smart, bored 2nd grader, can't afford private, what to do?

[Anonymous]

I have two gifted, very high IQ kids... sometimes they tell me that they are "bored" but in reality they haven't really even paid attention to the assignment or even done a very good job with their written explanation. Smart kids need to be taught to excel at their work, do it neater, write more, revise more. Not just be given new challenges but to truly do an above average response on their work.

Smart kids sometimes are very lazy, it's easy for them to spew out the average, or about average response quickly. Fine tuning and creating an exceptional response is what is troublesome for them. I think sometimes we want to ADVANCE gifted kids before the have achieved full MASTERY of a subject.

Smart kids are bored, the have to learn how to entertain their minds and re-work and delve deeper on their own. That is when true genius comes out, they have to learn to think in depth about simple problems at a younger age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have two gifted, very high IQ kids... sometimes they tell me that they are "bored" but in reality they haven't really even paid attention to the assignment or even done a very good job with their written explanation. Smart kids need to be taught to excel at their work, do it neater, write more, revise more. Not just be given new challenges but to truly do an above average response on their work.

Smart kids sometimes are very lazy, it's easy for them to spew out the average, or about average response quickly. Fine tuning and creating an exceptional response is what is troublesome for them. I think sometimes we want to ADVANCE gifted kids before the have achieved full MASTERY of a subject.

Smart kids are bored, the have to learn how to entertain their minds and re-work and delve deeper on their own. That is when true genius comes out, they have to learn to think in depth about simple problems at a younger age.

This is my kid. Cruised through several magnets without putting in very much work, and now that he's in a high school magnet his work ethic is biting him in the butt. When they're young, it's hard to insist on what amounts to perfection because your kid is going to accuse you of helicoptering, perfectionism, and not being satisfied with an A-. This is how it played out in our family. Now that he's older I wish we had insisted more, and we're certainly pushing him now. In any case, polishing and going deeper are part of the answer to "boredom."

[Anonymous]

This is how it played out in our family. Now that he's older I wish we had insisted more, and we're certainly pushing him now.

I was the 11:37 poster... and I can tell you that we are already are having issues in 5th grade HGC. Her previous teacher did not want the kids to be pushed too much so right now getting her to write meaningful complete thoughts is a struggle. When they test high and outperform their peers, even in the gifted classes, they get too over confident, and it does come back to bite them later.

[Anonymous]

My kids have been in private school then public. Don't assume that a private will provide more challenges automatically. The private school didn't differentiate and taught pretty much to the middle - it costs more to teach a range of levels and may not be feasible with a small school size. My kids were provided with greater differentiation opportunities when they transferred to public school. And with more students, they were able to find more kids operating at their academic level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids have been in private school then public. Don't assume that a private will provide more challenges automatically. The private school didn't differentiate and taught pretty much to the middle - it costs more to teach a range of levels and may not be feasible with a small school size. My kids were provided with greater differentiation opportunities when they transferred to public school. And with more students, they were able to find more kids operating at their academic level.

+1. This was our experience as well, at a small area private. Many public school teachers seem to be better at differentiating. Not all of them, but many.

[Anonymous]

This was the case for my friend in a Catholic Arlington School. Now they are in Howard county and he is struggling because he has to actually put some effort into his homework. I would have probably dismissed this as a lucky you to have such a problem until I read this study this weekend.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/09/challenges-gifted-kids-study_n_4557489.html

Who Rises to the Top? Early Indicators

https://my.vanderbilt.edu/smpy/files/2013/02/Kell-Lubinski-Benbow-20132.pdf

[Anonymous]

Many of the issues, which you are writing about, concerned us, too. After looking at the options - public and private - we ended up at a private school, which specializes in gifted children.

About Thanksgiving, we hit a hiccup with our son, who for the first time had to actually struggle to learn something in school. He actually said that he wanted to go back to homeschooling because he then came to school knowing all the information already. We've had to really reset his expectation of what school is - a place to learn, not cruise through the classes. We've had to actively work with him to understand that not knowing something did not mean he was a failure. And, this attitude is coming from a fairly young person.

It really taught my husband and I that those cruising behaviors started early.

BTW - the school is Feynman School and it is in Bethesda, if anyone is interested.

[Anonymous]

Not only do they learn cruising early, they learn to cry bored early too.

I have the hardest time with my highly gifted 10 year old, he likes to whine about not "having any fun" when he is doing perfectly acceptable grade level work, if he can't whiz through it... he's bored, meanwhile he has not done a very good job on the assignment.