Gifted and talented options in the DMV?

[Anonymous]

Probably private options. Maybe post on that Board.

[Anonymous]

In Virginia, Nysmith, Basis, and Edlin are private schools that advertise themselves for gifted students.

Kindergarten is a bit of an odd duck in that the traditional focus is non-cognitive - I'd expect many more private schools than the three listed above would provide a good environment for a highly gifted K student. Less so for higher grades.

[Anonymous]

With respect, I would correct your assumption that it’s odd there aren’t more schools for the gifted in this educated area. The reason for this is actually that there are highly gifted students at very many of the public and private schools in the area. In fact in some particularly well-off areas, the majority of students at the elementary level test “gifted.” You may be surprised to find that your child has peers at most reasonably good schools in the area.

For reference, I had one son go through MCPS elementary “highly gifted center” and middle and high school magnet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably private options. Maybe post on that Board.

honestly, I don't think privates would meet the need a highly gifted Ker, either.

OP, my kid was pretty advanced in Ker. We lived in a wealthy school district outside the DC area, but they did not have any kind of gifted program for Ker, either. There were no kids at DC's level. That was fine because we wanted DC to focus on social/emotional learning in Ker. But we knew we were going to have to eventually move to a school district that offered more challenging programs. So, we did eventually move to MoCo, and DC went to magnets here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With respect, I would correct your assumption that it’s odd there aren’t more schools for the gifted in this educated area. The reason for this is actually that there are highly gifted students at very many of the public and private schools in the area. In fact in some particularly well-off areas, the majority of students at the elementary level test “gifted.” You may be surprised to find that your child has peers at most reasonably good schools in the area.

For reference, I had one son go through MCPS elementary “highly gifted center” and middle and high school magnet.

+1
A lot of people with 99.9 percentile testers don’t want a gifted program. My kid like that has been very happy in his independent school. Academic performance doesn’t necessarily match iq—particularly iq measured at 5yo which is notoriously inaccurate.

That said, I think OP is looking for something like Nysmith.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With respect, I would correct your assumption that it’s odd there aren’t more schools for the gifted in this educated area. The reason for this is actually that there are highly gifted students at very many of the public and private schools in the area. In fact in some particularly well-off areas, the majority of students at the elementary level test “gifted.” You may be surprised to find that your child has peers at most reasonably good schools in the area.

For reference, I had one son go through MCPS elementary “highly gifted center” and middle and high school magnet.

Statistically there would only be about 3000 kids per year born in that range (in the United States), so it's unlikely that you'd have a majority in any school unless that school focused on this population.

Kids that test that high are essentially a special needs population and really need to be around like minded peers in order to flourish, from what I have seen. These are the types of kids who can handle college level work at 11-12 years old.

[Anonymous]

The only real option for that is homeschool. You can tailor to his strengths and push as far as you both want that way. Most families don’t want to do that, so they send to traditional school and do afternoon enrichment.

Have you thought about immersion to challenge his brain in a new way? The math or reading might be basic, but doing it in another language could keep things interesting for him. FCPS has various language immersion programs starting in K and 1.

FWIW, my highly gifted kid has been just fine at a non gifted school. The social piece is enough to keep him engaged for now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I recommend a Montessori school.

Montessori was a poor fit because he masters a task after 1 or 2 tries and then wants to move on, whereas Montessori demanded more repetition in practice.

But why is it good to so fast move on from a task? Isn’t in depth understanding also important?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I recommend a Montessori school.

Montessori was a poor fit because he masters a task after 1 or 2 tries and then wants to move on, whereas Montessori demanded more repetition in practice.

But why is it good to so fast move on from a task? Isn’t in depth understanding also important?

That's the normal pace for gifted children. After 1-2 repetitions they have mastered the procedure and often have also figured out the underlying logic/principles. Forcing such a child to continue much beyond that is akin to punishment: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing_lines

OP, much of the advice here might come from parents of ordinarily gifted kids (2 SD above the mean) and might not be relevant to a highly gifted (3 SD) or profoundly gifted (4 SD) child.

https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ975980

Also, evidence shows that IQ is somewhat stable from preschool onwards.

[Anonymous]

Some of the only places you can find kids like him (and parents of kids like him who can advise you) are places like PG retreat and Epsilon Camp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks for the replies. I'm surprised there aren't more options around here given the size and education level of the area. There seem to be many more options in Boston (both public and private options for lower school) and at least a handful more around NY/NJ area.

NY/NJ and Boston are known for excellent public schools but the towns with the top schools don’t have “gifted” programs in elementary schools. They don’t need them in the towns that have the best schools. From there the Boston area is full of some of the best private schools in the country. Even some of the public high schools close to Cambridge / Boston are feeder schools for MIT and Harvard. Roxbury Latin is an excellent boys private school for one.

Unless he’s a prodigy that’s currently doing 5th grade math and high school science he would be fine at one of the top rated town’s public elementary school while looking at the many options for middle or high school.

[Anonymous]

We are in St. Louis county and there are 2 “pegs” schools (public school programs for children with 138+ iq scores). It is a full time self contained school option separate from the once-a-week “regular” gifted (130+ iq) pull-outs at each elementary school. We looked into it for one of our kids who would have met the criteria, but she was happy and has thrived at our neighborhood school. I am surprised there is not something similar in the dmv. Kansas City also has the program, I believe. Missouri is not that bad (we are east coast transplants)

[Anonymous]

In Nova, Ideaventions

[Anonymous]

This thread is 4 years old. Highly doubt OP is still looking for recommendations

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in St. Louis county and there are 2 “pegs” schools (public school programs for children with 138+ iq scores). It is a full time self contained school option separate from the once-a-week “regular” gifted (130+ iq) pull-outs at each elementary school. We looked into it for one of our kids who would have met the criteria, but she was happy and has thrived at our neighborhood school. I am surprised there is not something similar in the dmv. Kansas City also has the program, I believe. Missouri is not that bad (we are east coast transplants)

Yeah Missouri is that bad.