Thanks for starting this thread, JJsMom. I really enjoyed keeping up with everyone last year.

DD6 will start 1st grade at her gifted school in August. A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to informally meet one of the teachers she may have for first grade (and will almost certainly have for math - as this teacher instructs the higher ability math groups).

She and dd had a conversation that went like this:

Teacher: Nice to meet you, (dd). What are you looking forward to about 1st grade?

dd6: Umm ... hopefully we can have some challenging math. Not like kindergarten which was 0+0, babyish!

Me: Come on, now. I don't think kindergarten math was like 0+0.

dd6: Well, it was on our end of the year test!

(turning back to teacher)

dd6: Kindergarten was all single digit numbers - and only addition and subtraction. Personally, I am much more comfortable with 4, 5, 6, or 7 digit numbers.

Teacher: Ok! I will take note! (DD) wants more challenging math.

Then teacher turned to me and said quietly ... I actually was just hearing about your dd and how she needs to be challenged in math.

***

I was so happy about this conversation because dd did an unexpectedly good job of advocating for herself and because the teacher apparently has dd on her radar. Yay! Now let's hope this year lives up to the expectations.