Private School for Gifted Elementary School Child

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public. Honestly. The strongest kids are in public. The bright kids who didn't get into the public programs? Those are the kids in the "private gifted schools."

Really? My preschooler can read, write, spell, add, subtract, multiply, divide and she is not yet in K. She can read clocks, knows days, weeks, months and years. She loves maps and even knows the 50 US states with capitols, the different continents and oceans. Public can meet her needs?

I would be very surprised if a preschooler learned all of the state capitals completely on her own initiative, so who has been pushing all of this academic learning? Further, much of what you described may be rote memorization rather than true understanding (which is very common in "gifted" preschoolers/kindergartners, and tends to level out very quickly once they're expected to translate that memorization to logical reasoning, making connections, etc.). Your daughter may be able to recite all of the state capitals, but does she understand what a capital is, what purposes it serves, now it functions, etc.? She may know her multiplication tables, but can she read a multi-step word problem and understand how to translate that into the proper functions? Can she face a real-world problem where she's not specifically being coached/tested in math and understand how to apply her math skills there to find a solution to her problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public. Honestly. The strongest kids are in public. The bright kids who didn't get into the public programs? Those are the kids in the "private gifted schools."

Really? My preschooler can read, write, spell, add, subtract, multiply, divide and she is not yet in K. She can read clocks, knows days, weeks, months and years. She loves maps and even knows the 50 US states with capitols, the different continents and oceans. Public can meet her needs?

OP - Don't do this to yourself. Your child is smart but what you describe does not indicate that she/he needs to be treated differently or sent to a "private school for a gifted elementary school child." Any good public or good private in your area will work for Kindergarten -- and you can re-assess his/her situation each year if particular issues arise that suggest a change would be beneficial.

[Anonymous]

OP- even if you get your kid tested for IQ, keep in mind that kids with a high IQ can thrive in many types of environments, doesn't have to be for "gifted" kids.

[Anonymous]

The key to having a "gifted" or advanced child thrive is putting them in a school with a small teacher - student ratio, which allows the teachers to spend quality time with each child and understand and work with the child's strengths and weaknesses. Find a school with a broad and rich curriculum that exposes the child to new things and instills a love of learning. You actually don't want a school for gifted kids. You want a school environment that allows your child to be challenged but still learn social and emotional skills with their peers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The key to having a "gifted" or advanced child thrive is putting them in a school with a small teacher - student ratio, which allows the teachers to spend quality time with each child and understand and work with the child's strengths and weaknesses. Find a school with a broad and rich curriculum that exposes the child to new things and instills a love of learning. You actually don't want a school for gifted kids. You want a school environment that allows your child to be challenged but still learn social and emotional skills with their peers.

And actually the class ration doesn't have to be that small if the teachers are good at the job of teaching. The other thing that helps gifted kids thrive is if parents back off on the school front and enrich in fun ways at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public. Honestly. The strongest kids are in public. The bright kids who didn't get into the public programs? Those are the kids in the "private gifted schools."

Really? My preschooler can read, write, spell, add, subtract, multiply, divide and she is not yet in K. She can read clocks, knows days, weeks, months and years. She loves maps and even knows the 50 US states with capitols, the different continents and oceans. Public can meet her needs?

I would be very surprised if a preschooler learned all of the state capitals completely on her own initiative, so who has been pushing all of this academic learning? Further, much of what you described may be rote memorization rather than true understanding (which is very common in "gifted" preschoolers/kindergartners, and tends to level out very quickly once they're expected to translate that memorization to logical reasoning, making connections, etc.). Your daughter may be able to recite all of the state capitals, but does she understand what a capital is, what purposes it serves, now it functions, etc.? She may know her multiplication tables, but can she read a multi-step word problem and understand how to translate that into the proper functions? Can she face a real-world problem where she's not specifically being coached/tested in math and understand how to apply her math skills there to find a solution to her problem?

