Experienced CTYers - how to convince kid it's not summer school

[Anonymous]

Hi there. DS received a qualifying verbal score; I'm exploring the VA day program. He wants nothing to do with it. I'd appreciate any tips on how to keep an open mind. Past experience has taught me that once he gets there he'll appreciate it.

But I don't have the words for him.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Show him the course catalog? If he doesn’t want to study a certain subject intensively, it won’t be fun for him.

[Anonymous]

My thought as a former gifted kid, was that one of the things that was really important to me as a kid was that I could seek out what I was interested in. My advice would be to have your kid express interest and disinterest and guide their own activities.

[Anonymous]

I have heard it involves lots of work. If your kid is not I to it do something else enriching.

[Anonymous]

My guess is kid has always had a typical laid back summer. You now get one score and want him to essentially work through part of his summer. Not sure what words will make him agree to this.

[Anonymous]

It *is* summer school. It's successful for kids who are so into their topic that they want to go to summer school to study it. If you aren't honest with him about what it entails and get his buy in for that reality, he's not going to be successful once he gets there.

[Anonymous]

I loved it. Can’t imagine doing it as a day student. How boring and pointless. That is just summer school.

[Anonymous]

Can he do the overnight camp, instead of day camp? Otherwise, I could see how it will feel like school.

[Anonymous]

What is this?

[Anonymous]

Let the kid be a kid! Enjoy lazy summers at the pool!

[Anonymous]

I loved CTY as a kid and did several years of the overnight camps. Not sure I would have liked the day camps. It really is like school and there is a fair amount of work but most of the kids who were there wanted to be there and were excited about the class they were taking. The kids who were miserable/homesick/struggling were usually the ones whose parents made them go. Let him look at the course catalog and see if there is a course he is excited about. If not, it isn't worth it.

[Anonymous]

How old is he?

If he himself is not truly eager to go, I would not send him. There are lots of other things to be learned in the summer that don’t happen in a classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It *is* summer school. It's successful for kids who are so into their topic that they want to go to summer school to study it. If you aren't honest with him about what it entails and get his buy in for that reality, he's not going to be successful once he gets there.

+1 and there is HOMEWORK too. omg. My kids learned a lot but I thought the homework thing was over the top

[Anonymous]

The fun part is hanging out with the other kids after the classes

[Anonymous]

I went to CTY multiple times. It is summer school, and an intense one at that, if you don’t have the benefit of it also being an overnight camp. The bonding time I got with the other kids was priceless. I got to go to my first dance, make lifelong friends, even had my first kiss there. I loved it because I was amongst other nerdy kids so I fit in. But I would have hated just going during the day.