>8^( lots of things to think about!!
socially, I feel like things were a bust for Mite this year. He had a wonderful natural group in k-2 and that was busted up when he moved to the gifted cluster. Also the SPED things were very hard for him and at this point Mite really doesn't have any close friends in class, though he does have close friends in the school.
I've heard that trivium idea about waiting for math instruction. I would do it without blinking, but DH was raised with rote math being drilled from age 3 on. He thinks that is the only way to go.
What is the "rubber tree"?
