My DS5 is in K. A few months ago his teacher asked me to look up some math websites that might challenge him. I found EPGY through this list. We signed him up and the first words out of her mouth were, "can he do this in class?" I didn't even have to ask. After showing her how it works she immediately identified at least one other student who could benefit and asked if I could form a group. It didn't seem to even occur to her to "ask permission" for this type of instruction from any administrators as she has total control of her classroom.
How she works it into class is pretty simple. She has set times twice a day where the kids do "centers". Sometimes literacy centers and sometime math centers. There are many "centers" throughout the room that involve games, books, stories, math problems, you name it. Each center can be made easy or hard depending on the level of the children. Some of the centers use the computer stations, so my son does one session on EPGY during centers time. If time runs out he can just end the session and he can participate in the other centers if he wants. It's brilliant. I have to say she is the best teacher for my child and I think she is really smart herself.
As an aside, I live in Washington, DC and we have one of the worst school systems in the country and we are at the public school. Our school does draw from a highly educated population, but it just goes to show it depends so much on the teacher.
Also, we are paying for EPGY ourselves.
One thing my DS's teacher said to me was, I think he could focus and sit still more throughout the day if he was challenged more at least some of the time. (wow!) Perhaps you could convince a teacher to try it if she thought your child would be more compliant the rest of the day. Just a thought.
Feeling lucky,
Eleanor 05
