Hey, Dazey? Have you had your DS evaluated for GTness? I ask because I suspect his scores might surprise you. You keep saying things like "he's not like some of the kids around this forum," but the fact is, I would have said the same thing about my son last year, or even at the start of this year. Yet now that I've seen my DS's scores and have talked to a good psychologist who specializes in helping GT kids, and now that I'm teaching him so that I see every day just how easy many things are for him, I see that he *is* like many of the kids here.
YMMV, of course, because I don't know any more about your DS than you've told us. But your post just sounds so much like something I would have written before we had our DS evaluated. And last year my DS was performing only a little above grade level in math because that's all the higher the work was that he was being given to do. He was reading just a couple years above grade level because even I didn't provide books tht were harder than that. Now he's loving 8th grade geometry and reading at the 7th+ grade level because that's what he's being given to do.
What I'm saying is that kids who are thinkers, as you say, like yours and mine may be a lot smarter than they're allowed to show. Your DS's boredom and stomachaches say to me that this is what's happening to him. I suspect he's not just a little smarter, but a good bit.
If you haven't had him tested, I'd strongly recommend finding a person skilled in working with GT kids who can administer both an IQ test and an achievement test. I think it would be wise to get some more information about your son.
From what I've seen, people who hang out here and get something they need from this group probably have a child who is a peer of the kids here. Anyone is welcome, of course, but if the kids we talk about make sense to you, then yours is probably one of them. I hate to suggest GT denial to you, but I strongly suspect you may have a case of it...
Hang in there! If we can help, just say the word!
K-
