Parents of gifted MCPS kids. How do you support them?

[Anonymous]

I also have a HGC 4th grader (he is our third child to go through the Center program), and we give him ample opportunity to pursue his interests, meaning, we take him to museums, expose him to sports, arts, and cultural enrichment opportunities, and generally follow his reasonable lead within the parameters of what we deem appropriate.

It sounds like the poster you are responding to does exactly the same thing. He takes the kids to museums and exposes them to sports, arts and enrichment activities about the world around them. These are all activities you and the poster deem important for development. Do not begrudge the 9 and 6 year-old boys for not requesting visits to the museum and music lesson over the computer, Wii and DS. The poster admits he has to set limits and actively exposes the children to the same activities you describe. Does Physics and problem solving mathematical activities intimidate you or not qualify as activities a 9 and 6 year-old should be interested in? Or are these in your venacular -- school subjects or school work? I know some kids that love robotics, engineering designs, computer programming in elementary school. Do you believe these activities are also "school work" and therefore off limits for elementary school kids? Don't begrudge parents who can answer questions of inquiring young minds about the physics, biochemisty and the history of the world around them. I think any child would be fortunate to grow up in such an environment. Certain households may be less dependent on museums and libraries due to in-home expertise and the internet.

Personally, some kids at certain ages seem to prefer travelling, hiking outdoors, observing nature, camping, searching the galaxy with their telescopes at night than hanging out in museums. Much of what the children learn outside ultimately will, or should, be formally taught in school at some point. Newton's laws remain the same whether the 9 year old reads it in a textbook some day, online or drops a tennis ball from his bedroom room window and attempts to describe its action. Should the child save these pursuits and questions for when he formally takes Physics in the 11th grade? Some children are fortunate to have older siblings and parents with sufficient expertise to address -- in a deep way -- most questions from these inquiring minds.

Seems fair to me.

[Anonymous]

Two questions:

1. When do your children have "down time"?
2. Why don't you homeschool?

Also, which Center is this? My close friend who teaches in the HGC told me that none of them give the kids these calculators to use. None. So, please enlighten her as she is very curious to know where on earth this is happening.

1. Downtime is heard to find for parents (we both work) and children. We make it and sacrifice weekends and nights to be with and enjoy entertainment with our kids...particularly during these formative years

2. My kids and their friends have inquired why I don't do this. Alas, both parents have careers to pursue and other professional obligations and thus do not have the time to homeshool. I do help out by teaching and mentoring elementary students (Math Club activities-MOEMS). At the end of the day, homeschool, private school, parochial school, church school, public school seem irrelevant to our experience as our kids seem to respond more to our engagement with them (and their teachers or surrogate mentors and coaches) in the educational process whether in or out of school, within 4 walls or outside, in cyberspace or outerspace, in museums or travelling.

3. I think where my children attend the HGC is irrelevant to this discussion and the points made. Suffice to say, my child does not use his assigned calculator for any mathematical work. I have advised him this is may be a poor idea for any elementary or middle student trying to gain mathematical number sense and intuition and will come back to haunt him in higher mathematics. Fortunately, he has never used the calculator and has not developed any psychological dependency. Every problem on the PSAT and SAT exam can be solved easily without the use of a calculator -- though the College Board recommends that kids bring this device to the test center (including quadratic equations and parabolas).

[Anonymous]

I think parents of 2nd graders need to pay more attention to their childs actual scores than just the gifted labels..as someone else mentioned. 99th percentiles are very different than 75th in terms of what your child needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Two questions:

1. When do your children have "down time"?
2. Why don't you homeschool?

Also, which Center is this? My close friend who teaches in the HGC told me that none of them give the kids these calculators to use. None. So, please enlighten her as she is very curious to know where on earth this is happening.

