DS(newly 5!) is doing great in his small private kindergarten. The teacher doesn't give him reading instruction because, as she puts it, "He knows how to read." Instead, his language arts material is dedicated to writing and spelling, which is challenging for him. When school started in the fall, he didn't write much other than his name unless I really pushed him. By Christmas he was penning entire thank you letters without any help or complaint. This rapid progress wouldn't have been possible if his teacher wasn't also going out of her way to deal with his perfectionism. We've seen enormous improvement in that area as well, which is maybe the best thing to come out of school so far.

In math, his teacher is giving him first grade material. I think he could probably go faster than his teacher is moving, but I agree with her that he's not nearly as strong in math as he is in reading. That said, his interest in numbers and math has increased noticeably in the past few weeks. All of a sudden he wants to talk about numbers in the car, at dinner, etc. I don't know if this is a developmental thing, or if it's a result of exposure in school, but a lightbulb seems to have gone on. The next semester will be interesting.

Overall, we're very happy and have already paid most of next year's tuition. Next year, he'll be in a multi-age progressive classroom with a lot of older kids, which I think will be great for him. Right now, he's the youngest kid in his class (and the entire school), but many parents didn't even realize this until I invited them to his birthday party recently.