I'm reading this entire thread and nodding my head in agreement! I was completely underchallenged through school and by the time I started college (a measly 1 year early), I just couldn't do it anymore. My high school was a fairly rigorous school, dedicated Honors/AP curriculum for everyone, but it was really too little, too late. Being an English major in college was just high school all over- I actually recycled papers from my Jr. year and got A's on them. I quit because I realized that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.
When DS7 started floundering in K, I just couldn't sit by and watch my beautiful, curious, sensitive little guy turn into a demon who just didn't care. We pulled him because we were *losing* him. He never misbehaved at school, he reserved all the anger for us at home and the school blamed *me* when I tried to talk to them. I honestly could have hit his principal, so it was a good thing that conversation was over the phone. They screw up my child and ask *me* "what's going on at home that would cause this?".
And while homeschooling as been a wonderful experience, it saved his spark and he is (almost) completely healed from his K year, we're caught in the same catch 22 that others have talked about. He's a 7yo working at a 4th/5th grade level at the *lower* end- how am I supposed to ever send him back? I feel like we did this to ourselves, but I honestly don't know how we could have done anything differently.
We went to my DS5's Kindergarten orientation today (different school) and DS7 was almost near tears the whole time. He wouldn't tell me what's wrong, when I finally guessed, he just looked so forlorn. He *wants* to go to school, he wants to be around other kids all day, but he absolutely refuses to be put in a class where he's going to have to sit through things he already knows. He also isn't really keen on being around kids who are 3+ years older than he is, he honestly enjoys kids his own age. He understands that it's an impossible situation, there is *no* good answer, except for the local GT charter school that we have a snowballs chance of getting into because of a lottery system. It makes me so angry for him, he's 7, he shouldn't have to make *hard* decisions- having a social learning experience or actually learning things.
And after typing all that out, I'm not even sure that it's completely on topic, but I really needed to get it out where people understand and this thread seemed to be a good place
