Dandy - thank you for your post! You expressed it very well!!
I pulled my son from PS last year. I HS'd him for 3rd grade. In January, we finally hit some math that he just didn't instantly know and BAM - that started a 3 month mental shut down for him. He even said that he was so used to always already knowing everything. Also, he equates being quick w/ mental math and math facts as smart and since he just can't seem to get those darn times tables to stick in the allotted time for tests, it really dinged his self-esteem really hard. He said he went from everything being too easy to things being challenging in homeschool. I was soooo happy that we had finally hit something he needed to work on to teach him perseverance, resilience etc but it really hit him hard. In most other areas I don't challenge him enough I think so I hope to up the lit discussions to a higher level this year as I know he's capable of it.
