Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments This could be good or bad...opinions?

What can they actually do to enforce this? When I was a teacher, we were really limited. Sure we might say stuff like this, but we couldn't actually do much to enforce it.

Well, I haven't checked into this in detail. But when I was teaching a child could be held back a year for not doing the work they were assigned. The last thing he needs is ANOTHER year of first grade. You do make a valid point, though, and maybe I should look into that a little more.

I don't know your state laws, but in many places if the schools go to the trouble to identify students as gifted and have a program for them, they may be grouped under the special education umbrella for policy purposes. Sometimes that means that there are specific rules that the schools need to follow. You may be able to use those rules to request that the work that you send be a replacement for class work rather than additional.

I also found it a good idea to dig through state and school district policies, guidebooks, and handbooks. Much as they usually have some guidelines written down for when they retain students in the same grade, they also may have other written guidelines for that you may be able to use to your advantage. I've found it useful to use the school's or district's own standards, as they are written and show how they apply to my child to get what we need.

When we did homeschool days with my DD, we didn't tell the school. Given how miserable she was at school, I considered it a sick day/mental health day. I work full time, so I took those days as vacation - she knew from the beginning homeschooling was not a long term solution, but she needed something to keep herself together long enough to get through the end of the school year. Concurrently with these random homeschool days, we were also working on the grade skip, so there was a short-term solution and a long(er)-term 'solution' working together.

We do it too but not too much. I wish I could do it once a week. I am afraid too, it is not good to teach him it is ok to stay home. But on the other hand he learns so much more at home. Lately I use the snow days and the reg days off, like pres day coming up to have him do some work. He likes to help make up his schedule so he is into it.