18 months apart, huh? That's certainly going to make things tougher, I'd bet. But stressing "different kids, different needs"--in EVERYTHING that it might possibly apply to!--might help.
As for our school...
My area has a large and active homeschooling community. In addition to the parent-run co-ops that are more common (and aren't that hard to start yourself if you start small), we have a highly flexible school for homeschoolers for kids aged pre-K to high school graduation.
It meets as much as 4 days per week, 9:30-3:30, with before- and afterschool care if needed. But kids don't have to go that much. They can take a single class, or even just go for one 30-minute recess. It's pay-as-you-use, with cost per hour going down the more hours the child attends. I think it starts in the $8+ range for a single hour of instruction and goes down to something in the $6 range for lots of hours. Recesses are $5/hour.
Core academic courses are taught T and TH, and the child taking those classes must attend both those days. W and F are more like "edu-tainment." Classes on W and/or F tend to be homework-free (though not always) and more creativity-based. All classes are small, probably a max of 15 kids to a class, and none of the classes my son has taken have been that big. Most have been 7-10 kids.
Classes are grouped by age--say, ages 9-11--rather than being for kids within a single year. And they are flexible beyond that. Last year my 7yo took a math class on Fridays for 9-12yos using the "Key to Fractions, Decimals and Percentages" series. (So real math, NOT edu-tainment!) It was taught by an experienced teacher of GT kids who totally got him, and he fit right in with the kids in the class. None of the kids had a problem with his presence, and no one on staff even blinked when I tentatively and nervously suggested that he might like the course. The director actually wound up talking ME into putting him in the course, if you can imagine. Painless! It was amazing!
Apparently they are a bit more resistant to the idea of putting younger kids in high-school-level discussion classes, especially the core courses. They worry about young kids being exposed to the evils of teenagers too young, I think. But as we're not planning to have him in the core courses, it's not a problem for us.
They have two 30-minute recesses and an hour for lunch--brown bags only--each day, so 2 hours of purely social time per day. No losing recesses for any reason, though sometimes my son chooses to talk to the teachers during recess rather than going outside to play or playing with Legos in the lunchroom. I take that as a good sign!
It provides just the right amount of social time for DS8 and gives him the chance to have teachers other than mom. It's also a lot more reasonably priced than the private schools in our area and is a lot more flexible. It is not accredited.
It was started by the mom of a gifted child because it served a need she saw herself in the homeschooling community. Though it is not specifically for GT kids, you can see how well-tailored it is to the needs of a GT kid, even a PG one!
That's a big brain dump. HTH...somehow!
