Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Study skills camp/ways to get ready for 6th grade

The local university is offering a study skills camp this summer for rising middle and high school students. I am thinking about sending DD9 as she was grade accelerated to 5th a few weeks ago, and I want her to be ready for 6th grade. DD's big sister (who will also start middle school) thought it sounded like a great idea for herself! I know that DD9 will throw a hissy fit because it's not going to be "fun" like other camps. I feel it would be a good bet - DD has ADHD inattentive type so is queen of disorganization, and the fact that she has now skipped the end of 4th and beginning of 5th means she needs some study tools under her belt. The camp is to teach learning strategies,test taking skills, and organizational skills. It's just a couple of hours per day for a week.
Good idea? Also, love to hear how other parents prepared their accelerated girls for middle school. She already goes to middle school Sunday school/has older friends/knows about sex and drugs. What am I missing? Oh, is it too early to talk with the school? I met with the AIG teacher a month ago when we thought about applying to the school so she is aware of our family. There is one other child there who is grade accelerated, and I know that family is very involved with the school to make sure the child is doing ok.

Not a bad idea as long as your daughter is willing. If she is going to drag her feet and not want to go she won't get a lot out of it IMO. Would she be in the same class as her sister? Would the two of them taking it together make it more fun or less? One of the things I've learned from this board is that gifted kids often can use study skill reinforcement. There often is a big difference between elementary and junior high. Particularly the change in having multiple teachers with different deadlines.

Middle school is different, with students having different teachers for each class. But they will learn to deal with it as they experience it, and I doubt a "study skills camp" will help much.

We did nothing in terms of prep for middle school for our grade accelerated DS11 (now in 6th). As it turns out, there is a huge range of executive functioning skills, and middle schools are equipped to deal with this. I wouldn't send my son to such a class if he didn't want to go, but that's just me. Unless you think your DD is way different from her current classmates, I wouldn't worry about it.

We are currently taking an organizational skills class (for students, but the whole family attends). And the experience is overall positive.*

Of course, DD12 (technically 6th, working up through 8th) is also coming off of 2 years of semi-unschooling and is having to apply a bunch of these skills for the first time. It's been rough and there's clearly a big gap in terms of test taking, time budgeting, note taking, etc.

I think that 4th and 5th are the years where this stuff is introduced in a more systematic way in our district and she missed it by leaving public for homeschooling and the opportunity to accelerate.

Now that she's in a public school again (albeit an online one) we're noticing a lack of these skills. Academically, the material isn't hard, it's just the process of taking the right notes, double checking answers and not rushing and missing easy stuff, keeping track of work due and notifications and grades, dealing with the pressure of tests. In fact, she turned down some higher level classes (9th grade) that the teacher suggested, and we're glad she did because so far her learning has all been in this executive skills area.

* Regarding the class... While DD has done some foot-dragging, I still think the class has been helpful. But we have had to approach it a bit differently with her. The class is not for gifted kids and I know she sees some of the exercises as overly simplistic and the pace somewhat slow. We just allow for a certain amount of doodling and let her express her thoughts regarding logical inconsistencies in the curriculum or areas of disagreement (politely and appropriately) with us and the instructor. The instructor seems to "get" her quite well and she's absorbed some tips and techniques seemingly by osmosis. The assistant on the other hand, seems to find her affronting somehow. But we've seen this before and don't let is get to us.

I agree with Bluemagic that study skills are often what gifted kids need most. They just don't need them until the workload increases and that is often at a much later date than NT kids. If your DD is willing to give it a try then it could be useful. Is it expensive? Could she go to the first session and try it out and stop if it isn't useful?

Our school runs a program in study skills. They have different things for each year group and generally do it early in the school year. Their diary has a section on study skills. Learning how to learn is the main thing to get out of school. Gifted kids may not get that lesson because school often isn't teaching them anything new or isn't challenging enough to warrant needing study skills.

This seems to be a common theme on a few threads at the moment.

Ha! Yes, the sibling rivalry issue! I will ask them about taking it together. In almost all things we have signed them up in separate classes. Yet today at home they worked on math together happily!! Luckily their elementary school is set up like middle school. Both have been going to different teachers for elective and core classes(in different buildings even!)their whole elementary career. DD9 just needs loads more help with this (I have to be so proactive to make sure the right paper gets to the right teacher although I do see improvement since the grade acceleration!).

Yes, I have seen this "need to learn how to study" mentioned quite a bit lately. Both DD's get to hear how they need study skills all the time from me! DD10 understands a bit more why she and DD9 go to a class after school for math ("stretching the brain").
The camp is not expensive, but after reading over the few posts here, I am inclined to email the university to get some more details.

I see two related issues:
1) study skills such as note taking (often Cornell notes but some prefer their own method, including doodling), reviewing (notes and source materials), analyzing, self-quizzing
2) ways to get ready for 6th grade might focus on executive function skills such as organization, prioritization, time management. NCLD is one source of information on executive function. Here is an image from Understood.org :
Camps can be a way for kids to practice study & organizational skills independently away from home while learning them. Yet for most kids, learning these things is not an event but a process. Coaching and support from parents who are aware of the specific approaches, techniques, and strategies can be helpful for ongoing reinforcement at home. From that perspective, having a book on hand to refer to can be helpful.