She reads maps for pleasure. Any maps. Yesterday I came home finding a metro map on the dining table, which she read when she had her lunch. So she understands how to read the legend and symbols of the maps. We have a puzzle of US states with capitols and she just played with them. She knows that 4 apples for 8 kids implies each kids has 1/2 an apple. She loves playing Monopoly and often serves as our Banker, gives us change and reads our Chance and Community Chest cards. She loves to write short stories on her own and can spell words like "brown", "competition", "throat". She is eager to learn anything. She can calculate 3-4=-1 and understand the meaning of a negative numbers. Lately she loves to change the temperature setting on my phone from Farenheit to Celcius and knows how to calculate 34F=1C or 30F=-1C (because I once told her that 2 degrees in F is about 1 degree in C).

I will be happy if she can go to our public K, which would be logistically so much easier for me. What I do not want is that she will be ignored and not challenged, given that she knows the materials already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public. Honestly. The strongest kids are in public. The bright kids who didn't get into the public programs? Those are the kids in the "private gifted schools."

Really? My preschooler can read, write, spell, add, subtract, multiply, divide and she is not yet in K. She can read clocks, knows days, weeks, months and years. She loves maps and even knows the 50 US states with capitols, the different continents and oceans. Public can meet her needs?

I would be very surprised if a preschooler learned all of the state capitals completely on her own initiative, so who has been pushing all of this academic learning? Further, much of what you described may be rote memorization rather than true understanding (which is very common in "gifted" preschoolers/kindergartners, and tends to level out very quickly once they're expected to translate that memorization to logical reasoning, making connections, etc.). Your daughter may be able to recite all of the state capitals, but does she understand what a capital is, what purposes it serves, now it functions, etc.? She may know her multiplication tables, but can she read a multi-step word problem and understand how to translate that into the proper functions? Can she face a real-world problem where she's not specifically being coached/tested in math and understand how to apply her math skills there to find a solution to her problem?

She reads maps for pleasure. Any maps. Yesterday I came home finding a metro map on the dining table, which she read when she had her lunch. So she understands how to read the legend and symbols of the maps. We have a puzzle of US states with capitols and she just played with them. She knows that 4 apples for 8 kids implies each kids has 1/2 an apple. She loves playing Monopoly and often serves as our Banker, gives us change and reads our Chance and Community Chest cards. She loves to write short stories on her own and can spell words like "brown", "competition", "throat". She is eager to learn anything. She can calculate 3-4=-1 and understand the meaning of a negative numbers. Lately she loves to change the temperature setting on my phone from Farenheit to Celcius and knows how to calculate 34F=1C or 30F=-1C (because I once told her that 2 degrees in F is about 1 degree in C).

I will be happy if she can go to our public K, which would be logistically so much easier for me. What I do not want is that she will be ignored and not challenged, given that she knows the materials already.

She taught herself to read the word Montpelier just by playing with a puzzle of the capitals? Neither you nor your spouse spent any time teaching her the words?

Also 2 degrees in F is not 1 degree in C, you taught her an incorrect algorithm. Which pretty much just proves my point.

[Anonymous]

IThanks s fine 2:1 instead of 9/5 if you start from the intercept freezing point

[Anonymous]

Here's the thing - there is no school that will do what you are looking for (reinforce your daughter's rote memorization and tell her she is gifted because of it) because that is bad pedagogy.

GDS has lots of smart kids. I'd start there. But you are still going to be in class with kids with learning disabilities and behavior challenges, both because that's how the world is and because those issues aren't always apparent when the kids begin at the school.

But, really, OP. Your child is bright but nothing you describe makes me thing she needs a special school, and particularly not at such a tender age.

If you have $40K a year to throw at the "problem," then be my guest. But your child will do just fine in public, or in any private that you choose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public. Honestly. The strongest kids are in public. The bright kids who didn't get into the public programs? Those are the kids in the "private gifted schools."

