When you are feeling sick to your stomach, that is the answer. Your brain is telling you something is wrong and until you rectify it, it will bother you. In third grade, I am almost positive there is a national math challenge called Continental Math that the students gifted in math participate in and can even be recognized if they are scoring very high. Hopefully, you can have a GIEP meeting and ask them to add what you need for your child. It helps to ask and it gives you experience for the next time you have to have these discussions. When the school says, "No" too quickly, to me, it is an indication that (for whatever reason) they don't actually believe that some people absolutely need more mental challenge; they think we are being over zealous and they don't realize how a child can be totally unchallenged by the normal course load. At those ages early on, before all of the great classes they allow students to take when they are older, school might be mainly social. Social is great, but, as a parent you want to know that your child is learning something new. Hang in there. Try to advocate for grouping of the gifted children, so that they can move ahead together. I have also found that people do not believe how fast some people can learn and analyze. It really can be excruciating to have to go slow.
