Trinity--again, thanks for your thoughts on this. "Every child deserves to be thought about well." Very wise indeed.
I like the touch typing/keyboarding idea! DD would enjoy that. Sometimes after she reads her Reading homework page to me, we sit together at the computer and take turns making up sentences using the vocabulary words. Our "rule" is to use at least two vocabulary words in a sentence. I make up one sentence and type it, then she makes up the next one and types it herself. She loves this, and it reinforces comprehension of the words. She likes typing on the keyboard and I know she'd love to be able to type faster (currently it's the hunt-and-peck method).
I need to ask DD what she would like to do with the Para-pro. I have not done that yet. I also need to find out how much time she spends with this parapro. I don't think it's much; maybe ten minutes at a time, several times a week is the impression I've gotten.
The teacher did start her on Accelerated Math this week! DD is excited about it. She saw that it said "Grade 2" at the top of the page. She said, "It's kind of like I'm in a lot of different grades now--5th grade for reading, and 2nd grade for math, and 1st grade for everything else." It's interesting to see/hear how she is processing her "uniqueness."
The teacher said DD seemed to like the Accelerated Math. She said there were concepts/symbols DD didn't know, such as the "greater than" and "less than" symbols, but she just asked what they meant and the teacher explained and DD got it right away. Teacher said she told DD she didn't have to do the whole thing (looked like there were at least 5 pages of work), but DD said she wanted to do all of it--and she did. I don't know yet how she scored on it.
I think the main thing I want to ask about at the conference is the option of ignoring the first grade curriculum, at least in some subjects. If she's capable of doing 2nd grade math, it seems silly to have her doing 1st grade math too. But I don't know if the teacher will agree with that.
I will also ask the teacher for her ideas on what else DD could do with the parapro. I have already mentioned to her that I think having DD simply read to the parapro isn't of huge benefit, so I know she (teacher) is aware of my concerns.
