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[quote=Anonymous]Last year, I had some parents called me around this time after their child got accepted to Cold Spring to ask my opinion of the program since DD had been through it.  Every parent seems so excited at this "honor" that their kids got selected that they feel compel to send their "gifted" child.  Honestly, my child is no better off academically than other kids who were high performers who stayed at her local elementary school.  If anything, I think her confidence took a little bit of a hit.  She was a big fish in a small pond before, and became a small fish in a big lake.  While some parents will say that teaching kids to be humble and learn from failure is important, you need to evaluate the timing of this for some kids at this stage.  Some children need that extra boost of confidence at this precarious age and it would serve them better to gain this confidence in an envioronment that prepares them as they enter middle school.  We find children at Cold Spring very blunt, sometimes awkwardly so.  The smart bullies are actually the worst.  The way the school is physically structured (open concept where you have children run amuck between the classes and a lot of noise), the freedom that they get to do what they want is not always the best environment for the kids who are disorganize and distracted.  My advice to the parents who asked me last year about the program remains the same for the parents this year:  If your kid is happy and learning at their local school even if it's not to the level that you want, if you are willing to enrich your kid outside of school to cover the gaps, if your kid likes their peers at their local ES, if your kid does an extracurriculum activity that is time consuming be it a travel sport or something else that takes more than 3-4 days a week, then I would stay local.  If we are in Fairfax and gifted programs lasted 3rd through 8th, then I say it is worth it to go.  It is only 2 years at the CES, and almost all the kids at Cold Spring will return back to their local middle school.  I think another poster had said that last year only 2 kids got into the MS magnet when traditionally at least half go.  We have another DS in 3rd who we opted not to even test for the CES this year.  His academic profile fits well for the typical Cold Spring kid but he is in a travel soccer team, plays the piano, is in cub scout and rec swimming.  There is no doubt that DD learned a lot in her two years at Cold Spring and was pushed.  That said, the material that she learned wasn't rocket science (it is Elementary school content afterall!) such that we wouldn't be able to supplement either.  We expect DS will not be as challenged as we hope he'd be in school, but he has lots of friends through sports and some peers who match him intellectually in class.  He will be supplemented with material we find relevant.  Overall, we felt he is much better served at his home school for this reason.[/quote]

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