Anonymous wrote:It depends on the child, but I second the PP about letting the kids play. My DC is in HGC now. We didn't push. We had some workbooks, brain teaser books and such that DC did if DC wanted. We never had set-aside time. It was all just for fun.

But, if your DC really wants to do more academic stuff, then try out some of the links that your school provides. Our's has links to math games and such.

OP here.

I completely agree with you and the PP. There is plenty of creek stomping, fort building, ball throwing and general mayhem around here. We encourage it. I hope you didn't take me for some rigid task master I merely focused on the academics in my post because I've looked at the curriculum over the next two years and it's what my daughter can do in her head now. It just seems like such an empty path to follow... I guess I'm just looking for ideas to make it... not so empty.

And I just checked out code.org that a PP had mentioned. That looks awesome... thanks PP!

We also never pushed our HGC child. She seems to just find her own outlets. Luckily most of her pre-magnet teachers were willing to let her twist a project into something of interest when she asked for permission. In first grade she asked if she could add spelling words for herself to the class list. Could she add sentences to her art work? Could she start writing in cursive? She is already in 6th grade algebra. I am glad we did not push any more than that.

It depends on the child, but I second the PP about letting the kids play. My DC is in HGC now. We didn't push. We had some workbooks, brain teaser books and such that DC did if DC wanted. We never had set-aside time. It was all just for fun.

But, if your DC really wants to do more academic stuff, then try out some of the links that your school provides. Our's has links to math games and such.

I want to offer a slightly different perspective. We were in another state for DC's K and 1, but the school did offer to test him for giftedness in 1st. They then gave him 1 hr/week of "enrichment" with the other kids who tested as gifted (one in second grade, two in third and one in 4th, I think.) They just had them all together and let them do graphing projects and the like. That is, pretty minimal, but it was what they could do.

Then when we got here, they did move him to 3rd grade math in 2nd grade, but otherwise did nothing to enrich. Then in 3rd grade, they stopped accelerating in math, so he took 3rd grade math again. Finally, in 4th grade he got into the HGC and things were a little better academically.

However, we didn't do much to push or enrich in the previous grades, even though he was academically under-challenged.

I feel pretty strongly that the best things to do with any child, even (or especially) a gifted child is to let them PLAY, a lot. Gifted children tend to greater anxiety I find (at least mine did) and physical play is great for that. Also, they learn a great deal through physical movement and in interaction with nature. Many gifted children are also not the most social, and play allows them to develop greater understanding of themselves and others.

Sometimes it was hard for me to resist pushing my child forward, but I have no regrets whatsoever. I think too much rushing to learn things at a very young age can backfire when they are older. My goal is to grow happy, stable and well-rounded people.

Oh, the one thing I did do when DC was almost 7 was to start piano lessons. I think he put a great deal of his extra energy for learning into that, which I feel is quite beneficial on many levels.

Anonymous wrote:OP,

Question for you. How invested are you to devote time to your kid's education? I am asking because I enriched at home quite a bit. I did not depend entirely on the school.

Completely invested. We do a ton of stuff at home (workbooks, logic games, instruments) and have no plans to slow that down. I'm just hoping to get a little more juice from the public school squeeze. I was hoping for some anecdotes like 'Our school has a logic class for third grade and I was able to get our second grader into it by talking to administrator XYZ' or 'We talked to every 2nd grade teacher and found out there were other kids at advanced levels and now they do a pull out once a week'.

I guess I'd just like something to bring up so I don't end up having a conversation like this:

"So my kid is pretty good at math"
Teacher: "She sure is"
"Is there anything the school can do to challenge her a bit more?"
Teacher: "Nope"

And then we stare blankly at each other.

We kind of already had a similar conversation earlier in the year at the parent/teacher conference and I'd rather not repeat that sort of thing

My kids are both at the Blair magnet.

We did nothing prior to them going to the HGC, other than living our usual life - meaning, visits to museums; dinner conversation; lots of books; fun math- and language-related games; 4-H participation (they run a great Saturday science program).

OP,

Question for you. How invested are you to devote time to your kid's education? I am asking because I enriched at home quite a bit. I did not depend entirely on the school.

They read. A lot.

Anonymous wrote:It is just amazing how many gifted kids there are in MoCo!

It's Lake WoMoCo.

It is just amazing how many gifted kids there are in MoCo!

Public school did not work for us - we were told that they simply couldn't meet my child's needs, so we went to an independent school instead. It was absolutely the best decision for us.

Anonymous wrote:I never managed to have a meaningful discussion with the school but I wish i had. Try to get the MAP-P results, if your child has a high score maybe you can use that. Have you talked to the teacher?

We used various things at home including IXL, math textbooks and Khan academy but mostly just waited it out. Math at HGC (or compacted math) is better but still not really that challenging.

Thanks for the input. DD just took the Spring MAP-P and scored 232 (apparently the test went up to quadrilaterals). This really made me realize the gap between what's being taught in class (adding 10's and 1's) and where she is functioning. I see these great posts about HGC and it's completely frustrating thinking we have to wait two years before we even begin the application process. Just don't want that love of learning to fizzle.

We have a precocious 4-year-old with older siblings who did HGC, so we pretty much expect we'll be in your same situation. We use online programs now, from Khan Academy, code.org, Code Academy, and lots and lots of reading, etc... and we will do EEK. Orientation/testing is coming up, and we plan to discuss these issues then to start the dialogue with the school to see what can be done in the classroom to keep things interesting and challenging. Our older kids were fine at their home school for the most part, and their teachers did a pretty good job of teaching them where they were, but we found ourselves wishing HGC started a year or so sooner, as they started to come apart in 3rd grade from either boredom or having trouble fitting in with other kids because their interests were diverging so much.

I never managed to have a meaningful discussion with the school but I wish i had. Try to get the MAP-P results, if your child has a high score maybe you can use that. Have you talked to the teacher?

We used various things at home including IXL, math textbooks and Khan academy but mostly just waited it out. Math at HGC (or compacted math) is better but still not really that challenging.

If your child exhibited gifted traits at an early age (K-1) what did you do to keep them engaged while waiting until 4th for HGC? Not only just at home, but were you successful in finding them academic challenges at school? (And if so what did you do?)

My first grader absorbs math. Loves it. But there isn't anything to challenge her in the classroom right now and the next two years don't look like they will either. I'd like to engage the school but I don't want to come across as "My snowflake is smart so blah blah blah". What are the best paths to get a meaningful dialog started with the school?

Thanks!