I think my Dad's family all 5 boys were on solid tracks until his oldest brother was killed in Vietnam. Pretty much destroyed the family. The two younger brothers in high school floundered for the rest of life. My Dad and his middle brother were both very successful - ivy league engineer and MD.

In my birth family, two of my brothers and I were gifted. Grew up in the Midwest where the options were limited so the answer was to skip grades and do more on your own. I skipped grades and graduated early, got my college degree and started graduate school at age 19!

One middle brother was significantly challenged in the traditional school environment. I think he struggled a lot. But, he is very gifted when it comes to working with his hands, inventing and building things. He failed college algebra classes multiple times and yet builds his own solar panel systems (with no instruction manuals- he just seems to know how to figure it out) - to power his self-built tiny home. He also picked up languages faster than the rest of us when we lived abroad, as he learned with local friends while my parents and I worked with a tutor.

So, I echo many PPs on how siblings are different and can be "gifted" in different ways.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kind of surprised at this thread. Most kids we know who are advanced (in AAP, magnet) have siblings who are also in those programs or qualified for those programs.

But how many siblings? One sibling ok, but several siblings they odds go down

Most of the families only have 2 kids but I can think of at least three families with 3 kids who all went through AAP or magnets. One family with three to MIT, another with 3 to Princeton, another with 3 to HPY (all different schools).

No. One of my children is highly gifted. The other has significant learning disabilities. Both are awesome kids.

6 all highly intelligent

All took basically same classes all went to what this forum considers IVY plus MIT., Stanford, Yale, Carnegie Mellon etc…Warton

What I would say is read to them and with them. Teach them to love reading. Teach them to love learning. Teach them no question is wrong.

I did not breast feed.
We did not have them spend summers doing things to get into college.
Essays no help. We have no hooks.

Two out of the six are not as good at test taking as their siblings but they are extremely hard workers.

One almost didn’t graduate from college with a 3.8 Gpa bec that one could not pass a foreign course

In my husband’s family, all 3 kids were advanced / gifted and went to top schools although one is an engineer and one is a writer. I’m an only child and I was gifted - as were 3 of 3 cousins in one family and 2 of 3 cousins in another family. The one that wasn’t advanced had an injury at birth and she can’t live independently.
Both of my kids are gifted, but one of them significantly more so.

Anonymous wrote:Kind of surprised at this thread. Most kids we know who are advanced (in AAP, magnet) have siblings who are also in those programs or qualified for those programs.

Maybe assortative mating has changed this. But that brings its own problems.

Anonymous wrote:Kind of surprised at this thread. Most kids we know who are advanced (in AAP, magnet) have siblings who are also in those programs or qualified for those programs.

But how many siblings? One sibling ok, but several siblings they odds go down

Kind of surprised at this thread. Most kids we know who are advanced (in AAP, magnet) have siblings who are also in those programs or qualified for those programs.

I have 3 kids - the older two boys are in AAP and my youngest a girl is in Gen Ed. I think she'll likely do as well as the boys in school in the long run. I'm not really worried about it. She's top of Gen Ed, and there's something to be said about being the big fish in a small pond too. In my "old age" as a parent, I think it's fine if she takes all honors classes in middle school as opposed to AAP.

Anonymous wrote:If you have more than one child, do they seem to track academically similar? All in AAP (advanced programs) or all in gen ed?

Two bio kids. One adopted. All were identified as GT and took advanced classes. One is in a magnet HS program.

In my family growing up, two tagged as gifted, other two regular honors track smart. The two that are just “normal” smart are unusually gifted socially and make and maintain an endless number of friendships, so it’s not all about what can be measured on a standardized test.

Anonymous wrote:If you have more than one child, do they seem to track academically similar? All in AAP (advanced programs) or all in gen ed?

The first one is smartest and hardest working. We did not understand the FCPS system and didn't push for AAP until late ES. She's currently at TJ. Our second child is sweet, but not as smart as our oldest and definitely not hard working. They got liv starting in 3rd because we knew to prep for cogats and to push the teacher to refer.

DC1: 2e.
DC2: just gifted.

Parents: both 2e. We're just really happy that one person in the family hasn't inherited too much ADHD and none of the ASD.

Small mercies.

My dad's family had 10 kids, and all of them were advanced. My grandmother told me the trick was to help each child be confident in themselves, realize that they might not approach academics the same way, and that's ok.