1. Downtime is heard to find for parents (we both work) and children. We make it and sacrifice weekends and nights to be with and enjoy entertainment with our kids...particularly during these formative years

2. My kids and their friends have inquired why I don't do this. Alas, both parents have careers to pursue and other professional obligations and thus do not have the time to homeshool. I do help out by teaching and mentoring elementary students (Math Club activities-MOEMS). At the end of the day, homeschool, private school, parochial school, church school, public school seem irrelevant to our experience as our kids seem to respond more to our engagement with them (and their teachers or surrogate mentors and coaches) in the educational process whether in or out of school, within 4 walls or outside, in cyberspace or outerspace, in museums or travelling.

3. I think where my children attend the HGC is irrelevant to this discussion and the points made. Suffice to say, my child does not use his assigned calculator for any mathematical work. I have advised him this is may be a poor idea for any elementary or middle student trying to gain mathematical number sense and intuition and will come back to haunt him in higher mathematics. Fortunately, he has never used the calculator and has not developed any psychological dependency. Every problem on the PSAT and SAT exam can be solved easily without the use of a calculator -- though the College Board recommends that kids bring this device to the test center (including quadratic equations and parabolas).

RE#3, I work in a HGC and can confirm that there is no Center location where the entire fourth-grade class is assigned these calculators for their work.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you work in the wrong part of the County and have no familiarity with any HGC program. You don't need to be a teacher to know how many schools (elementary HGC) are using Calculators or how many Promethean Boards are in each HGC in this County. Perhaps you should consult any of the more intelligent HGC 5th Graders in our County for accurate information. You are behaving, in child-like fashion, like this is high security and top secret information. It is abundantly clear you would not even qualify as a teacher's aid in our HGC.

[Anonymous]

RE#3, I work in a HGC and can confirm that there is no Center location where the entire fourth-grade class is assigned these calculators for their work.

New poster:

The poster did not say the entire 4th grade in his HGC is assigned these calculators. If I am interpreting the thread correctly, this child may not even be sitting in a class with his 4th HGC grade peers for math instruction! Is this possible in MCPS? You may soon eat crow with your claim.

[Anonymous]

This is such a bizarre thread -- so much hostility and confusion.

I do not think calculators are in use in any HGC program in MCPS for 4th, 5th, or 6th grade math.

It's possible that this child is a fifth grader in Math 7 (is that IM?) and that they have been given work which uses a calculator. It's conceivable that certain work would require it.

Remember, HGCs don't have different math from regular MCPS -- they just put kids in the level they require and for some, that's middle school math. Whereas in most elementary schools kids have to travel to the MS to get MS math, I think HGCs have 7th grade math on site for kids who need it. At least ours does.

It's also possible that the poster has a kid at TPMS and I can imagine that those kids would use calculators for some kinds of work.

Regardless, the question was how to challenge a child who's displaying a need for advanced level work. I think there have been good suggestions here, about activities outside of school that will develop specific interests and challenge children to think about new things.

It's also important to know the level of challenge that your child requires, and outside testing can be helpful in this. For the person who asked, I believe an independent psychologist will charge about $1000 to administer the WISC IV and provide you with a complete report. If you can afford it, it's good information to have, but it won't do you much good with MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you work in the wrong part of the County and have no familiarity with any HGC program. You don't need to be a teacher to know how many schools (elementary HGC) are using Calculators or how many Promethean Boards are in each HGC in this County. Perhaps you should consult any of the more intelligent HGC 5th Graders in our County for accurate information. You are behaving, in child-like fashion, like this is high security and top secret information. It is abundantly clear you would not even qualify as a teacher's aid in our HGC.

To whom is this post directed?

Confused.

[Anonymous]

...I do not think calculators are in use in any HGC program in MCPS for 4th, 5th, or 6th grade math.

It's possible that this child is a fifth grader in Math 7 (is that IM?) and that they have been given work which uses a calculator. It's conceivable that certain work would require it.

Remember, HGCs don't have different math from regular MCPS -- they just put kids in the level they require and for some, that's middle school math. Whereas in most elementary schools kids have to travel to the MS to get MS math, I think HGCs have 7th grade math on site for kids who need it. At least ours does.

