The school had tested our oldest son, and although they told us he was "superior" in intelligence and scored mountains higher than his peers, they chose not to skip him grades. They did allow him to take math in the next grade up, but as far as other subjects, he was just going to be given some "accommodations".
This plan seemed to have some struggles from the beginning. He had to leave his 4th grade class to go to a 5th grade class for math which did not quite match up in scheduling. The 5th grade took longer for math, but since he needed to be back to do other things in the 4th grade, he always had to miss the last part of math. Now, this wasn't a big deal because we found out he was actually helping the 5th graders understand how to do their math, but often it would cause emotional meltdowns when the 5th grade teacher forgot to release him and he ended up missing recess or important activities in his regular class.
He did love the advancement in math finally, and that he wasn't bored about it anymore, but for other subjects he was still pretty bored. The accommodations that the school suggested was to have his own personal laptop as to which he could do research and make up power point presentations on various subjects that his class was learning about. He would do this whenever he finished an assignment ahead of the class.
This seemed all well at first, but eventually he would forget to ask his teacher for the laptop, or many times he had worked for weeks on a project and then somehow it got deleted in the computer and all his time had nothing to show.
He soon became bored again and really was not being challenged at all. At least he had math which kept him happy (except for too many times when he had to miss it or things didn't work out between the 2 grades schedules).
So, what could we do? He came to us and asked us one day, "Why does summer vacation so long?" I laughed thinking what kid on earth actually thinks summer vacation from school is too long!? But really, he told us how boring it is to be out of school and not able to be learning things. Of course he was pretty bored right now, so what could we do about it?
He read plenty. I'm sure most of what he learns comes from his own studying and reading of hundreds of thick science books or what not that he reads on a daily basis, but he was still bored. We decided if he wasn't going to get enough to do at school, that we'd try some extracurricular activities.
He has been taking dance for 3 years (Yes, I know, a brilliant mind but a dancer? My husband often thinks it is not allowing him to live to his full potential, but every smart kid needs some creativity too!) so he does that 2 days a week. He still wanted more though, and he wanted more of a challenge, so we thought to let him pick out an instrument and get him involved in music lessons.
He chose guitar. We found him a teacher and he began taking lessons. Amazingly enough he has begun playing the guitar and exceptionally well. His teacher tells us he is the fastest learning student he has ever had. Only 4 guitar lessons and he was already playing pretty good. And this wasn't just strumming chords, it was picking like each individual notes with different fingers, like the fancy stuff. I couldn't believe it. Yes, he was super smart with school stuff, but I didn't know he could just pick up a guitar, have a few lessons with no experience and be so good. I guess we should have believed the school psychologist when she said he "had the ability to master anything presented to him". It was soon proving true.
Now, while this wasn't helping him be more challenged and enjoy school more, it was giving him something in a different challenge that I do believe develops the brain. We still felt as if he needed more at school. If only he could have a better fit. This split grade level shifting back and forth was not always working, and the "accommodations" were just turning into busy work, but nothing that would allow him to advance and gain more knowledge as he wanted.
But we waited, and we hoped for something more.
They told us they would "accommodate" him in other ways during the school day.
