Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums THINKING BIG About Gifted Education BASIS Independent Schools

I apologize if this has already been discussed, but searching for "Basis" or "Basis Independent" yields a lot of hits for just "basis" or "independent"

MY DS7 is a 1st grader in a K-6 Montessori school which seems unable to challenge him. He is an extremely curious learner that wants to consume all knowledge ALL the time. He reads at 6th+ grade level and is near finishing Beast Academy Level 3. He has already started complaining about boredom at school and was moved to tears recently when he actually opened up about his experience at school.

We do have a BASIS Independent school in our town and have toured them. While normally, we are not fans of that type of a rigid curriculum, we have heard good things from people whose kids have gone there including from someone from the DYS community. The appeal would be the curriculum which we are told starts 1-yr ahead and runs at maybe at 1.25x-1.5x the pace of a regular school, such that by grade 6, kids are 2-3 years ahead. Seeing the pace of learning DS7 has demonstrated, this may still be slow, but a better fit than the Montessori option we have and definitely more than our public school options. Also, we were pleasantly surprised by the energy and enthusiasm of the teachers we met and saw on the tour of BASIS Independent.

On the other hand, our son has also been diagnosed with ADHD and definitely is NOT a linear learner nor a "good sitter" . The BASIS campus we saw had classrooms organized almost like miniature college lecture halls with C-shaped rows facing the front. I fear this may be tough for my son, though I don't know for sure. But I do wonder if this means BASIS may be more geared toward the linear learner and good sitter type of student where a child, even though he can excel at the work, may get a lot of grief for not following the proper steps and do things in the correct order, etc.

Any thoughts or experience from the DYS community would be extremely appreciated!

Have your son been IQ tested? He seems to be pretty bright to be able to exhaust this content.

BASIS independent seems rigorous, however don't just jump to it, do you have any better options?

Perhaps you could ask them what accomodations they could give your child with ADHD. Considering their school regulations, they do remove disruptive students quickly. It seems as if they are not very tolerant. Is your son on medication?

I would probably find another type of school, or grade skipping to save time.

Yes... we just got him tested last November. He scored 151 on his WISC-V FSIQ. Getting the score answered a lot of questions. We saw that he was progressing through things quickly, and figured he was bright, but didn't imagine the scale. But it has also been scary and stressful trying to figure out what's going to work for him long-term since we've heard horror stories of how the lack of challenge and the ensuing boredom can really take a turn for the worse as they get to 8-9 years old.

We live in the Bay Area and there are some private schools specifically for the gifted. However, at $45K-$60K per annum, these are really out of our reach, unfortunately. We've also begun to entertain the prospect of homeschooling, but it would be really tough to give up on either of our careers at this point. Grade skipping at a public school in our district is tough I've heard, especially for more than one grade level. Putting my son in 2nd grade instead of 1st would not solve any issues at this point.

Good to know beforehand that BASIS Independent is quick to remove kids that don't meet their model. That was our fear, but just wanted to ensure that wasn't an unfounded assumption or bias. DS7 is definitely not the easiest kid in class so would definitely need to take that risk into account since we wouldn't want to set him up to fail in a system that is set up for a different type of student.

Would love to hear if anyone has kids that have gone through BASIS or BASIS Independent.