Only if your kid got into an Ivy in last 5 yrs. - how'd you do it?

[Anonymous]

It's a good thing the school required the children to do these activities at a young age. Imagine if they were orphans without parents. Thank God for schools.

[Anonymous]

Everyone is overlooking the value of play. It is much, much more important to a child's intellectual development than having them recite (what?), study numbers and reading, participating in organized sports, what have you. Play is where children learn creativity and problem solving, higher level processing. You can push information into a child's head but unless the can think and feel and create (on their own!) its pretty useless.

[Anonymous]

Play is not a mutually exclusive activity alone. I think all of the aforementioned activities involve degrees of play for any 3 to 8 year old child. It is part of the territory and certainly some of us have not neglected this in this discussion. Play is also important...as is adequate sleep and nutrition.

[Anonymous]

agree pp -- I came up with tge list my daughter did at Montessori School. Maybe more traditional schools don't give the kids enough opportunities to explore, create & play.

[Anonymous]

In elementary school? That is not on my radar. Sorry. Here are some motivations for different things: To learn something. To try out different things to see what sticks. To get exercise. To learn discipline. To be well-rounded. To have fun!

If my children end up at an Ivy League school, that will be fine or even great, but no, we are not enrolling them in activities as very young children with that goal in mind.

That's great. Very sincere and noble. Enrolling them in these activities at a very young age will certainly allow you to see what sticks, gain them discipline and well-roundedness. Do you think these are attributes of kids who are later admitted to Ivy?

[Anonymous]

Oh man 22:08 I would love to see the infants playing sports!

[Anonymous]

My advice

1. Go to an Ivy yourself. It helps if you are brilliant and passionate.

2. Meet and marry another brilliant and passionate person at your (or another) Ivy. Perhaps one whose family is a major donor. And who is either an amazing artist or a star athlete.

3. Go to a different Ivy for grad school.

4. Have a brilliant and passionate child with your brilliant and passionate spouse.

5. Encourage said child to find her passion, work hard, and do things well. Let DC watch you and your spouse follow that advice. And send your child to a school that shares those values.

6. Genes, environment, legacy points up the wazoo, that's your best shot.

[Anonymous]

Agree with some of your points pp even if you meant to be sarcastic....don't overlook the value of hard work on the part of the student

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh man 22:08 I would love to see the infants playing sports!

I'm not 22:08-- but we have a pool and I used to be a swim coach. My daughter loved learning to swim at 6 months old and went on tol win many medals in her youth and she's at an Ivy now and loves it. From that early love of swimming -- she went on to love many other sports as well. Early exposure is great. It's a lot easier to learn any sport -- just like it's easier to learn any language -- before age 12.

[Anonymous]

Your honesty is refreshing on this board.

[Anonymous]

9:27 Your daughter learned to swim at six months? Without being held?

[Anonymous]

Everyone else has "superkids" that are self-directed, self-starters, passionate, who seem to know precisely what is good for them in the short and long run ...even while in diapers.

These same "superkids" regress when they become adults. They are no longer self-starters but require more senior and experienced mentors or shoulders to stand on to progress further in life.

I wonder how these average parents (in every sense of the term) at best spawn such mutants?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:9:27 Your daughter learned to swim at six months? Without being held?

Yes -- it's actually very common to teach children this young. Florida and CA specialize in the early swimming training for babies for safety purposes. I can pretty much teach any baby to swim -- including special needs babies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone else has "superkids" that are self-directed, self-starters, passionate, who seem to know precisely what is good for them in the short and long run ...even while in diapers.

These same "superkids" regress when they become adults. They are no longer self-starters but require more senior and experienced mentors or shoulders to stand on to progress further in life.

I wonder how these average parents (in every sense of the term) at best spawn such mutants?

This is an overgeneralization. Many "super kids" as you call them -- go on to lead very happy, successful lives and continue to be self-directed throughout their lives. Many "average parents" as you call them can have really successful kids by turning off the tv, computer, etc. and present opportunities to their children. It's really not that complicated. Love and attention go a long way. Neither my husband nor I were "Ivy Material" but have an Ivy kid. My husband and I grew up poor and just didn't have a lot of opportunities. I would suspect others experienced the same thing and also have Ivy kids because they're better off than their families through the power of education, luck, hard work, and opportunities.

[Anonymous]

11:30 I'm the PP who asked about infants swimming without being held by an adult. Is that what happens at six months? I know about these lessons. My child was in the pool at six months, lessons at the Y, I swam competitively for a few summers in my youth so I've been around the pool a few times and I would not describe this as swimming! It's more floating and safety.