Hey, thanks for checking! But I'm actually somewhat frustrated right now as we don't even have a date set up yet! Last week the principal gave me the line that he is waiting to get some "times that work" from the social worker. But he thought she wanted to get through her assessment of DS before setting the date. I waited until today to call him, but he's out of the school. Tomorrow I will call and call and call until I get a date set up!
The principal sent home the state learning standards and their "descriptors" - which was NOT what I wanted. But I went through them anyway. Of course DS has already mastered all the standards for math at "Level A" and at least 50% at "Level B". I think that refers to 1st and 2nd grade based on what the principal's note said.
Now my hub and I want to get in there and actually see the curriculum. I'm determined to get pretesting with the curriculum materials and get DS moved on. Assouline's book discusses programming and emphasizes how easy it is to just pretest with the actual curriculum to determine level of instruction the child is ready for. Fill in the gaps and move on, they advise. That book is going to be my Bible at the meeting!
Right now my goal is to get DS through second grade math by the end of summer (if not the end of the school year) with the intention of having him promoted to 2nd grade but enter 3rd grade math in the fall. I think it is the only way to keep him interested and get him to a point where he might be learning something at school. Poor thing is being so patient and doing what he is told to do. But the other day he said "I think second grade will be better, Mom. Don't you?" Oh sweetie, I hope so. Mom's going to do her best to make it that way.
I'll keep you posted on how the advocacy goes!
And yeah, I'm glad DH wanted to attend to. He is pretty dumbfounded by the sensitivities and emotional parts and the parent seminars focus on that stuff this year. DH identifies with our son's perfectionism and boredom with traditional teaching methods (imagine that!) and I think there is some self realization going on for him. So I'm glad he's attending too!
