Toward the end of 2nd grade, the gifted program at school sent home a survey, and DS wanted to know what I was doing. When I told him, he said, "we're getting a gifted student?" LOL, as if we were adopting a pet! So I said, "no, sweetheart, you're the gifted student," and I related it to the pull-out program where he gets to do some things that exercise his brain.
He seemed to take that in stride, but I think he is starting to hide his abilities for fear of being too different from his classmates. I thought he'd bounce right back over the summer but he seems rather determined, especially with reading - for the most part he has been reading really, really simple books. I wonder, though, if maybe those books have an emotional component (which he knows he'll get from Book X because he's already read it a thousand times) - for example, after his dad & I got back from vacation and the three of us were together again, he was reading a 32-pager called "The Best Place" (I think) which, IIRC, has to do with wanderlust and deciding that the best place is home.
I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for a knowledgeable, compassionate third grade teacher....
Anyway, if I had it to do over again, I would try to find a way to explicitly compare various abilities and interests of people he knows - what is your cousin really good at, what is the neighbor really good at, what do they enjoy doing most, etc.
