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[quote=Anonymous]DS just got into GT.  Just thinking about what we did for him from an academic standpoint:
  - preschool starting at 3.5
  - activity books which they enjoyed.  We never forced it on them.  It helps with learning alphabets, numbers and shapes, and they aren't that expensive, maybe $5 or so. there are also lots of free online sites where you can print coloring pages, alphabet and number tracing, etc... If your library has access to the internet and a printer, you can try to print them there.  I still use those free online sites to print out things for my kids-- math problems and such..but my kids are older.

As PPs have stated, we read to both kids from infancy pretty much every night...we still do for younger one, but she's reading on her own now at 5; she just likes to be with us. We have always spoken to them in full sentences, not baby-talk.  We do explain a lot to them.  It's endless talk, talk, talk.  And when reading with them or discussing something with them, we sometimes stop and ask, do you understand what this means, etc...  Sometimes, it is exhausting.  But if you're up for it, it's the time you need to put into your child not necessarily $.  It's wonderful you want to put the time into your child.  I don't believe in hiring tutors for ES...too young.

I've heard parents spending lots of $ on tutors, prep classes and prep books for gt test (they are like $75 when I looked at them after a mom told me about them).  We did none of that  From what I can see, a true GT child doesn't need these things.  If a child passes the GT test after all the tutoring and such, is the child really a GT?  So the child knows now how to take the GT test, but how will the child do in the program without the extra prep classes and books?  More than likely, the parents will have to help a lot (if not do the actual work).

Part of the reason we also didn't spend $ on these prep classes and such was because we didn't want to make a huge deal of it to DS   Encouraging the best of your child is great.. pushing them too hard just to get into GT is terrible, IMO.  I want my kids to enjoy learning, not hate every minute of it.  That's pointless.

News articles have touted how students in Asia do so much better than kids in the US, but what they neglected to say is that the suicide rates in S. Korea due to intense pressure to excel in academics is extremely high.  And the kids there go to tutoring classes before and after school...they are in "class" from 7am to 11pm, and yes, even ES go to these types of classes, maybe not as long.  It's horrendous.  I don't know about other Asian countries, but the pressure is immense in S. Korea.  I could go on and on about it.  Don't put that kind of pressure on your kids here...it's not necessary.  Your child can succeed in life without this kind of pressure.

Encourage...don't pressure.  Try your best...and if that's not good enough to get into GT, then that's ok.  There are other things in life that are important too, like love of learning.  Oh yea, and in the GT open house they said that was one of the key factors of GT kids...they love to learn!  So pressuring won't lead to love of learning.

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