It's official...

Aiden is a FIRST GRADER! After 10 days of trying it out and having a multitude of educational professionals observe him and his progress, we unanimously decided that Aiden is ready for 1st grade. He is excelling in the classroom, and was assessed by his teacher as having already mastered all of the 1st grade reading curriculum and most of the math curriculum. That's right--he's skipping a grade, and the grade he's skipping into, he's already mastered most of the material. Aiden is being challenged by the social aspects of first grade, and is struggling a little with the maturity required to sit still during long lessons, but his teacher is delighted to have him in her class and is very committed to working with Aiden to smooth out these little wrinkles. His teacher and the counselor and vice principal, who have all met and observed Aiden, have also decided he should be tested for the Talented and Gifted program, so we'll be pursuing that in the next few weeks. But for now, Aiden is ecstatic to be staying in the first grade. As he told me one day, "I like first grade better than kindergarten. I feel like a bigger kid in first grade--like I'm 7 1/2." Too cute!