Guys, we've only been back to school a week and I am stressing. Looks like they've eliminated gifted/talented for the early grades at my school because of deep budget cuts. And when I look at the curriculum for 1st grade -- ouch!

The "spelling words" DD6 brought home for a "test" next week are words she could have spelled 3 years ago -- no exaggeration. At home we're talking about mentally computing double digit addition problems, and I don't even see that on the agenda for the year.

Thing is, with math and reading this kid is years past grade level. Our school is one of the best in the city -- our test scores for 3rd grades beat the gifted magnet, and the 5th graders were tops in reading too. So I'm not sure there's another school out there for us, unless we get in the $10K+ range, which might as well be $50K for all we can afford it.

The other thing is, we've been through so much stress this year that I really don't see how we can suddenly become a homeschooling family. The fire is not even half of it -- a lot of it I haven't been able to post on the Net, if you know what I mean.

Ugh! So I feel totally stuck. I'll be chatting with the new teacher (who comes highly recommended and seems very nice), obviously, but everyone thinks his/her kid is a genius and I don't want to come across/be dismissed as one of those irritating parents who wants the school to drop everything and tend to my baby! But this kid is going to be bored senseless -- and in my experience that means behavior problems, then self-esteem problems . . . she'll be a crack addict living in a box by 3rd grade!

OK, not really, but please, I could use some guidance on productive conversations with schools and keeping DDs education moving along without adding a second "school day" at home.

Shaun