Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Friday freak out and self-imposed Saturday school

Hello, new here, I posted recently about my DD6 after receiving her WISC IV results and got some great feedback. Now, I am assessing DD's current school situation and it occurred to me that every single Friday afternoon/evening she has a major meltdown. Sort of like a huge decompression. It can last for hours. She has always been intense but we haven't seen these sort of meltdowns since she was having problems in preschool. The next morning she wakes up and immediately begins doing any intellectual activity she can get her hands on, workbooks, math games/activity books, crosswords, logic puzzles, games, jigsaw puzzles, etc. I am wondering if all this could have something to do with school not being very challenging for her? Has anyone else experienced something like this with their DC? Maybe there is no correlation or it speaks to something else? She has had a great year and we have just been happy to not have any problems but perhaps I should have been paying this more attention.

My son will use almost all his free time doing math books or other "academic" activities. Last night he fell asleep with the teacher's guide for math that his teacher gave him because they were switching to a new edition...on Halloween, he couldn't wait to stop trick-or-treating to finish writing his story (while the other kids in the group were dumping and eating their candy)...he wants to discuss math problems with his friends in line for a ride at Disney. These are all self-imposed.

As for meltdowns, we don't have such a regular schedule for those but they do occur. This time of year (end of the year) has always been bad and he has had meltdowns every other day or so for a week. But he wakes up every morning ready to go! I think they are stress relief and not abnormal. Nan

Sounds like she loves the structure of school. My daughter has always loved going to school - even in Middle School. I felt the same way - still hate weekends.

I would just go along with it and give her permission to enjoy her Saturday School.

I am between semestes in grad school and in teaching my college courses - and I am lost.

I would consider it a flag ... perhaps not a huge red flag but something is causing the meltdowns and the need for Saturday school. Is this a recent pattern? I ask this because in our area (I live in Texas) the standardized tests were administered towards the end of April which sadly means the rest of the school year is playtime. If your area is anything like ours your daughter might be reacting to this new phase of school.

Has this been going on for a while, or was it a sudden thing? I don't know about the Friday pattern, but my husband and I have definitely noticed that temper tantrums and mental growth spurts go hand in hand at our house. DS5 has gone through many unmistakable developmental leaps where all of a sudden he seems to go into overdrive and there just aren't enough hours in the day for all the writing, drawing, reading, math, and scientific exploration he wants to do. It's just like what you described--he'll have some problem or project on his mind the minute he wakes up and will have completed ten different activities by noon. At the same time, however, he seems to be even more sensitive than usual and will have zero tolerance for frustration. This usually only lasts a couple of weeks though, and then he drops down a notch again. It's happened so many times that we've learned to just ride it out. If this has been going on for a long time though, I'd be more concerned.

Where do you live around Austin? We moved away two years ago and I really miss the schools there. She learned so much outside the curriculum. Of course, all schools are different.

We have no choices here.

Thank you for the replies. It has been happening pretty much the whole school year with some Fridays being worse than others. We experience the same thing here MsFriz with the developmental leaps, just as you described, but this Friday thing is more constant, although noticeably worse when going through such a spurt. I've asked DD several times over the course of the year if she likes school, what parts are fun, etc...and she always says it's good, without telling me much more. My best guess is that she is a mild extrovert and enjoys the social aspect of school and tries to be friends with everybody, though she has yet to make a close friend. I think when she is at school she is in hyper attentive mode, paying attention to everything and everyone. It's almost like learning anything academic is secondary. I guess we were thinking that if she was very bored she would be acting out, which she did in preschool. But maybe she is bored and has just switched her focus on to figuring out the social aspect of school.

We live in Lake Travis ISD. What part of Austin did you live in and where did you move to?

I am super excited about summer this year, since the drought is over and we have full beautiful lakes again. We will be taking full advantage of it. My DD won't be on summer break though, since her school is a year round one but I'm sure we will find lots of wonderful things to do on her days' off.

We lived in Barton Hills. She went to a really great little school in our neighborhood. She would have gone to a magnet school, which barely teaches the basics and teaches special courses. Her grade level always passed the tests at 100%.

We moved to Lamar Colorado - a nightmare.

All around Austin has mostly great schools with a few bad ones in East Austin. People argue about their districts and schools - little things. They have no idea about these types of schools.

Enjoy Austin.

I actually know of the magnet school you reference and knew a family whose son went there. Always heard praises for the program.

It has to be really hard to go from a great school to what you are experiencing now, because you have something to gauge it against.

As for Austin having mostly great schools ... I don't know if I completely agree with it, especially since I did my student teaching in the Austin ISD district, but my supervisor, who was the head of the department, was old school with all multiple choice technique and refused to change. But I totally agree that Austin does have some great magnet schools.