Anonymous wrote:Dear OP, did you go to Harvard or MIT?

Not OP and assume you are being snarky. But I am PG with an I.Q. of 183 and went to Harvard Law. PG is an actual determination and education options are limited so cut the snart. I have two SN kids, both of whom are in MENSA and PG. Try finding a good 2e school that can deal with that.

OP my child is gifted. Proved by many tests and so on. He’s a young adult now. At first he was in public school where the teachers did make a big effort letting him work in 5th grade level in first. But in later grades he got bored. He was always working on a big project after finishing his week of work on Monday. He’s a nice kid & no trouble. Teachers liked him.

We moved to Virginia and he went to Thomas Jefferson HSST. Much better for him. He WANTS to do all that work.
He’s in college now where he can really pursue his work dreams. Holding him back to make him “normal” would have been awfully frustrating for him. He likes meeting others like himself.

He’s just a certain way: he wants to challenge himself with things and that’s how he is. We just have to accept that.

So OP I would say your DC needs an environment that supports him.

OP my child is gifted. Proved by many tests and so on. He’s a young adult now. At first he was in public school where the teachers did make a big effort letting him work in 5th grade level in first. But in later grades he got bored. He was always working on a big project after finishing his week of work on Monday. He’s a nice kid & no trouble. Teachers liked him.

We moved to Virginia and he went to Thomas Jefferson HSST. Much better for him. He WANTS to do all that work.
He’s in college now where he can really pursue his work dreams. Holding him back to make him “normal” would have been awfully frustrating for him. He likes meeting others like himself.

He’s just a certain way: he wants to challenge himself with things and that’s how he is. We just have to accept that.

So OP I would say your DC needs an environment that supports him.

I would go public until your kid gets a little older and you figure out his needs.

I would settle in an area with highly educated families and a well regarded public school system that has a reputation for working with families and being flexible on meeting kids needs, including letting them take classes above grade level. This works best if the middle school is really close to the High School. Look at the HS curriculum for AP, IB or DE. And take a really good look at the gifted services delivery model. These vary widely. Some systems have push-in models, others have separate classes or even separate schools for gifted kids.

I would also be in a large city with diverse offerings, so that way your kid can do a lot of things outside of school. In WDC, there is SO much a gifted kid can do outside of school.

Also, a large city will have privates that you can consider as your kid gets older.

Anonymous wrote:Having a now teenager who tested in the upper 99th range on IQ as a young kid, I would choose the school which will allow your kid to have the most normal social education possible, with a large enough peer group that he can be just one of the crowd instead of The Weird Smart Kid, and where he has enriching classes.

+1

I would read up on Montessori education. I think it could be a great fit for your kid. The classrooms are multi-age and each child can work at his/her own pace and follow their interests. A very gifted child would not stand out and would be challenged to work at their own pace.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don’t even know your kid is gifted.

I don’t but we need to buy a house now, so are trying to figure out school options. And, as I mentioned in my OP, we have reasons to think there is a chance he will be.

If we weren’t home searching, I don’t think I would be as fixated on this, at least not for a couple more years.

OP, I have a PG kid and when we were looking for a house we looked for a walkable neighborhood, a safe school with highly educated families (parents with graduate degrees or Phds), and in a metro area where there are a lot of great cultural experiences and enrichment opportunities. DC is in late elementary and couldn't be happier. I don't think you need to overthink this. PG kids are often able to motivate themselves to do projects on their own.

What does the school being “safe” have to do with having a PG child? Do you think a dangerous school is somehow nbd for kids with average or below average IQs?

Also, did you survey the parents at the schools you looked at to find out their education levels?

DP but I think PP was just saying they looked for things educated MC/UMC families look for. And you can find out neighborhood education data on lots of real estate/neighborhood info websites. We chose our neighborhood in part because more than 60% of households had an adult with a graduate degree.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don’t even know your kid is gifted.

I don’t but we need to buy a house now, so are trying to figure out school options. And, as I mentioned in my OP, we have reasons to think there is a chance he will be.

If we weren’t home searching, I don’t think I would be as fixated on this, at least not for a couple more years.

OP, I have a PG kid and when we were looking for a house we looked for a walkable neighborhood, a safe school with highly educated families (parents with graduate degrees or Phds), and in a metro area where there are a lot of great cultural experiences and enrichment opportunities. DC is in late elementary and couldn't be happier. I don't think you need to overthink this. PG kids are often able to motivate themselves to do projects on their own.

