The work seems appropriate for him, and the environment is also satisfactory.
Earlier (upthread) you mentioned having discussed school with your ds and he said that the issue was the pace of instruction:
It's beginning to emerge that the reason DS doesn't like school is the pace of instruction. Simple tedium.
Has anything changed at school since that discussion? Has he been further challenged or is he still at the same place?
The one thing I did notice during my time there is he seems to be somewhat isolating himself on the playground. He doesn't seem inclined to automatically play what everyone else wants to. Instead, he is okay with going off and doing his own thing. If some other child joins him, he's happy to have them, but otherwise doesn't appear to make much effort to invite interaction.
This could simply be the behavior of a child who prefers to hang with his best friend and the friend is out sick... or it could be a child who is unhappy. Social isolation on the playground was happening to my ds at the same age - and it didn't look troubling to any of his teachers, he had a best friend, and he did play with kids when they approached him - but he was also spending a lot of time alone or relatively isolated on the playground. Once we switched him to a school where his educational needs were better met, he was all of a sudden back in the thick of things socially, which is really where his personality lies - the hanging with one or two friends and not joining in with the group at his previous school wasn't because he didn't like sports or wasn't a group type of personality, it was because he was spending the day frustrated and upset with school.
DS recently said to me, "No one is helping me with not liking school." I think he's feeling unheard because we've been unable to make things different. Nothing has changed at school or home since I first posted, btw.
What have you tried to do to make a change? Although we've battled against brick walls many times in our kids' school careers, one thing that we've done is to share with our kids what we as parents have done to help make the situation different/better. It doesn't always work, and that's tough, and that's a part of life - but we've come through with our kids learning something really important - we (parents) believe in them and we stick up for them. Our kids see that we can't change the world every time, but they see that we always have their back. It's also helped them learn how to advocate for themselves.
My husband and I are stuck on what to do.
The teacher is going to be paying attention; listen to what she has to say and see if it makes sense. Try talking to your ds again.
Meanwhile, I've purchased a journal for him in the hope he will sort out exactly what is bothering him through the comfort of writing down his feelings and thoughts.
The journal is a great idea, but I'd try to also consider that he might not actually *know* what's bothering him about school, and he may need to depend on you to help figure it out.
I hope you're able to get to the bottom of it and find a way to change whatever is up -
Best wishes,
polarbear
