I'm glad to hear that things are going pretty well. The reading group not meeting very often seems problematic to me. But otherwise, it sounds like a workable placement.

DS5 is in half-day public school K--the same school we pulled DS8 out of for homeschooling when he was in 1st grade.

The year is going just about as blandly as I thought it would. It's really free childcare for us and very little more. DS5 is bored in school, but he does okay with it for the 2.5 hours that he has to be there. His teacher likes him a lot, wishes she had a roomful of kids just like him, but she isn't really doing anything to differentiate for him, even though she is aware that he is far ahead in math.

He's reading a bit better than he was, he's had more practice with writing correctly, and he has buddies in class. (His best buddy is a boy who loves division. I think the GT kids find one another!) So there are small bright spots.

He gets picked on a little on the bus by a "mean girl" in kindergarten (not in his class), but he's the last stop going to school and the first stop off after school, so I'm not too worried about it. He still wants to ride the bus--gets upset if I need to drive him for any reason--so I figure it can't be too bad.

Honestly, it's mostly a wasted year of school, but at 5yo, that isn't the end of the world. In the teacher's defense, I haven't pushed for more--I just give him what he needs at home and he gets through school. It's easier on all of us.

I think next year we're probably going to homeschool, though nothing's officially decided yet. But I can't imagine his needs being met when he has to be there a whole day. I mean, he was asking me about dividing by fractions yesterday. I told him about "invert and multiply" and he started doing problems! How can that kid be expected to suffer through a full day of counting and adding 2+2? I can't see it happening.

So I guess the year is pretty much what I expected. Not great, but not a surprise either.

Kriston