Ugh! I thought I had posted my response last night but somehow it must have gotten lost in cyberspace. I'll try to recreate it now.

First, thank you, minnie, for sharing your story. I appreciate your own experience and how that has influenced you. And thank you to everyone else, as well.

We had the meeting last week. I met with the counselor the first day and then they called me in for a meeting with the principal, the teacher, and the counselor on Thursday. They were very polite and they listened to me, but I don't think there is anything that I could have said that day that would have changed their minds that it's too soon to accelerate DD in some way. I left frustrated, and the more I think about it I'm even more frustrated.

Basically the feeling from the principal was that it's too soon to really evaluate anything. She said that 9 weeks is not enough time to judge how the 1st grade class is going to be. She said that they have primarily been doing review of last year and the real instruction should start now. Especially for a new school, 9 weeks, in her opinion, was just not much time.

I said that 9 weeks may not seem long to an adult but to a child who is frustrated about the work she's doing then 9 weeks is long. She said that's where I need to give DD some perspective. That was their solution for the time being and we'll check back in 3 weeks. Of course we only have 3 weeks until we're out for Thanksgiving and then another 3 weeks until winter break.

The teacher seemed defensive about what's going on in the classroom. She pointed out all of the "exciting" things that they have started doing. She also pointed out that there are some things that DD needs to work on. Her report card came home that afternoon and I think she actually got all "Es" in LA, so I'm not sure what the specific things are that she needs to work on. I guess maybe they are talking about her capitalizing her sentences correctly and using more "flowery" language when she writes. DD is very matter of fact in her writing; to me this doesn't mean she's not gifted. Part of it could be that she's just not interested in the work she's doing so she rushes through it. I just don't know.

I kept stressing that this wasn't about what my husband and I felt like she should be learning but it was about the fact that DD is asking almost daily now to be homeschooled because I know what she knows and doesn't already know and that she's tired of learning what she already knows. They again said that this is where I need to give her some "perspective."

I'd like to pursue some achievement testing at this point but DH thinks we should wait until the spring because of financial reasons. I'm the type who wants answers now. He doesn't think that the testing would provide us many answers. I disagree. This morning she kept saying that she didn't want to go to school and that her stomach hurt. DH thinks she was just tired, and she could be, but I know that she wouldn't have acted that way last year. Is it common for 1st graders to already dislike school? It seems so out of character for my DD, and it really bothers me.

So that's our update. I guess we're waiting and hoping that things get better. On another note, my free copy of A Nation Deceived arrived the afternoon of my meeting. Too bad I didn't have it before! For anyone who doesn't have a copy yet, you can request it on their website. Just google it and you'll find it easily. It takes a little while to receive it but it's worth having a bound copy instead of just their pdf version.