From what I've seen over the years, there has been much less problem with boredom from the academically advanced students in their main classes (those students who read well, etc) than you might find in the mainstream classroom, and I think it's because there are so many more levels of involvement in the class day than textbook type academic work. Students still get bored sometimes (my children find some of their special classes boring, and get bored with some of the assignments sometimes). Once they move up in grades, and have many different teachers throughout the day, they'll find some of them boring as well.
But most of the academically advanced students I know are for the most part enthusiastic about the main lesson classes. The upper grade students I've talked to that have come from or gone to other schools report that the work in other schools was much easier, but really dull (I think the issues stem primarily from the form of the curriculum itself, esp textbook curriculum, which largely controls the material covered and the scope of the assignments, tests, etc.)
The Waldorf school isn't really a self-led independent exploration type of learning environment. Not every child in the class is at the same level, academically, developmentally, etc. But what I saw in the kindergarten at this school, is that the teachers were pretty good at recognizing those children who were out-growing the younger ones, and feeling a bit restless for more. It's just that in a Waldorf kindergarten, there are other kinds of 'more' they can look to challenge those students than academics. Sometimes they'd honor a student with a special responsibility of some kind in a particular task. New playground 'construction' projects were a good outlet as well. For example, a dozen hay bales may appear one day on the playground, and the more enterprising students get straight to work turning them into their own creation, maybe a fort or a 'great wall' surrounding a perimeter. You'd see some of the more 'matured' students get very involved as construction managers, coordinating the project, engineering roofs and ramps and tiers and all that.
I remember another example--when a long 'tarzan' style rope was brought in and hung from a very tall branch. All the children were involved, but it presented the type of challenge where each child was able to push themselves as an individual. Many of the classroom crafts activities became more complex too. There were simple wood projects, with saws and hand drills and such. And all the older students spent the latter part of the school year working on their own handmade puppets, which was real challenge to all the students I witnessed.
There is a lot of consistency all year long, but there's a lot of dynamism as well. Besides the introduction of new elements, such as the swinging rope or the hay bales on the playground, there are seasonal changes. For example, in the spring--"spring fever" season-- the children are busy doing many new things such as planting grass seeds for their Easter baskets, and raising silk worms with the brand new mulberry leaves.
I can't say for sure that every child is more enthusiastic about this kind of classroom than they would be classrooms that are more academically challenging. But I think even academically advanced children would thoroughly enjoy the Waldorf k's like those my children attended. Except for the soft sing-song voices of the teachers (which is jarring to a lot of adults, especially dads I think
) and the s-l-o-w and patient pace, I find even grown adults are inclined to comfortably enjoy doing much of what goes on in the typical Waldorf K.