What does the school being “safe” have to do with having a PG child? Do you think a dangerous school is somehow nbd for kids with average or below average IQs?

Also, did you survey the parents at the schools you looked at to find out their education levels?

Have a teenager who has tested 150-160+ iq (depending on test--all are above 150). Just went through normal FCPS AAP program, though he was allowed to read, write and do math at a more accelerated/enriched pace than the AAP curriculum so he went to algebra 7H in 5th grade, Geometry H in 6th--and he's doing AP Calc in 9th grade. I felt going through AAP was for him socially even though he was one of the more advanced in his group--he gets along with a wider range of people than he did in the early years. Not sure that would have been the case if we found a more "tailored" program. He wasn't interested in TJ because his friends weren't going and he's not totally STEM focused. He's been to a couple of events/workshops via Davidson and other groups and while he found them fine, he didn't have that 'I've finally found my tribe' feeling that other kids there expressed. He seems to be good at appreciating skills/talents of those with lower IQ than him, like he wants to be more decisive like a friend rather than his ruminating, weighing all sides own approach. Another friend is really funny and he admires that. I think it helps that the group of friends are all in AAP so likely 130+ so any IQ differences aren't marked. Now in HS, we're running a bit out acceleration options so we're having to figure that out--he's uninterested in early college. He may do linear algebra dual enrollment. He doesn't love math but this is sort of his steady pace of doing it and he hasn't encountered anything he has found too challenging yet. He loves history/writing/reading more. In my view, he's doing well--mentally healthy, self-aware, has friends he cares about, and moving forward academically without letting it consume his whole life.

Having a now teenager who tested in the upper 99th range on IQ as a young kid, I would choose the school which will allow your kid to have the most normal social education possible, with a large enough peer group that he can be just one of the crowd instead of The Weird Smart Kid, and where he has enriching classes.

OP- good post. We also have a potential PG on our hands, and we're in private now. DC is not challenged enough nor are many class-level peers motivated or aim for strong academic success. We also find ourselves thinking that DC would be better off in an environment with more like-minded peers. We're beginning to feel that DC is being made a bit of an outcast for being smarter than most of the rest. Thinking that #1/#3 may be best option.

Dear OP, did you go to Harvard or MIT?

Anonymous wrote:Another PG adult here (skipped several grades like you), with a PG spouse (went through normal schooling), and a kid who is too young to test properly. Kids are usually within 1 standard deviation (roughly 15 points) of the average of the parents' IQ, though.

I agree with what is your not-quite-stated goal -- to give your kid something resembling a normal childhood, while ensuring that school is not torture for them.

I think there are a ton of different paths that are possible, depending on the personality and orientation of your child, though. There's no one schooling answer, or parenting answer in general.

For instance, you could have a kid who is happy coasting through school because s/he is perfectly happy treating it as a social experience that they daydream through, and their real learning takes place outside of school, or with a focus on an extracurricular activity. In that case, you'd probably be best off at a school that is play-based for as long as possible, and then doesn't burden kids with a lot of academic busywork, and that has bright peers. That is more likely to be private than public.

Or maybe you have a kid with an intense thirst for knowledge and an introverted personality who wants a lot of academic challenge. In that case you're probably going to end up seeing if one of the local gifted schools is viable. If not, you will probably end up homeschooling.

And those are just two possibilities out of many. It all really depends on your kid. Keep in mind that their needs may change over time, too.

This. I have a pg child who is now in her 20s. Meet whatever needs you can in real time and aim for happy. There is no miracle answer.

Also, the Davidson school is in Reno not Denver.

And choose 1 or 3. You want the diversity of ideas and experiences.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don’t even know your kid is gifted.

I don’t but we need to buy a house now, so are trying to figure out school options. And, as I mentioned in my OP, we have reasons to think there is a chance he will be.

If we weren’t home searching, I don’t think I would be as fixated on this, at least not for a couple more years.

OP, I have a PG kid and when we were looking for a house we looked for a walkable neighborhood, a safe school with highly educated families (parents with graduate degrees or Phds), and in a metro area where there are a lot of great cultural experiences and enrichment opportunities. DC is in late elementary and couldn't be happier. I don't think you need to overthink this. PG kids are often able to motivate themselves to do projects on their own.