Bookie,
Whew! What a few years you have been through. Glad to hear that the bully issue was resolved. My son has been through very similar - except his 'peer mediation' was with adults - same result. And yes, it took another kid needing stiches before anything was done. Apparently the victim must be a totally innocent lamb before action will be taken - my DS would never stand for being seen as a lamb, it just doesn't sit well with him.
I think the only rule that works is not allowing the 2 children to be physically within 10 feet of each other.
This is the deal - you son is gifted - no doubt about it. He is over a standard deviation beyond the gifted cut off in most places. So that makes him very very unusually gifted. This explains why your school did everything 'right' with the pull outs and special projects and we was 'still bored.' Some schools can get very defensive about this - afterall - there approach works for 100% of their bright kids and 'X=very high number'%
((please help -I have no idea if this number is even close - can someone refine this number?))
of their gifted kids, so 'what's wrong with your kid? We already tried what works for other bright kids and it didn't work?!? What do you want from us?'
Your school - on the other hand - seems to be genuinly open to trying to give your child 'more.'
This explains the 'disruptive questions' -
He may also have ADD, maybe not, it is very hard to tell - he is surely a slow poke, as my son is. This isn't a crime, but it can get irritating on a day to day basis.
If I had it to do over, knowing what I know now, I would teach my son a simple version of 'Fire Breath' (Breath in quietly through mouth for a steady count of 6 - hold breath for 6, exhale for through nose for 6) repeat 3 times. After he got to where he could do it automatically, I would ask him to do it before the starting tasks that usually go slowly around the house, maybe making it scientific by measuring how long it takes to do each task with and without Fire Breath. I do this now to 'rev myself up' for things when I'm feeling pokey slow. It seems to me to work, and I have no idea if it does or doesn't, but it's comforting to feel as though I have a better controller to face situations that I have no control over anyway. If Fire breath doesn't help him, perhaps the idea will work as a model of 'what else might he like to try?'
anyway, I'm optimistic that your school will keep trying to find ways to feed his gifted side. Good luck!
Grinity
