Jamie,

Your kids� rate of acceleration is similar to what I myself experienced as a kid (and I think a number of other posters here also) and to my own kids� rate of acceleration.

When I was a kid and was asked how I liked school, I always replied �OK� or �fine.� I really did not hate school, I never cried myself to sleep because of school, or anything like that.

However, especially in grade school, I was extremely, almost continuously, bored. (We were tracked in junior high and there were honors/college prep courses in high school, so that was a bit better.)

I would read all of the textbooks through during the first couple months, and then stare out the window and day-dream the rest of the year (rather relaxing, but�).

So, I think we need to be a little bit careful in thinking that very bright kids are �happy� in traditional school � they may not be really sad or acting out, but they may just be compliant kids who assume that part of the price of being a child is being bored to death for a thousand hours a year, kind of like going to the dentist for 180 days each year.

If you think your kids would be really unhappy homeschooling (or if you think you would hate it), don�t do it. Also, if you can work out a true independent study situation within the walls of the school � not a little bit of enrichment but a situation where they can really work on material at their own level most of the time � that might be great.

Otherwise, my own advice would be to very seriously consider homeschooling. In the best of all possible worlds, the schools would be sort of education centers which accommodated all sorts of mixes between homeschooling and classroom schooling, and if you can work out something like that (which would be quite unusual) that would also be great. We�re homeschooling through a charter school that supports homeschoolers (and which pays for a lot of the curriculum material): this is working out nicely for us.

The other serious issue is gender. Like you, we have two girls. Early in grade school, there seems to be no social issue with girls being bright. But, even in middle grade school, I�m starting to see a few faint hints of the anti-geek/girls-can�t-be-bright syndrome that pervades our country. From what I have seen among children of friends and relatives, that attitude seems to be overwhelming by middle school.

I�m not trying to engage in some sort of feminist rant here when I say that I find that social attitude utterly and totally despicable. That human beings would be discouraged from developing their intellectual abilities to the fullest because of their gender is bizarre beyond words.

Even homeschoolers cannot (and should not) totally control their kids� social experiences. But our kids are by definition free of that hothouse 30-40 hour a week environment that stifles individuality and pressures one to conform to the group. Talking to adult female friends, I think that pressure is a lot tougher for girls than guys. It�s accepted that many guys are �geeks,� �loners,� etc., and I never really felt socially ostracized in school (I was never invited to the jock/cheerleader parties, but then I didn�t want to go to those parties anyway). But I�m told by adult female friends, especially those who excelled academically, that they really did feel some serious pain from the social experience in school.

I don�t think that sort of pain is or should be a natural part of growing up, and I think homeschooling can (partially) avoid some of that.

As to whether to act proactively now or wait until problems develop, I think there�s something to be said for the saw that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Of course, in the end, you have to work out what is best in your own situation � I�ll be curious to hear how things develop.

All the best,

Dave