Accepted!

J's application was accepted! Now we just have to decide if we want to accept the spot. I'm all for it, but Dad likes to take his time in making decisions.

We took a tour of the school, mostly to help J and Z feel better about changing schools. We got to see the kindergarten classroom where Z will go, and even met the teacher while her class was at a "special," meaning P.E. or music or something of that sort.  She, like most people who choose to teach 5 & 6 year-olds, was very nice and had lots of smiles.

We also met the GT (gifted-talented) teacher in her classroom, but she had all her students there with her, and we didn't get to talk long. J was reluctant to go in, as I've discovered he generally is when there's a room full of kids he doesn't know. We have dropped by the public library twice when they had an event going on that seemed perfect for him, but after walking in and looking at all those strange children, his courage failed him, and he wanted to get out as quickly as possible. This even happened when he saw a friend of his in the group. I guess one familiar face just isn't enough to make him comfortable.

The teacher answered all the questions I could think of right then. I told her of our recent trouble finding an appropriate book in J's Lexile range. She said that there are several children in her class at about J's Lexile range, and that he'd be able to find appropriate books in her classroom. Yay! They will have plenty of free reading time, and they read some books as a class. They don't necessarily read high-Lexile books as a class, because they're not so concerned with difficulty as they are with content. That's wonderful, because J has shot up in his reading level so quickly (from Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? to 10th grade books in the span of just 2 1/2 years) that he has missed reading many worthwhile books. The GT teacher said that if we move him, she'd like it to happen as soon as possible, since the children are still in the process of getting to know each other and making friends. On the drive home, I realized that this is the first year any of the children have been in a class like this, as 3rd grade is the first year it is offered.

In a few days, I hope to be able to report that we've formally accepted the spot, and that things are in motion to move the boys there.