Anonymous wrote:By 4th grade, most sports are team based rather than school base in my experience. In addition, the kind of kid who will thrive in the center is a kid who will look at it with excitement. If your kid is more focused on staying with neighborhood friends at the home school, he probably isn't such a great fit and there's nothing wrong with that. I think that is part of the winnowing process. You want independent kids who respond well to a challenge.
There are so many scenarios that could result in staying at your current school. Not all "independent kids who respond well to a challenge" will necessarily want to leave their current school. Our "independent" child didn't want to attend the HGC. Fortunately for us she takes on independent research opportunities without prompting and seeks out challenging work both at home and at her current school. We decided to keep her at her current school (a language immersion program) because of the challenge that learning in a foreign language brings (and which she enjoys).