gifted children and steiner schools

[witt]

Hi all
my five and a half year was formally assessed last year and identified as gifted. His kindergarten were saying that he had aspergers so we got him formally assessed. He has a lot of the over sensitive stuff that gifted children have, perfectionist, a little socially isolated at school cos he wants to talk non stop about everything and the other kids don't always understand him.

he is currently at our lovely local steiner school and he does ok but has a few difficulties.

We are considering putting him in the One Day school for gifted kids which is here so that he can spend time with other kids like him and getting his needs met for one day a week and then the other four days he would carry on at Steiner.

Anyone else got a gifted kid in a steiner school? Thoughts, opinions anyone??

[witt]

bump

[ChristaN]

A steiner school is a Waldorf school, right?

We looked at a Waldorf school, but ultimately went a different way. There are things that I loved about it, but were not sure if it would be the right balance. My dd does much better all around when she isn't being pressured, so I liked the aspect of the 'magic of childhood' and letting them seek their own pace, but the school also seemed to actively redirect kids away from more formal school endeavors in the early years.

B/c of dd's bd, she would have had to wait an extra year to start 1st grade there and they would have discouraged reading until she was about 7, if I remember correctly. This wasn't a good fit for her interests.

You may get more responses from people who have actually used this type of school if you post in the Learning at School forum. There is a subforum for Waldorf there.

[bug-house]

My son attended a Waldorf school from K-2nd grade. If I had it to over again I would not have sent him to ANY school and would have homeschooled him from the start.

The Waldorf school he attended did not have any way to deal with gifted children other than to tell us that he can tutor the other children. They'd smile and mention how smart he was but then complain that he was too much in his head.

For us it was not a good fit. He did fine at school and had many friends but was not supported as a gifted child in any way at all.