This is all much appreciated. Another thread, in which many of you posted, on
free time has been helpful for thinking through time-focused limiting principles for the school-and-supplement approach.
A few programs in our area claim to have have experience in this type of compression/exploration: e.g.
HCES,
St. Ann's,
Speyer, and
Dalton, though we've yet to speak with families about how those succeed—including the point about not damping enthusiasm. Each approaches the issue differently. As a curricular hook to differentiation, an officer at Dalton explained that they build unscheduled "lab" time into the calendar with periodic check-ins. Speyer has two teachers in each classroom; perhaps they're suggesting that two gets them somewhat past the 20% rule of thumb? Others take a follow-the-child approach (with an arts focus for St. Ann's). Most don't appear at all affordable. This makes homeshooling a strong option, though we'd likely have to move to a lower-cost area to make it work.
