Thanks everyone! MoN, that is a great plan for the conference, I am going to try that approach for DS1. The thing is, he is a pretty intense kid, when the work is engaging so if he is not focusing then that suggests to me that the work needs to be changed. However, ime these conversations tend to move toward "how can we make ds pay attention?" rather than "how can we give ds something worth paying attention to?" I still have to laugh at a discussion I had with him in 2nd grade when his teacher said that he wasn't listening in class (still breezing through all the work though). He said, "Well, I listen the FIRST time she says it but then she just keeps saying the same thing again!" I think, for him, it is a question of pace, which is tricky.
As for ds2, he is right now really into a Singapore Math workbook that I found for him, so I think maybe I will let him work his way through those for a while and then share with the teacher.
Thanks for the ideas! We'll see how things go tomorrow!
