You all are amazing - what a wealth of information! I'm so glad I've found this site.

My husband and I have been giving it much thought, and we've taken all the advice given here to heart. We haven't reached any conclusions yet, but that's OK - we still have plenty of time. Even once we make the decision on where to send the kids to school, we may need to change plans later depending on many factors.

I guess what I am hearing is that we can't really know what our kids will need nor can we know exactly how well any school will accommodate them until we are actually THERE and trying to work with the system.

Here are our options - local public schools (underfunded and overcrowded, but they do have a gifted program that starts in 3d grade), local Lutheran school (small school and small class size advantage, although we are Christian we are not sure if we are totally on board with a religious school, doubtful they have any special gifted program), local montesorri (small class sizes, only pk-6, not sure how this would transition to a traditional school),and a private gifted school (50 minute commute, big price tag)

Our pediatrician had mentioned a Montesorri as a possibly good option. There is a pk-6 montesorri near us. I don't know much about this type of school - or even how to spell it (sorry about that). From what little I know, it sounds like kids can accelerate in areas where they are really strong - it sounds very individualized. But it also sounds very different than the type of schooling that I grew up with, and therefore sort of foreign and uncertain to me. I'll have to look into it more, but I am very interested to hear any experience with very gifted kids in Montesorri.

AntsyPants - You mentioned that at one point you were at a school that was private, expensive, and attracted the "hothouse crowd." I'm still learning my gifted terminology, but I think i understand what you mean by that. My question to you - is there anyway you can tell if a private school is just for hothouse-types, maybe parents who want to pay big money to say their kids are in a gifted school? This private school in our area is very expensive. I looked at the kindergarten curriculum and it is well advanced beyond what public schools offer - but it is still stuff that my 3 year old is learning now (like fractions). So I'm really questioning if this is truly a gifted school, or just a school for bright kids with wealthy parents. Any red flags I can look for? The IQ cutoff is 125, which doesn't seem as high as I would expect.

Thanks again!