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[quote=Anonymous]I went to a so-so elementary school and later a top private school.  I don't know that the teaching was heads and shoulders better in private school.  In fact, I credit my elementary school teachers with giving me a strong foundation.  The difference for me was the expectations in the classroom and the expectations of the parents of my peers.  It wasn't a bad thing to do well in private school because it was expected that everyone was trying to do well in school or there would be heck to pay with their parents.  I also think it was assumed that eveyone was college bound.  I'm not going to say that back then you couldn't do well at my local middle school and high school but I think it helps to have a peer group/friends with the same goals.  As a parent you can help organize things like a kid book club or find other like minded parents and organize around a common interest.  Something like Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts can accommodate a lot of different interests. There was also an article in the post a few years about African-American parents that had started a club to help Give their children an academically and enrichment oriented peer group. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021900952.html

I think enrichment comes in many forms and you want to encourage book smarts, people smarts, testing smarts, background knowledge, and individual attributes like perserverance, resilience, and working hard.  While I was an avid reader and think that helped me in general and in testing with vocab,  I definitely had to work on people smarts/working in teams and being a leader, individual attributes like being willing to try something and fail and that being okay and part of learning/innovation (I point to the teacher example of building things), and testing smarts in certain areas that don't come to me naturally like geometry and spatial reasoning.  With my kids, I try not to over stress any one area because ultimately they will all be important in life.  I would agree with all the suggestions from the teacher 22:21 but add peer group enrichment especially for that point when friends are more central than parents, leadership/public speaking/teamwork opportunites, and testing prep as appropriate.  For example, I plan to get books and have DIY SSAT prep slowly over the course of 2 years.  There could be be opprtunities that open up because of scoring well on the test and scholarship opprtunites that are partially related to test scores.[/quote]

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