Really? My preschooler can read, write, spell, add, subtract, multiply, divide and she is not yet in K. She can read clocks, knows days, weeks, months and years. She loves maps and even knows the 50 US states with capitols, the different continents and oceans. Public can meet her needs?

I would be very surprised if a preschooler learned all of the state capitals completely on her own initiative, so who has been pushing all of this academic learning? Further, much of what you described may be rote memorization rather than true understanding (which is very common in "gifted" preschoolers/kindergartners, and tends to level out very quickly once they're expected to translate that memorization to logical reasoning, making connections, etc.). Your daughter may be able to recite all of the state capitals, but does she understand what a capital is, what purposes it serves, now it functions, etc.? She may know her multiplication tables, but can she read a multi-step word problem and understand how to translate that into the proper functions? Can she face a real-world problem where she's not specifically being coached/tested in math and understand how to apply her math skills there to find a solution to her problem?

She reads maps for pleasure. Any maps. Yesterday I came home finding a metro map on the dining table, which she read when she had her lunch. So she understands how to read the legend and symbols of the maps. We have a puzzle of US states with capitols and she just played with them. She knows that 4 apples for 8 kids implies each kids has 1/2 an apple. She loves playing Monopoly and often serves as our Banker, gives us change and reads our Chance and Community Chest cards. She loves to write short stories on her own and can spell words like "brown", "competition", "throat". She is eager to learn anything. She can calculate 3-4=-1 and understand the meaning of a negative numbers. Lately she loves to change the temperature setting on my phone from Farenheit to Celcius and knows how to calculate 34F=1C or 30F=-1C (because I once told her that 2 degrees in F is about 1 degree in C).

I will be happy if she can go to our public K, which would be logistically so much easier for me. What I do not want is that she will be ignored and not challenged, given that she knows the materials already.

If your child is profoundly gifted (search this term on DCUM, there are good threads) then you have your work cut out for you. Honestly, if she is this far ahead, a private school will not be the best bet as she will be too outside of the norm. I'd do some searching on here and then make a post asking other parents what they did. As I understand it, MoCo's HCG system is going to be your best bet for that level of acceleration. In the meantime, I'd also look at montessori schools. Keep in mind, however, that most of K is really about socialization and development. No matter where you end up, you are not going to get a year of hard-core academics because that's not the point of kindergarten.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, go tour Nysmith - they have bus service (and financial aid if you need it). Sometimes it's about being gifted and sometimes its about finding other kids like you - that also like to go deep into topics and discuss academic material. This school was made for that - you may eventually want the AAP program in public, but it doesn't start in preschool/K so it would be an interim solution. Will she be fine in public school- of course she will! No question - she's smart and sounds like she has good social skills. You can start poking around various other schools and see what you think - does it feel like a fit? do the kids seem lik ea fit for yours? Does she love learning?

[Anonymous]

My precocious child loved public K!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Public. Honestly. The strongest kids are in public. The bright kids who didn't get into the public programs? Those are the kids in the "private gifted schools."

Really? My preschooler can read, write, spell, add, subtract, multiply, divide and she is not yet in K. She can read clocks, knows days, weeks, months and years. She loves maps and even knows the 50 US states with capitols, the different continents and oceans. Public can meet her needs?

OP - Don't do this to yourself. Your child is smart but what you describe does not indicate that she/he needs to be treated differently or sent to a "private school for a gifted elementary school child." Any good public or good private in your area will work for Kindergarten -- and you can re-assess his/her situation each year if particular issues arise that suggest a change would be beneficial.

+1

Find a school that matches the environment you want for your child. She will have peers at most schools around here; what you describe is not uncommon.

[Anonymous]

Is OP in definitely in Virginia? If you’re not OP and may be in dc or Maryland area, then look into Feynman School. They may be just what you’re looking for, to meet your child’s needs.

There are always catty replies on DCUM whenever the word gifted is mentioned, it’s old and unnecessary, yet persistent.

[Anonymous]

Question for the OP, have you had your child tested? That might give you more information than just signs of early reading.