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Parents of children with super high IQ scores - where are your children in school?
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Anonymous
Not OP, but just reading this thread. Our child is currently a rising 3rd grader and we learned of DC's giftedness when DC started reading, adding, and subtracting before turning three. We hadn't done a thing to teach DC any of this, BTW. Our suspicions were later confirmed with testing, which we delayed until we had to for private school entrance; DC's IQ was well in excess of the 99th percentile according to the test. To be honest, since we learned of it, we haven't done a thing to nurture and support it except find a school that is a good fit and is challenging. We have been trying to find a balance between making sure DC is academically challenged, but also making sure DC learns good social skills. We mostly consider it the school's job to nurture and support DC's intelligence. I don't mean we do nothing, but what I mean is we searched high and low for a good school fit, and having happily found it, we delegate that part of DC's life to the school. Our job is to provide extra-curricular opportunities, which we do, and teach other things, like how to be a good person. |
Anonymous
| 140s Burgundy Farm |
Anonymous
| upper 140s and Canterbury Woods GT Center in Fairfax County |
Anonymous
| 146 WISC, just now ending 2nd grade, will be in Level 4 classroom at FCPS base school next year. (Decided not to send to GT Center next year.) She's been pretty unchallenged in K and 1st, but she likes our school very much. The worst part was reading groups and the terrible books they have given them the last couple years. The base school's GT program seems very exciting though, so hoping for the best for next year. We do supplement a bit at home. She adores math and workbooks, and is happily working her way through a separate math curriculum at home (of her own volition). |
Anonymous
It's great that your daughter will have a strong GT Center-eligible peer group at your Local Level 4 base school. Your school is in the minority of FCPS Local level 4 schools that has enough kids per grade to have that strong peer group. |
Anonymous
| I know we are lucky and it played a role. Also, frankly, our particular GT Center program as presented did not seem that exciting or worth the upheaval of moving our DD (who does not deal well with change). Our family is going through a lot of other stuff right now (DH laid off, me returning to work after 8 years as a SAHM) and did not feel the change was worth it this year. |
Anonymous
I'm sorry about your family's financial upheaval. At least you can elect to switch to a GT Center any time up to 8th grade. Good luck with your new job! |
Anonymous
I do not homeschool, but I disagree. The homeschooled children that I have met are very nicely socialized and advanced in the area of conversation skills and courtesy. We spent a few years in public school (a very affluent public school in NOVA) and the lack of student social skills as well as the lack of adult modeling of appropriate social skills was quite frightening. Our private school did not have children who came to the school with wonderful social skills, but the adults encouraged and modeled acceptable behavior. |
Anonymous
OP here. Don't want to say too much to out myself and dc, but, yes, definitely we had a sense that dc was cognitively gifted. Dc is not yet 4 y/o and the recent testing confirmed what we suspected. Hard to describe except that, even as a baby, dc was a full 6 months ahead in cognitive development and fine motor - and is now about 2 years ahead. Gross motor development has always been right on average. When dc was born, dc was fully alert and has stayed that way - good natured, but no periods of the kind of placidity that is more common with young babies than the kind of continued arousal and external interest that dc showed. Dc showed interest in books and being read to starting around 3 m/o. Dc did and does things that sometimes send a little chill up our backs because they are unexpected - like using sign language at 5 m/o (we had introduced a few signs only at around 3 m/o), first words at 7 m/o, and going from two word combinations to full compound sentences literally overnight at 20 m/o. Also just the way dc discusses seeing the world and goes about exploring it with a curiosity, creativity and analytical approach that is exceptional for dc's young age. Amazing skills with blocks (doing creations that are said on the box to be for 6 y/o children). The nurturing and supporting question made me laugh - because that's why I started this thread. We are honestly having trouble just keeping up. And I rely far too much on educational television for breaks when I need them 
As others have discussed on other threads about children like this, they push to learn more - every single day. It's a bit exhausting - exciting and interesting, but exhausting. And, yes, of course dc plays - but often the playing (especially when dc is home with us rather than at a play date) will trigger some thought process that becomes a question of interest that becomes another learning experience. They're like little sponges. Up until now, when dc has shown an interest in something, we would of course help dc pursue it - and we'll continue to do that. But we're feeling the need to make sure that dc's school environment will be stimulating and supportive enough in the future - in part to take some of the pressure off at home 
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Anonymous
PP, in some ways, the best people for keeping up with your (our) amazing kids are other kids. Sometimes the kids are more creative and challenging than adults. And kids have more stamina than we do  ...and they help each other learn social boundries and collaboration.
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Anonymous
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OP, a suggestion re the exhaustion issue. One word: audiobooks. When my DC started wanting to hear more ambitious books, she expected me to read them from beginning to end just like picture books. Needless to say, that was unrealistic in many cases. The solution we found was audiobooks. She could listen to a long and involved story, repeating passages she was curious about, while playing with blocks or drawing or doing a myriad of other different things.
When they're craving more input and when they're still new enough readers that what they want to hear/think about is out of sync with what they can take in by reading to themselves, listening to books can be a great alternative and it doesn't always have to be to a parent reading. And developing a good ear for language really helps with writing. Years later, DC still listens to audiobooks and now there's a whole world of adult non-fiction (e.g. history) that's within a gifted elementary schooler's reach, in addition to literature. |
Anonymous
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Really want to agree with 8:23 about the exhaustion aspect. Our DC exhausts us with questions about things that she has a deep interest in. She demands a high level of facts and detail and also asks about ethically or analytically complex issues. While we rely a lot on books, that is not a substitute for discussion with real human beings. We can simply not sustain this level of inquiry by ourselves.
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Anonymous
| And, of course, that's where other kids aren't the best resource. They can't answer those kinds of questions (yet)! |
Anonymous
Well, they can't always answer the other questions, but I do find it fascinating to eavesdrop on children grappling amongst each other with the answers to these questions. |
Anonymous
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One child in the 150s and the other in the 160s. Both at Potomac and couldn't be happier.
I second the recommendation on the audio books! |