Almost forgot to post about my meeting with Mary's teacher. I felt LOTS better after meeting with Mary's guidance counselor, she gave me a lot of perspective. So, I went into the meeting with Ms. K with an open mind. She was very pleasant, talked about Mary and we've determined that's she just different than the warm & fuzzy teacher Mary had last year. Ms.K is more strict, so our guess is that's why Mary hasn't been raving about her. Mary has also been bringing animals and books into class(!) which Ms. K has had to address more than once. Oops! Told her we'd help out with that on the homefront. She said she's also talk to the gifted teacher about getting Mary more projects. (She has the option to meet with her gifted teacher an additional two sessions/week, but Mary hasn't asked for it so far).

We basically came away from the meeting with a better sense of Ms. K as a teacher. I no longer feel disconnected from the situations. Is she the best teacher for Mary? Probably not, but part of growing up is learning how to deal with all sorts of people. Not everyone Mary works with as an adult is going to be a warm/fuzzy person. So, we shall see.