I want a roller coaster!

I recently visited a 'fancy brainiac only charter school'.  I wasn't trying to visit a school, I was there for a meeting.  But along the way I walked past rows of cute art projects, towers of ribbons and awards for math and science, adorable stories written by kids only knee high, and the big giant roller coaster.

So for the FIRST time I am having a panic attack.  Oh I have had plenty about doing enough with the kids, we go in cycles of barely doing anything (but learning quite a bit) to overworked (comparatively) to a nice happy medium.  But the big kicker....a Roller coaster.  We have never done that.

Highschool scares me.  Not so much the teendom, I figure there isn't much you can do about the hormones and rebellion.  Once it starts I plan on backing way up and letting them ride it out.  But.....until that point we get to instill values, education, and responsibility.  One of the reasons I work so hard to make sure the hour or two we do is effective is that I want most of the important education done BEFORE the hormones start their wild ride.  Dude is on track for everything but writing.  We will have to do something this fall.

I can handle that, but a roller coaster?  I don't think I can build one.

Am I letting my kid miss out on hang gliders, fancy rockets, and roller coasters by not getting his IQ tested to enter a fancy academy?

But then at the same time, if all their 8th graders take Algebra (and the school only goes to 8th grade), what would they teach Dude who will finish algebra next year?

Maybe they'd let him build a roller coaster?

Though truthfully the more I look at their program the more I find lacking.  No Latin, no Piano lessons, no scouts.  All these things could be done after school, but I just doubt there would be time.  Besides, there wouldn't be time to hug him nearly often enough if he was gone all day!