My dd8 (she just had a birthday!) spends 8 hours at school (7 regular hours plus one elective class after school). Out of the seven she has 1 hour of math, 1 hour of Language arts and 1 1/4 hour of recess/lunch every day. The rest of the day is what I would like to call extracurriculars (art, science, music, spanish, drama, etc.). She elects to take that extra hour at the end of the day. Most of the time she signs up for art. Right now is is taking a digital photography class where the art teacher is combining photography with oil, charcoal and water painting. She also taking a science class called "making six different kids of slime".
My point is that school doesn't have to be boring or hard or too long. If your child is in the right environment 7 hours go by fast. If a child is in an environment that is toxic (not challenged, bullied, bored, etc) even 2 hours is too much.
I know I have become sort of a cheerleader for my dd school. I just see that whatever they are doing, it is working and wish every child (gifted or not) had the opportunity to have as perfect a fit as my dd has right now. It pains me to see that unfortunately she is in the minority by far. Schools like hers are few and far between. I love the fact that it is such a small school, on the other hand that means they can only serve a very small amount of kids (278 total in grades 1-8).
I specially love upper school. My favorite is LEAP wed when children get to decide how they spend their day. This year some children formed a band with the music teacher, they can spend all day taking art or science or working with a mentor in math.
Going back to the math curriculum. This school offers classes all the way to calculus for the "mathy" kids and has a national champions mathcounts team.
This kind of learning environment is what every child deserves and should be getting. It is a crime that the school system is not set up in a way that high potential can be nourished. After all, the potential return on the investment should make it worth it.
