My 8 year old son has been identified as gifted. He's at a regular public school in a 3rd grade classroom. This is his first year in a gifted enrichment program. He has 45 minutes of enrichment every day with gifted teacher.

I requested a meeting with his regular classroom teacher (gifted teacher also sat in on the meeting). My goal in this meeting was to get a quick update on how he's doing. And mostly advocate to make sure that if he's showing mastery of skills, that he's getting differentiated instruction.

I thought the meeting went OK. But, when I started reflecting… I realized that the meeting was all about behavior and improving writing (which he hates, but he is able to meet grade level standards). I want to make sure there's some run way ahead of him in the subjects he's advanced in (such as accelerated reading instruction). His teacher said he's doing well in in all of the assessments (no specific data). She has opportunities for enrichment in the classroom (doing independent projects, being able to work with another child in class that's also IDed gifted), but he has to earn that by controlling impulsive behavior, self-starting, etc.

I talked to my son about the meeting. He was angry/in tears. He said the teacher already told him that he could have these new opportunities if he "behaves". He said he doesn't want to "behave" in order to have more work to do. And I see his point.

He desperately wants to learn content. He wants school to teach him things like history and algebra. He comes home and asks to be able to play math games (the kind where they get harder as you show you know what to do) and listen to audio books.

I also discovered that he's read 5 Geronimo Stilton books in his first 3 weeks of school, which makes me feel like has way too much time on his hands.

Basically, every school year I try to advocate for him. And I feel like I fail. I try to talk about meeting his intellectual needs, they want to focus on behavior.

We had a great summer where I didn't have a lot of behavior issues… we learned a lot about ancient history, read a ton, he listened to a bunch of audiobooks, he played an educational math game everyday, we went places and had play dates.

Can anyone relate or offer guidance?