oh, that's such a good point about the open-ended project! we had a funny one recently that kicked open the door a crack with the teachers. DD suddenly started refusing the readers that she was pretending she couldn't do (again with the paradoxes!) so they decided to send home flash cards for sight words she's known forever. she resisted doing them till i flatly told her she had to show them she could... so she grudgingly blew through them and then got even grumpier because it was clear they weren't varied enough to make a meaningful sentence. so we got her a sharpie and some construction paper, and when she was done, she had a paragraph/story, complete with a beginning/middle/end - and complete punctuation.
i took photographs and sent them in with her. they asked for her cards (so she could prove it wasn't just me rushing her, i guess!) but the next reader that came home was 50 pages longer than the ones they were doing with her literally two days prior - so i feel like the school is reasonably responsive when shown an academic problem, but quite prepared to dig in its heels on the emotional/social side.
early days, yet, though - and i feel so much better prepared already. thanks again!
