One of our most motivated kids last year was a little first grade boy. While he worked very hard, the work that he was given at school wasn’t challenging enough for him. The homework packet that he was given from school was supposed to take the whole week to complete, but it only took him about twenty-five minutes to finish. His work wasn’t hard enough for him.
When a child isn’t challenged they’re likely to get bored because their capabilities are greater than the tests. Every child is different and learns in different ways, it can be very hard for school teachers to be able to customize their curriculum to each child. In the end, there will inevitably be children who are overwhelmed with to much or bored with not enough.
To encourage this boy to stay passionate about school and learning we had to give him new things to do. The first thing we had him do was the entire first grade curriculum and make sure he understood all of that before we moved forward. He breezed through ALL of that work in less than two weeks! Surely the work that he was being given in the classroom was to easy for him.
Through out the school year we had the opportunity to help him learn immensely. He learned how to do five digit addition and subtraction. The child can also write well-punctuated three paragraph essays. He has mastered the multiplication times tables as well as mastering division tables too.
While this is remarkable for a child just starting second grade to understand fourth grade work, the boy himself is not remarkable. In fact it really just helps to prove that the environment that the children were raised and taught in can help to mold the child. Great improvements can be made even in a short period of time.