Thanks everyone for the replies. We live in southern Ohio and do not have a gifted school or even magnet schools in our city. There are two gifted school about an hour away, but with the current gas prices, it seems insane to drive two hours everyday for schooling. When we moved to Ohio, we chose our current school district because it was touted as being one of the best in the state. They are impressive for average students, but they seem to think that all of their kids are gifted. Sigh.
As for achievement tests... I thought that our son was given out-of-level testing during the acceleration testing. They followed the Iowa Acceleration Scale and did tons of testing in the weeks before xmas break. The meeting with the acceleration committee is a bit of a blur since that was the first time that we saw any of their data and it was a mental overload to decipher it all. But I remember them saying that he was testing two to three grades above in most subjects. And I remember the gifted teacher saying that for science he scored at the 10th grade level. But when I called last week to ask for copies of any out of level testing, I was informed by the gifted teacher that it wasn't done. So I'm very confused.
Do any of you have any recommendations for specific achievement tests and how expensive are they?
As for home schooling, I'm not sure that I could deal with having this high intensity, high energy kid at home all day!! (how do I put a smiley face in here??) The hours when he is away at school are the hours that I recharge my battery. But if I feel he is really floundering in school, then I may consider it. He would not choose home schooling though. He is an only child who lives for the social interaction at school. He really sees school as one long play date! I worry that the kids think he is weird and call him crazy at school, although he is doing much, much better in third grade than in second. It seems to be a better social fit, as well as an academic fit. But sometime they treat him as a pesky little brother I think. And there have been a few instances of bullying on the playground. (first and second graders are in one area and third-sixth are in another... so he is the smallest fish in the big pond!)
All of these issues are so hard to figure out as a parent!! You want your child to be happy and love school. You want their mind to be able to race as fast as their thoughts can take them. And you want them to have friends.. to feel that they are not so very alone in the world. My son recently read a Wrinkle in Time and was amazed by the character Charles. He wondered if other kids called him crazy too. It just breaks your heart as a parent.
ebeth
