Diana,
I definitely see what you mean about distractions. I'm afraid DS is distracted enough even with walls. I recently observed and assisted with his class for a day, and he had a hard time paying attention. I don't blame him, after seeing what he has to sit through while the other kids learn the alphabet.
In preschool, he learned to count to 100 by tens. I thanked the preschool teacher for covering that with him, and she looked surprised...She didn't cover it. He overheard a table of the school-age students across the room and picked it up himself.
This is a kid who, at barely four years old, overheard DH and me discussing an offer on our home from a prospective buyer. The offer was too low, and DS piped up from his backseat booster that the buyer should use a different mortgage company that had lower closing costs. Thereby giving them more money to offer us for the house. This is where my husband nearly drove off the road and whispered, "I wish he would say this stuff in front of other people so they wouldn't think we're making it all up".
So I'm afraid in DS's case, he will not appear to be a perfect student. At school he maintains a stoic expression, monotone voice, and he has dark circles under his eyes that make him look sick all the time. This is 100% different than his bubbly at-home charisma. I'm glad I get to see the happy version, but it's a shame that so few people get a real glimpse of him.
At the very least, our district appears to be okay with skipping a grade if he shows mastery at that level (how that is assessed remains to be seen), and if that happens, I think it might buy us a couple more years in public school.
Thanks,
Christi
