DD9 started the year by determining to do what we thought would be too many extracurricular activities: gymnastics, soccer, choir, band, and robotics. We gave her some space to see how it would go, expecting we'd be reigning her back at some point very early. Surprisingly, she's handling it all like a champ. She finds time during her school day to get a jump on her homework in order to make more time. Academics are not suffering, as she brought home a perfect 4.0 report card. We expected to see meltdowns when she didn't have enough time for play, but those situations have been quite rare, and far less severe than we anticipated.
This is her second year of public school following a grade skip we imposed upon them over their objections. DD's performance last year was outstanding, so we expected that to be the end of any objections. DD's classmates in her GT pull-outs are noticing that she's outscoring them despite being the youngest in the class, and she's earned their respect as a result. Nevertheless, DD is still putting tremendous pressure on herself, having recently told DW, "I still need to prove that I belong there. Every. Single. Day." DD reports that she has a homeroom teacher (the vampire) who constantly asks the gifted kids in her classroom "Are you sure you're gifted?" when they make an ordinary mistake. DD also still remembers the one gifted teacher (no longer there) who CONSTANTLY told DD last year that she was too slow, she was holding up the class, and it's because she was skipped... all while the rest of the gifted class was struggling with the same things DD was.
One perspective is that this is a good thing, because it pushes her to do her very best, and one noticeable benefit is that her organizational and executive skills have seen a tremendous jump in the last year. Another perspective is that this feeds socially-prescribed perfectionism, and is ultimately unhealthy psychologically. I ascribe to the second one.
