Unfortunately, "success" in this context can be a rather subjective term. Parental expectations as well as mental/emotional health of the child can make all the difference.
Personally, I have never expected an institutional education to meet my children's needs completely. Sort of like if you aren't height/weight proportional with standard measurements, you can't expect to buy off the rack and have the outfit fit like it's tailored for you. Having rather low expectations, I picked and chose my battles and didn't sweat what I considered the relatively smaller stuff. There were also many choices that involve the lesser of two evils. It helped tremendously that my children are mentally healthy and well-adjusted socially as well.
I have two 5th graders who have survived public elementary school and are poised to enter an excellent middle school magnet program in the fall. They have learned to pursue their own passions outside school. It helped tremendously that they were both in self-contained GT classrooms from 1st through 4th grade and as it turned out, their K classroom had about double the number of kids who eventually qualified for GT. This year, only the math/science block is GT due to implementation of Common Core in our district. Fortunately, there has been a lot of room for self-differentiation due to the heavy writing focus in the reading/language arts block. DS also had the opportunity to accelerate twice in math so he was able to complete Algebra I as a 5th grader and will proceed to Geometry as a 6th grader. It certainly haven't been perfect, but I don't think that we could have done better with a private school and homeschooling has its own disadvantages for social kids and working parents.
Last edited by Quantum2003; 03/24/14 12:32 PM.
