anybody that will be going to grade one.
Has your child failed before and if so how did you tell him or her???

School is coming up so fast and I'm trying not to leave it to the last minute!

[Reneemomto5]

First hugs. I have a 30 week premie and I know how you feel. That is a determining factor that I will hold her back a year, that and the fact that there is a relative older than my daughter and will start the year she should be starting. She is currently 3.

But let me tell you FROM EXPERIENCE you are totally doing the right thing! I wish I had done what you are doing with my oldest. I was told by the teacher it was up to me, they felt he could go either to first of pre-first and I didn't hold him back sent him to full first. By grade 3 when I specifically asked to hold my son back in public school they wouldn't because of our "no child left behind" because by than he was being swallowed alive by the academics. So my son struggled A LOT. Finally discovering by grade 5 he is dyslexic, Add... the list goes on.

He was, is, in the same grade as his cousin (though now I homeschool and his cousin is in reg. education) My son being with his cousin is the one reason I opted to keep my son going forward when that in truth was the stupidest thing I could have done really. I was concerning myself with the wrong things, looking outside my son, comparing, listening to others that thought that meant my son was stupid (they wouldn't say that but you get the idea of the comments). I was mis-informed of what holding back meant.

Please don't feel bad you have done the right thing, I really think you did. Don't worry the right words will come, you know what to tell him and how to make him feel special, smart, loved and confident. You will! Pray before speaking to your son, don't make it a sad or serious talk. Make it lighthearted and pray for the right words and they will come.

Keep me posted okay. Oh yes I have used A beka, loved it but it is a fast paced curriculum. We use Bob JOnes currently and it can be equally as fast paced one that I can control with homeschooling very well.



Hugs and prayers

[breezykc2]

I had a kid in my kindergarten class fail too...and the teacher and his Mom asked if he would volunteer to stay back and be her special helper! She said she needed someone she could trust and was nice to others to stay back and show them how things ran! We were ALLLL SOOO jealous of him! He was so excited of his "priviledge"! It was an 'honor' that way and he was 'needed' in a positive way instead of it being a negative thing...and it realllly helped him get a solid start that he needed too!
Definatly, make it happy, not a 'serious' talk type of thing!

[momofweewerfs]

Depending on how my son does this next school year, we may be keeping him back for one year. he is not even really ready to enter into sk. if at the end he is not ready for grade 1 we will keep him back. not to sure how we will explain it to him. the way the jk and sk teacher explained it.

"how would you feel if you took a class when you knew nothing about what you were taking and couldn't follow what the class was about.

keeping a child back is just to better prepare them for the following year.

my kids also go to a Christian private school, and they too use abeka. we try to work with Jake at home as much as possible, and it has helped. this year Jake might be entering in to the tutoring program.

[JoyLynn]

Bree, I absolutely LOVE that idea!! Really beautiful!!



Joy

[momof3now]

Well, we broke the news to him last week. We just sat him down and told him that he needed to go to grade one again because he didn't get to learn everything last year. He said "okay". I was shocked! I was practically in tears telling him because I have been dreading this, and he treated it like no big deal! LOL
We will see how the first week will go!!

[momofweewerfs]

I am glad that he took the news as well as he did. THey always have the ability to surprise us, don't they. I hope that his first weeks of school goes great.