Hi Baseball Dad,
My son went to a French school from age 4/Moyenne Section through age 8/CM1. Like you, we had some frustrations with the school.
FWIW, the French are more open to grade skips than Americans. My husband worked for a French company for a while and some of his co-workers talked about grade skipping themselves. They eventually offered him our son grade skip from 2nd to 4th.
One of the things my son's school did was to give him a 3rd grade French math book. I think they expected him to need more help than he did with it. In the end, he just worked through it easily without any help. They were surprised --- mainly, I think, because the French have a somewhat different way of teaching mathematics. I figured they didn't think he'd be able to do things the French way so easily.
Perhaps you could ask them to give him a CE1 math book to work through independently. If he goes through it easily, they'll be more likely to suggest a grade skip.
HTH; let me know if you have more questions.
Oh, your son was right. "Fois" means "times." So, "deux fois deux" is four. And if you do something three times, you did it "trois fois." Similarly, "Once upon a time" is "Il etait une fois."
Val
