This is probably more of a post for AJ�s Clubhouse, but I feel like posting here instead.

Mr. Spy and I met with the gifted teacher for AJ�s school this afternoon. It was quite informative. We didn�t have much of an agenda. We mainly wanted to meet the teacher and to hear about what was going to happen next year when AJ is in school for a full day and to make sure that he would be receiving challenging enough work. We also wanted to get some help finding some programs for hims this summer.

AJ�s school doesn�t do massive amounts of testing, nor is there a formal program until third grade. But the classroom teachers identify the children who need extra resources (AJ, obviously, has been identified) and more formal testing takes place in first grade. The big testing takes place toward the end of second grade. Beginning in third grade, children are grouped with others identified as gifted into one or two classrooms and they are pulled out for one-on-one or small group time with the gifted teacher once a week per area of identification (e.g., language arts, math, science, etc.).

I think I must have been expecting someone who looked like my own favorite gifted teacher � tall, willowy and elegant, impressive. AJ�s teacher was pretty much the opposite of that, but was nevertheless extremely appealing and friendly. She laughs a lot. She showed us some of the types of extra work she gives to AJ and kids in older grades and told us about the kinds of things that would happen. She has a math & science background, so she was able to answer a lot of my questions about the school�s new math curriculum.

The program is called Everyday Mathematics. I knew this program has been getting a lot of attention, but it hasn�t been clear to me what makes it different. Ms. C. said that it�s a tough program � �rigorous� -- and that a lot of kids struggle with it because instead of rote memorization and problem solving by following instructions, like most of us learned in school, the students are constantly asked �why?� and expected to answer. They need to figure out multiple ways to solve problems. This was music to my ears. I would have done much better in math with a curriculum like this. And I suspect AJ will thrive on it. Unfortunately, it is apparently not permitted for us to get copies of the books in advance. AJ loves doing math and I�d really like to work with the curriculum they have. I will have to use stealth. Or possibly subterfuge. Or maybe I�ll just read their website.

She gave us some information about several area summer programs for gifted kids, which all sound fabulous but are mostly too expensive for us. But we�ll be looking into it. Because who knows? Mr. Spy�s book might take off.

Did I mention Mr. Spy is writing a book? Not one of the kids� books that have been his bread and butter. This one�s for grownups. It�s not the book of gravitas that he would like to write, but it�s good and it�s marketable and it�s in the hands of his agent. Send good thoughts his way, please.

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