I'm with the others. I'd be hesitant to go with the private school b/c it sounds like he might not be up to producing work at the level he'd need to feel like he fit in academically with the other kids. We've had this same struggle with out HG ADD child. She gets concepts beautifully and has the ability in some ways to work well ahead, but her 2e-ness prevents that from fully happening.
We did have luck, however, with getting her to perform more on par with her potential by going for subject acceleration in one subject, math, in 5th, which she has gotten more and more successful at maintaining after two years of that type of acceleration.
The only worry I'd have with the charter you mention is the word "strict." My dd11 is attending a middle school that is very structured and which would not have worked for my HG+ non-ADD child, but I don't think that I'd call it "strict." It may be semantics, but we do have two charters local to me that are frequently referred to as strict and that often tends to mean "rigid" in relation to those schools.
I totally sympathize with your comment about needing the structure for the ADD but not for the giftedness. We've had that too. Dd11 was highly frustrated with the drill approach particularly in language arts in 6th grade. It helped with her weaknesses (structure, attention to detail) but was mind numbing for her strengths (depth, abstract thinking).
Do you have a feel as to whether the charter's strictness carries over into their curriculum approach or if it is just in terms of their discipline/not letting kids get away with stuff?
Thanks Cricket.
I don't think they are strict in that they are too rigid or harsh. They have definite rules that they expect the students to follow, but their curriculum approach is very team oriented with lots of cooperative learning opportunities. They have a great conflict resolution program as well as a program to teach executive function skills. They focus on working cooperatively towards a common goal vs competing individually.
My friends' kiddos who go there love it. That's a total of 9 kids from KG to 5th grade. One friends' child is very much like my son, but she holds it together at school and lets loose at home (so not sure if I can compare them exactly). She loves the school and doesn't see it as strict.
I am mostly comparing our Montessori discipline approach (which was basically non-existent); it was all about "my friend, is this peaceful? Why don't you hold on to this peace rock and see if you feel better." ; ) So, compared to that, a more traditional program is going to be what we'd consider "strict". In comparison to our private school option, I'm sure it will be stricter, simply because of the number of students (17 vs 3).
Finding that balance of structure and gifted learning approach is very difficult. Add in the social issues, and it's near impossible. I think we might just have to take a leap of faith here, and hope for the best.
