My DS was pretty advanced in K and in a mainstream classroom. Starting in first grade, we ended up moving him to a school that had GT Center classrooms and that was definitely a better fit academically although in retrospect (he’s now a HS Junior), I don’t know if it was the right thing socially. A few things that we were lucky enough that the school did for my son that may or may not be options depending on how your school is structured:
- Subject Matter Acceleration: my son entered K reading (and comprehending) pretty fluently at the early chapter book level. The school did some pretty extensive reading testing and ended up deciding he was reading at around a 4th grade level. They suggested moving him to 3rd grade for reading, but given his sister was in 3rd grade, I asked them to move him to a high reading group in 2nd grade and he spent about an hour a day in that second grade classroom for all of K. The downside was he missed some things in K that I now regret, namely handwriting. The 2nd grade teacher would “scribe” for him during reading assessments since he couldn’t really handwrite the 3-4 paragraph summaries and writing assignments that went with the reading level. To this day, his handwriting is horrific and starting in 1st/2nd grade they let him type and we didn’t push the handwriting. He’s always been lucky that he’s been allowed to type everything and it’s mostly worked out, but I do kind of regret not pushing handwriting
- Special Projects: starting in about Nov of K, they realized it might make sense for him to do something different for social studies/etc. and they allowed him to work with the librarian on special projects. He did research projects and created presentations and reports and really loved that. Eventually they put 1-2 other kids in there with him and that was even more fun
- Reading: DS was always allowed to have 1-2 books to read whenever he finished early. He’s not a big reader any more, but was an avid reader through about 4th-5th grade
Part way through K, the school district tested him for GT and based on his scores, they recommended he move to a GT Center (neighborhood schools with 1 self contained GT class per grade). We did end up moving him starting in 1st grade and academically the move was good. The GT Class was really more of an advanced academic (vs true GT class) and basically operated one grade level above. Until 3rd/4th grade when they went to more whole class instruction, he was still generally his own reading group of one, but eventually everyone else caught up somewhat. Being at the GT school allowed him to do acceleration where needed (including taking Pre-Algebra in 5th grade), but eventually even at a GT school they started pushing us to grade skip (not an option socially or really even academically given he wasn't super motivated) and we ended up moving to private for middle school (before coming back to public school for HS).
DS was never super motivated academically, but was advanced. If he cared about something, he did well, but mostly was (and is) a pretty lazy student. As a HS Junior, he’s pretty advanced, but isn’t a phenomenal student. He’s made mostly As in high school (only 2 B’s total) and will have already taken 10 AP classes by end of this year, but doesn’t love school and mostly tolerates it and rides on his intellect. He did not fare well during COVID and was diagnosed with ADHD last spring so is still figuring all that out.
From the way you describe your DD, she sounds like a motivated, bright girl. As a first grader, she might not be quite at the level to read independently for long periods of time, but if she is, or as her reading advances, I think that’s the easiest thing to advocate for if she’s feeling bored. Rather than additional worksheets, I’d push for reading when she’s done (as soon as she’s able). If it turns out she’s advanced in math eventually, there’s a lot of research on the types of math that advanced kids in elementary and middle school can attempt rather than just pushing through the standard curriculum. I used to do a pull out group for advanced math kids with my DD and my DS and we mostly did logic, probability and “fun” challenge math.
I hope this novel of a post is somewhat helpful - I found it helpful to listen to other anecdotes (some on this site) when my DS was little and I was trying to decide what to do. Every kid is different and needs different things and every school is different in what they can and will offer. I definitely lucked out in that my DS's elementary schools were super accommodating with my DS and I was also super fortunate that we could afford an amazing private for middle school.
Mom to a DD (8/02) and a DS (6/05)