I know from experience with play-based group activities I participate in with DS2.5 that he would lose his marbles in a pre-k/k aged setting.
We have all sorts of traditional open-ended kid favourites that you'd find at a good play-based preschool--Brio trains, a sandbox, blocks, puppets, costumes, art supplies, etc. He generally spurns most of them. About 90% of the time, he wants to do something other than those activities, like:
- play with Snap Circuits or our marble run
- build a model of a real machine, or the real deal
- go on a nature walk or bird
- play catch or soccer
- do an experiment
- visit the aquarium or museum
- read (and read, and read!) or visit the library (and read!)
- cook with me
- do home repairs or take apart appliances
- follow an elaborate imaginary play sequence on something esoteric (like pretending to be creatures in a tide pool talking about patterns of predation or parts of a car engine working together)
- banter with puns, spoonerisms, oxymorons, irony, and other word play
- compose a story, which I scribe for him
Most of his "90% activities" just require heavy adult interaction and are infeasible in a conventional school setting.
If the one teacher is amenable, maybe you can create some pet projects that your DD is enthusiastic about, with the teacher helping her as an intellectual sounding board/physical aide for the work requiring more mature physical dexterity. Or, could you send in academic challenge materials she likes to give her a taste of what she's craving?
I'm very much coming to appreciate that one child's play is another's drudgery, and v-v.
