Doubtfulguest, - yes, there can be a sense of rising panic. She's just. so. different. Love that one. Yes, you can feel like you've got a 40-year-old rather than a 6- or 7-year-old.
What was the tipping point? Um, two private gifted schools telling you that they may not be able to accommodate your child in pre-k and kindergarten. Problem #1.
Problem #2 is when your ds melts down and starts to act out and get bored because he cannot accelerate. When you're child starts to become listless and withdraw because he's not learning anything new, you decide to try out the homeschool lark and give it a go. You say how bad can it be and perhaps it's a least-worst situation.
Problem #3 is when public schools have no gifted mandate and absolutely refuse to accommodate/accelerate. What do you do when your first grader is reading adult books? You homeschool.
Problem #4 - 2e issues. Oy vey. Neither public or private schools can deal with it at this point, I've found. That's a double sigh. At least, homeschooling gave us time to do therapy. What fun.
HAHA this was it for us, except in South Africa there is only 1 gifted school and after 3 different private schools suggested them we tried them only to realise all the other things mentioned here.
For me, the tipping point was the night my 5 year old tried to strangle me (the black eye was the night before) as I would try allow him to rage in an attempt to get his angst out. Fine at school - if you consider declining work output and declining social skills and declining capacity to learn and declining reading and maths skills fine. ("of course he has no reading/writing issue - even if it looks like dyslexia or something, he reads and writes above grade level so you are being paranoid and pushy")
At his worst his speech and motor skills deteriorated to those of a toddler, he wet the bed every single night, he stopped eating for the most part, he woke up in a screaming panic, he tried to hide his bag/shoes/waterbottle in the mornings, he had to be carried to the car crying and forcibly buckled in, the daily anger and screaming fits - sometimes 3 in the space of an afternoon (Except for friday and saturday). And then a therapist diagnosed him with acute anxiety and borderline clinical depression. He was my precious 5 year old and it was ripping our entire family apart. It took 8 months of de schooling and therapy weekly before he was okay to consider "learning" again.
I wish I didn't leave it so late. I wish I had pulled him the moment I suspected it wasn't working. Needless to say with son #2 as soon as I saw the aggression starting (towards the end of his second term in the 3 -4 class at the same school) we pulled him immediately.
Son #3 will not even be setting foot into that school. (In case you needed that clarified. lol.
