Dear F-T-T,
We have found that a single grade skip can really help. Even if the kid has mastered work beyond one grade above, they have some challenge getting used to new teacher, classmates, etc. It really has been a good answer for my kids (or at least a start to an answer).
Also what I have found is that no solution is perfect and you need to take a look at it each month or two. Maybe at some point adding distance learning like EPGY or JHU.
Our enrichment these days is self-guided. Sports, music, nature hikes, cubscouts, community programs, theater, speakers, reading (books and lots of different magazines), even things like bowling and county fairs. It takes a lot of energy and devotion on the parents' part, but if it ignites something in the kid, it's great. I live in a small town, but it seems we can make any outing educational. As they get older, I also rely on media, such as classic movies and musicals--they're little sponges and if you expose them to different things, they'll make more out of it than you'd think. We have to travel 3-4 hours each way to see some prominent speakers that come to the area, but if one son expresses interest, we try to accommodate (we're getting Mikhail Gorbachov in Midland and Ben Stein in Hobbs in the next couple months).
