We went to see the teacher and had a good (40 minutes ) session. Trying to get her to appreciate that he is different is nigh on impossible. She thinks his head is everywhere - and mentioned that he will put his hand up and volunteer some new facts about the Ancient Egyptians in the middle of a maths session. I think she has her hands full, quite honestly, but she is not 'worried' about him. One good thing is that she tells him to come and see her before each break period and talk to her about what interesting things he has to say. This, I suppose, keeps class disruption down, and also gives him a chance to show what he is made of. With the just below par performance in reading and writing, this system is not going to do anything in terms of more challenging work I'm afraid.

One thing, we took some of his models along and she was literally 'gobsmacked' as we say here. She couldn't get over how anatomically correct they were, and yet the level of abstraction in his work. She has told us she will be seeing the art co-ordinator (I won't hold my breath but which I will chase up).

I am very aware that we need to give him freedom to do his own thing and trust that it all comes together on the bread and butter. I don't want to squeeze the (very) 'special' out of him.

With the writing thing, I am going to get him to write a little book of robots. Almost every morning his first words are 'dad, I'm going to design a robot that can...'. I'm going to try and harness that to get him to draw the design and then write about it. It mat be a way of introducing some maths concepts too (mechanics, fulcrums....I dunno). More work for dad.

So once again, thanks for your suggestions which I am certainly taking note of. I will probably nip to the local library to find some calvin and Hobbs today, along with a tape set of Greek Myths (another favourite of his)/ I looked at Aleks and have been in touch with them about how the study pattern will mesh with the UK curriculum. I need to chase up the Intelligence Tests.

I wonder if anyone has treid the Multiple Inteeligence testing for their little'uns, which can prove quite insightful? see one example here:
http://www.mitest.com/omitest.htm

there are others you can google.

the BBC has g some good education resources like PBS, like:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/

have a great weekend all and a million thanks again

P