Interestingly, his writing skills seem to be really impressing her, although I would say that is his weakest area. In fact, she specifically wants to send him to 1st for writing. He has been working on writing stories independently in a story journal, and she told me she has been showing the journal to other teachers. She said they told her he is probably above the level of their most competent 1st graders. I am surprised by this--he still forgets to capitalize sometimes, for instance, and is not always fully legible-- but achievement is relatively low in the gen ed section of the school.
I thought about testing privately but we really don't have the $$ for that right now. It seems a little nutty, given that we know the school will test him this year. But if we could try getting him into 1st more of the time, that could be good. The thing is, there is just such a gulf between the expectations in the gen ed program and the magnet. There is no way around it.