Frankly, clueless. "I think....I think that....I think...."
Get the facts straight before discounting and pontification. No one cares about what you may think or speculate. In this instance, what do you know for fact? You boast of working in HGC in the County but from your dribble appear lacking in any knowledge about the programs and their nuances at individual HGCs. You are clearly neither teacher notr educator in MCPS.
The poster did not say the child was a 5th grader. It is written in plain English.
You seem to uuh, aah, uuh think and speculate but the poster knows for fact in their kid's particular circumstance!
Who are we to believe ... you?

[Anonymous]

To whom is this post directed?

Confused.

Understood. You are confused.

[Anonymous]

RE#3, I work in a HGC and can confirm that there is no Center location where the entire fourth-grade class is assigned these calculators for their work.

Irrelevant. No poster has made this assertion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

...I do not think calculators are in use in any HGC program in MCPS for 4th, 5th, or 6th grade math.

It's possible that this child is a fifth grader in Math 7 (is that IM?) and that they have been given work which uses a calculator. It's conceivable that certain work would require it.

Remember, HGCs don't have different math from regular MCPS -- they just put kids in the level they require and for some, that's middle school math. Whereas in most elementary schools kids have to travel to the MS to get MS math, I think HGCs have 7th grade math on site for kids who need it. At least ours does.

Frankly, clueless. "I think....I think that....I think...."
Get the facts straight before discounting and pontification. No one cares about what you may think or speculate. In this instance, what do you know for fact? You boast of working in HGC in the County but from your dribble appear lacking in any knowledge about the programs and their nuances at individual HGCs. You are clearly neither teacher notr educator in MCPS.
The poster did not say the child was a 5th grader. It is written in plain English.
You seem to uuh, aah, uuh think and speculate but the poster knows for fact in their kid's particular circumstance!
Who are we to believe ... you?

Wow. Again, so hostile, and so bizarre. And by the way, I'm not the same person as the one who said she/he worked in an HGC. I have a child in one, and I can state with authority that there are no calculators in that HGC. I was, actually, trying to defend the "calculator poster" by positing some situations where a child in a magnet program could be asked to use a calculator. So -- since I think you are the person who said your child was asked to use a calculator -- I was actually defending YOU!!

It's apparent from your posts, hostile poster, that you are not a native English speaker. That's ok, of course, but you should be aware that the tone of your posts may not be what you intend. Plus, you use many words wrong (to wit, the use of the word "dribble" in your post above, where you clearly intended "drivel"). Your reference to "plain English" is pretty funny, considering that what you write is pretty hard to follow and understand. You might want to read it aloud before submitting to make sure your message is clear.

[Anonymous]

You are quite right. I picked up English a couple of years ago. I appreciate the advise.

[Anonymous]

I think this is a great question and I am curious how other parents fill in around school learning. My 3rd grader is 99th pctile material, but my K-student is probably one of those avg 75th pctile MoCo kids. Here are some things I do:

First, for my grade 3 son, I use DS and WII to my advantage. I want him to have his downtime with those games, but he has to finish something productive first.

Second, my son does cub scouts and music lessons. Cub Scouts can be hokey sometimes, but he is learning about camping, nature, community service, history, how to speak in public, etc. As for music, we don't force it, but he does ok with 15 minutes a day practice.

Third, every summer, I send my kids to a week long acting camp. They may not be actors, but I want them to be comfortable communicating and speaking to groups.

Fourth, my third grade son does various sports teams to let out his energy. Sports also teaches him that while he is a top kid in math class, he has to get used to other kids being better than him in other areas. He has to learn how to be a team player and sportsmanship.

My older kid does a lot, but he enjoys it all. I have even tried to tone it down for him. I would not force any of it on him, but I would keep moving to different activities to find something that does catch his attention. I will do this with my little child also. In the long run, I view skills like communication, teamwork, physical fitness as equally important as math, science and reading skills. Top leaders in this country have more than a phd.

My two cents, but I would love to hear other thoughts/ideas.

[Anonymous]

Name one top leader in this country with a PhD?