Well, the conference went better than I had hoped for. The first grade teacher, while not an expert on gifted education or really fully understanding my son yet, IS trying and IS supportive. Yea!! She is not defensive and she sees his intensities and appreciates his enthusiasm for learning! Good things so far!
As for reading, she said that the other two kids in his reading group are the only ones that come close to his abilities, but she acknowledged that he reads faster and better than they do. But she also said she is moving this group faster through the supplemental reading. She agrees that she hasn't hit son's level of ability yet, but feels she is moving him quickly enough while emphasizing oral fluency, which is definitely improving!
They also started journaling, which I didn't know about. And she is working on his perfectionism block, that was at first stopping him from writing much since he wanted all the words spelled correctly the first time. But now he is generating stories freely and NOT worried about spelling mistakes. Another good thing!
She agreed whole-heartedly with my point that son and Saxon math may not be a good match. Good news is that she is going to talk to the math teacher and then we will all talk about what to do. I found a homeschool version of a Saxon math placement test, so I'm going to run son through that and use it as a starting point for discussion. I'm not sure whether to possibly request second grade math for him (still the Saxon program, which is by definition very repetitive and slow moving on concepts) or look into EPGY for math at school. But at least the teacher agrees and wants to do something about the problem.
Good start, but the advocate in me isn't resting yet. Ah, a parent's work is never done!
