MoN and Howler- OMG, do you guys hit the nail on the head. It's not about WHAT he knows. It's about HOW he knows it! He doesn't learn like other kids. He "gets" concepts long before he has any idea that there are rules behind it. For example, last year he "learned" place values- he couldn't tell you that, in 3487, the number 4 was the hundreds spot. Yet he could round to the nearest hundred, tens, or thousands. WHY did he know this? I have no clue! His math curriculum was largely based on Everyday Math and he HATED it! Much of the time he spent trying to keep all of their different algorithms straight and ended up getting many questions wrong that he could do even before the school year started.
Howler- the "quantum jumping" that you described? That's it almost exactly! I just am not sure how to let the new teacher know all of this and what I can ask her, in reality, to do about it. I think I am definitely going to ask for pre-tests and I really like the idea of having her keep the "he's the smart one" language to a minimum. I think we will also need to have a plan for what he can do if he is finished before the other students on particular items. I also thought about asking if he can try more typing/keyboarding as his actual thoughts are much more complex than his writing allows him to express. I guess I don't know what else is really worrying me but it seems like something is.
