I've mentioned some of this before and apologize for the duplication but I could use any suggestions you have. My son has been having a difficult time in first grade at his Spanish Immersion school. My new understanding is that he is quite gifted in some areas (>99% math WJ III and reading voraciously about the Trojan war/mythology/Odysseus/American Revolution, etc.) and would probably do best with someone who understands him (gifted teachers?). His school is at risk for program improvement (PI) status so there is a huge effort to teach to the bottom middle to raise test scores. We have been told that he has trouble sitting still, often won't do his work, and is preventing other kids from learning because he wants to talk (either personal conversations or answering all the questions the teacher asks).
We have tried on numerous occasions to help figure out what would make everyone happy. He has not been allowed to do EPGY math in class because it's not in Spanish or would be disruptive to the other students. He has no one at his reading level (Frog and Toad was the challenge book while he was reading Edith Hamilton's Mythology) so he has to sit with the class and learn basic English skills then sit in his reading group with kids who do not share his interests. He often gets in trouble for reading his own book, which drives my husband and me crazy since it seems like such an easy solution for keeping him quiet.
Is there a helpful way to explain that your child is actually much more advanced than his peers and needs to work on his own (he was making connections between the cooling/heating mechanism of an elephant's ear and a Dimetrodon's sail before he was 3.5 years old)? It's taken me a long time to be able to say that and it's hard because people around me will think I'm bragging but at the same time there are kids out there who are teaching themselves Greek or doing algebra. Should we try to find someone to check in with him in math and reading once a week? Can we insist that he spend some of his day doing something else? He is, unfortunately, very concerned with social rank and does not want to go to second grade for anything because he doesn't know enough people. I'm also not sure that advancement of one grade would be enough of a challenge, except in writing. I offered to keep him home one day a week and he refused because the kids won't like him anymore. We are looking for another school but we do not want him to have to transition too many times and the GATE school starts in third grade. I'm not convinced the GATE school will meet his needs but it will be closer and I think they will be more flexible.
Does anyone have suggestions for creating a positive conversation with the principal and teachers?
