Spaghetti - thanks for your comment.
Good point. I'm not sure that virtual school will be better but I have a strong feeling it will. I think the social aspect of school is a big stressor for him. He has friends and communicates fairly well with them (at the level of most grade 8 boys in any case) but I think negativity from people who are more aggressive really affects him.
That said I agree that his perception of virtual school being a different path than his peers might be a stumbling block. I've read a lot about it and am reassured that it's quite a successful path especially for gifted learners but he hasn't had the benefit of all that reading.
The virtual school has a structured curriculum with a progress bar for each course. I would start out expecting him to work in a very structured way. If he shows he can keep up or even get ahead I would give him more freedom to structure his days how it works best for him.
The idea would be to do virtual school for the four academic courses and have him to his gym/PE, French and electives at the bricks and mortar school that's close to us. That would give him a bit of structure and interaction while allowing him to work at home for the other courses.
In fact transferring now might be ideal as it would give him a few months of doing this before committing to a full year. He has been asking to attend the local school full time but I don't see how the new school will be any different than what he's experiencing now.
I'm especially interested in how your DS has the same inability to express himself or explain his feelings. I'm glad to hear it's not just my DS.
Can I ask what age he was at when this was happening and how it turned out/if it changed over time? How did you deal with his school situation?
Thanks again for your comments.
