My kids do not skate by, and their lives are not pampered, sheltered parties all day long. I am very firmly the boss. I expect hard work. I don't let them give up on things willy-nilly--I've actually gotten some sideways glances about how firm I am with my kids about their trying things and not giving up. I just don't think that young GT kids in general are going to learn useful lessons from boring, too easy, repetitious school work. And except in isolated cases with a specific goal in mind, I don't see any reason to let that go on.
Things are very similar in our house. I regularly remind my kids about the importance of trying hard. My DS-then-5 used to say "Try hard, don't try easy!" With my kids, the results of standing firm can be impressive.
I'm also a big advocate of giving young GT kids more challenging work. Especially at this age, they need to learn how to solve problems that look too difficult at first. Ironically, the non-GT kids who have to work harder to get grade-level concepts get much more practice at this skill, which is probably very good for their future work habits. GT kids have a right to develop this skill too!
I think it's difficult for teachers to see the distinction between "working hard" on drudgery and "working hard" on challenging material. They aren't the same thing at all. A GT kid can do simple problems while watching TV or talking. He's not learning to
focus his mind by doing the easy stuff. The ND kids are learning to focus when they do this stuff. GT kids should have this challenge as well.
Val
