Brief background: We have a son, recently turned 5, who will enter K next year but who currently has at least 2nd-3rd grade skills in both math and reading. His skills in spelling are more like middle-school level, and he is an amazing chess player for his age. More importantly, he learns with almost no repetition and does not like direct instruction. He is definitely an autodidact, and he tends to focus on one skill/area at a time. So far, he has been in an educational environment where he has been able to manage his own learning due to the emergent curriculum philosophy at school and our efforts to follow his lead at home.
We had a parent-teacher conference today. Our son has been in the same wonderful multi-age preschool classroom since he turned 3. The teachers are attuned to his abilities and have been wonderful about differentiating and incorporating his interests/obsessions into the curriculum. We are so happy with this setting that I almost wish he could just stay there instead of going to K next year!
His primary teacher is actively working to strengthen the link between their university-based preschool and the local area's public school kindergarten. She has a meeting with several public K teachers in a couple of weeks to discuss cooperation/collaboration. She told us today that she plans to ask what the district can do for a student such as our son, who will need accommodations outside the usual curriculum in order to remain engaged and moving forward. She asked if there were any specific questions we would like her to ask on our behalf. (She has already offered to write a letter about our son's abilities from a teacher's perspective, as she says that many teachers are pretty jaded about parent reports).
So, my question is, what would you ask? We live in a state with mandated but unfunded GIEPs. Our local district is heavily dominated by a small town with a high proportion of bright/high achieving kids who may not be served by the standard curriculum. All the same, for various reasons, I doubt many are functioning at the level of our little guy. What can/should we ask? I see this as a golden opportunity to find out what the district can offer without having to be "that parent".
Thanks in advance.l
