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Yeah, as I sai she gets 20 mins morning recess, a running steam off exercise break (10-15 mins, usually mid morning before actual recess, sometimes afternoon too) and then 50 (60?) min "lunch", which for us means "take yor home packed lunch outside and play". She's getting 80-90 mins a day, every day, outside. It blows my mind that your schools think 15 mins a week is acceptable!!

I would not want any of that outside time taken away, I'd just like it to be balanced with "Let's settle down and do some challenging work now!"

I just saw your post zen scanner. There is lots of cool stuff in Ken Robinsson'a videos and talks, but the ADHD thing, especially so close to the end (of the rsa i am thinking of) just totally kills it for me, it makes it seem like the culmination of everything he says is about ADHD misdiagnosis. My DD is intensely creative, one of the lovely effects of her medication is the massive ramp up in her output of beautiful ideas, craft and music. The medication doesn't sedate her, it gets her engaged with her intellect and her creativity long enough to make progress and output...

Yeah...maybe that is why we have misdiagnosed ADHD here as sir ken is discussing because some kids actually have INDRD (I need daily recess disorder) and our schools have given it to them....not saying 100% of ADHD is INDRD but a portion is and the true ADHD and the non ADHD all benefit if we give recess.

ADHD diagnosis and treatment is also much more strictly controlled here, so diagnosis is below internationally predicted rates, treatment is about HALF predicted rate of incidence, and yet we are flooded with articles written in/about the USA where that is maybe not the case and our teachers and public swallow it hook, line and sinker. Misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment can happen anywhere at any time, our system isn't perfect and we get mistakes here too, but you can't make a quick visit to your local Dr and have your kid put on ADHD medication because a teacher said so. Its a complex process requiring authorised specialists (and government authority every time our specialist writes a fresh script for DD). So it's super frustrating to come up against bias that's not even based on the local situation.

I thought I would update with the list of articles I sent my husband to read choose a few from (that aren't already above):

http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/ALESSI1.html

http://giftedhomeschoolers.org/reso...want-teachers-and-professionals-to-know/

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/d_major_chord.htm

http://www.pegy.org.uk/Two-edged%20sword%20of%20compensation%20PEGY%20pdf.pdf

http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10124.aspx

http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10130.asp

It is a bit annoying when people take US statistics and papers and apply then in NZ (Australia) in your case without checking that they actually apply. I told ds6 that I was going to try and get him in a class next year where he isn't best in maths and despite the fact he wants harder maths he found the idea of not being best without working upsetting. How is that healthy for a 6 year old. I'd quite like him to skip year 3 although he would have to work in writing.

How come NT kids aren't hurt by having to work at stuff instead of just playing? We get heaps of actual breaks outside here too so having part of the rest of the day hard work seems reasonable.

The message we got at public school was that to expect a child to learn things at school then come home and play for hours was completely ridiculous. They were very much of the opinion that a child should spend six hours sitting quietly reading, then go home and spend a couple of hours doing painfully easy homework (supposed to be 30 min), then start doing some actual learning if there's time before bed. And apparently the one where they spend four hours outside with a bike is the high pressure tiger mother option. *%# that noise.

I just don't understand why if they're not going to be bothered teaching, why can't the kids play instead? And now my blood pressure is up.