Thanks so much for the feedback. I will talk to the teacher again about offering some alternatives. I asked DS to go through school yesterday as a detective figuring out when exactly he was bored or daydreaming or out of sync with the class, and it seems to be mostly during the whole-class instructional sections. I wouldn't have much patience for long phonics reviews either. If she will agree to let him work quietly on some science reading (which we can send in) during those times, that would help a lot, I think.
And, I now have the district gifted policy and will think about how to leverage some of its language with the school. It does maintain that the standard curriculum is ideal for the many gifted students in the district (what they were telling me last year) but also that the highest 1-3% may need additional solutions. We have the test scores so there's my opening.
