Thanks to all who replied. I keep leaning toward more testing but my husband seems reluctant. I feel like we need someone with a more professional background to help us advocate at this point. And we were both shocked by how well he really did on the test. We thought he'd be more like maybe 10th to 25th%. When he was 5, before starting school, he scored in the 9th% on an end of first grade test and couldn't even do the reading portion. So, for him to be in the 60th% now for two grade levels above his exposure seems to me to support that "gifted learning curve" and his need for a faster pace of instruction.
Grinity, thanks for that story about the Lego center! I could totally see my son doing something similar. I'm not sure what the pencil thing was all about. When I tried to talk about it to my son, in a very non-confrontational way, he said he didn't want to talk about it because doing so would ruin his first day at daycamp! He admitted that, yes, he did that. Then would just say that he won't do it next year. I have no idea what prompted it - anxiety, avoidance, amazement with how the sharpener worked (?!), who knows. I was just floored that they kept giving him pencils, never wrote a note home to even say that he needed to bring in more of his own and never thought the parents should know. Let alone the fact that he wasted 30 minutes of every school day!!
I've been thinking about it a lot and feel that we need more answers about his behaviors and how to help him with certain behaviors/emotional intensity as well as the academics. It is just reassurring to have others agree that testing isn't too much at this point.
The FranCenter in Darien, Il does look pretty good. It is $75 for a consultative appointment. I think it is worth the investment to do that much - take old records and our son to meet the director there and see what they could offer. Certainly can't hurt. Worst case it ends up a waste of time. Best case, we get someone in our corner to help the school.
The principal already mentioned that we are probably looking at IMSA as an option for high school for MrWiggly. He readily acknowledged that our high school won't be likely to meet son's needs. Now if we can just get from here to there!
