I hesitate to brag out DS4's school here because other people are having so many problems, but in light of the recent talk about negative posts dominating the forum, I've decided to come out and say our school is great and DS4 is thriving there!

As background, my son started full-day kindergarten about a month ago at a small private school where K-12 are all under one roof, and no grade has more than 10 kids. Because the school is so small, they can do extensive pretesting in all subjects and develop an individualized curriculum for each kid. It's not a gifted school per se (it's open to all students and is remarkably diverse), but the founder did graduate work in giftedness and started the school with gifted kids in mind. Not surprisingly, it attracts a lot of gifted students. Because they don't advertise themselves as a gifted school, I probably wouldn't have found them if it hadn't been for the Davidson site (THANK YOU!), even though they're located right by my house.

In kindergarten, my son is doing 4th grade reading and advanced math along with more age-appropriate work on things like writing. All the kids get hands-on science and geography lessons as well as weekly instruction in drama, PE, music and Spanish. They also get plenty of time to play with Legos (my son's favorite part of the day), regular field trips, and extra-curriculars like a Lego club and soccer (with the school--not the parents--hauling the kids!).

So far, everything the kindergarten teacher has said has been music to my ears. She has profoundly gifted kids herself and gets things like perfectionism, which she has been working through with my son. For shock value and to remind parents how good they've got it, she often brings up what the public school curriculum would be for the current week (i.e., "on" vs. "under"). And the best part is, the school is relatively affordable for a private, individually-tailored education.

My son has literally cried more than once when I've gone to pick him up (sometimes as late as 5:00, depending on my schedule), because he wanted to stay longer to play on the playground or build with Legos. I keep saying the teachers there must think we beat him at home or something, because he'd rather be at school.

I know things could still take a turn for the worse, but so far, we've really got it made. Good schools do exist! We're just lucky to have one within our reach.

I hope this post doesn't come off as callous, considering all the very real struggles so many people here are going through. I sincerely wish things could be so easy for this entire group!


Last edited by MsFriz; 09/25/09 07:16 AM.