A year ago, I made a big bet on moving here, based in large part on interviewing the local school principal and the district gifted coordinator. They were friendly. They were interested in my child, in all her gory 2e-ness. They said the right things. So I bought a house. And this bet has totally paid off. Our local school has been great. This district doesn't offer gifted classrooms until 4th, but my PG DD's 3rd grade teacher has really worked to do right by her. Our school has a program for kids on the spectrum that has been great for her. And now she has been officially placed in the gifted program for next year. She'll be in a gifted classroom with 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. The gifted teacher is really enthusiastic. Next year is full of promise.
She's signed up for a CTY reading class this summer, and I'm thinking about enrolling her in AoPS pre-algebra 1. Our school district also has a 4-week summer camp program that looks like it might have some good science-focused stuff so I'm still on the fence about pre-algebra because it feels like it would be a lot to do all at once.
DS is 5.5. After we moved here I enrolled him in a private Montessori after 3 years of center daycare. It's been great. His teacher is lovely. His fellow students are lovely. (We had such problems last year initiated by bratty kids in his daycare!) But he didn't win the lottery for the public Montessori. Next year he'll be at our neighborhood school, and if he's in 1st it'll be great. That's still up in the air, though.
If he's a 1st grader then he can also go to the 4-week district summer camp. Which I think would be good for him. After a year of being super independent and self-selecting his work at Montessori school, spending a few weeks supervised by public school teachers with entirely different expectations would probably help ease his way in September. Plus the flier says they have a robotics track. He will be head over heels for that.
