Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Curriculum looks awesome!

That curriculum sounds like a dream! What a wonderful opportunity. Can I ask, how did you find the school? I do not know of anything at all like that around us, but considering we are not far from the nation's capital, I would think it is possible there are great schools I don't even know about yet.

Are you sure you are not on some other planet?! The kindergarten story sounds too far fetched for anywhere in the U.S. ;-)

(Actually, they did some stuff like that at ODS' Montessori in his K year. Didn't know how good he had it then.)

The school is a Montessori but it didn't really start out "drool worthy" six years ago. In fact we pulled DS out for a while in preschool because it was such a poor fit with a teacher he had at the time. What they mostly offer is commitment to their students and flexibility. They don't believe any one approach is best for all students. They're willing to listen to students, parents, and try new things.

I recommended Beast Academy and MCT. They looked at them and said "Sure! This looks great. We'll do this." We talk all the time about the kids and what's working and what's not.

There is nothing in this school's marketing that would make it seem like such a good fit for gifted kids. It isn't a fancy high priced private school at all. If you're trying to find something similar, I'd look for something small and flexible.

But yes, it is pretty awesome. Differentiation is automatic. Acceleration is easy. Both kids were accelerated into the next class level at their request. All this stuff about a kid not getting to read books at a certain level? Not an issue. They walk to the public library and get what they want. DS8 is reading a herpetology field guide for independent reading.

Ok, officially drooling over the KG class. DS asked me the other day, "When am I going to get to develop *real* skills." It's my view that the social aspect is a set of important skills for him, but I wouldn't say no to a generous dose of content in class.

There is built in motivation for the teachers to challenge the kids. Basically there is a work period and once a student completes their work they have free time to do something else. Free time is the incentive. During free time they can read, do little chores, build with blocks, color, or have a snack. Some of these choices are distracting so they want all the kids to finish around the same time. If one kid finishes in fifteen minutes they deal with a "free agent" roaming the room. DS5 was doing a lot of this until they adjusted his assignments. Now he has to work as hard and for as long as everyone else.