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    Joined: Jul 2014
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    Tigerle Offline OP
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    Apologies if this thread exists somewhere and I wold have just needed to post, haven't seen it.
    I very much enjoyed this thread last year, reading about the many ways gifted kids can be made happy (and the way some are made unhappy, always the same story...). Please relate and comment.

    DS10 has started his second year (6th grade) at the public gifted magnet. He was happy to see his friends again and harmony appears to reign. After an initially auspicious beginning, there were lots of conflicts and some bullying throughout last year, which the teachers say is par for the course for the first two years in the gifted classes, with so many high strung personalities with difficult histories coming together from many different elementary schools, having to sort out new social and academic hierarchies, but that by 7th grade, the community tends be be strong. Hopefully they have already calmed down somewhat for this year.

    He's started Latin, which he very much enjoys, and has signed up for orchestra, research club and, of all things, Ancient Greek club! Held once a week during lunch hour ("oh, we've got 20 minutes to eat, that's plenty!"), with another avid Percy Jackson fan, and only another two or three kids from higher grades, a teacher will sit down with them all year and teach them Ancient Greek. I would never have dared come up with this! But I guess that is his enrichment needs mostly sorted, only needs to be driven to his individual violin lessons and sports now.

    DD7 is now officially skipped and has started 3rd grade. She was in a 1st/2nd split last year and moved up together with another little girl from first and all the other 2nd graders, looped with the same teacher, so it doesn't feel like a big change for her at all. She told me she feels calmer, more settled, clearer about what she has to do, so I guess she felt somewhat unsettled by sometimes doing first year and sometimes second year work, and now knows where she belongs. So far, so good, and I now just have to put off worrying how we can prevent her finishing high school at 16!

    DS4, severely physically disabled, but at least mildly to moderately gifted (still hard to tell, due to the speech delay and some socio-emotional issues) has moved from special needs preschool (6 kids to 3 teachers) to mainstream preschool (24 kids to 3 teachers). We thought he'd be so overwhelmed, because he spent a visit in spring crying on my lap, but he's been doing great, has already found two little friends and and has shown a clear intellectual and emotional growth spurt already. At his former school, the staff and resources were wonderful, but most of the other children multiply disabled and barely verbal. It is clear now that he desperately needed the intellectual stimulation from other verbal kids, just as he needed the time to grow at his old preschool (he only started speaking at 3 and walking at just before 4).

    Right now, it feels we've mostly done the right thing with everyone for this year, which feels really good. Whew! Now if only l could get the horrific afternoon therapy and enrichment logistics sorted....

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    Lots of transitions here. We moved DD12 to a new state in December, put her in a different school to begin this current school year (8th grade), and then transitioned her again due to transportation issues a few weeks later.

    DD had issues with her placements in both schools for this year, but I'm pleased to announce that DD has successfully self-advocated, and her school staff is transitioning her to the honors classes for LA and Algebra as I type this.

    Joined: May 2014
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    DS17 is just thriving. He is captain of his varsity sport and just eating up his role as leader and mentor to the freshmen. He has come a long way from 9th grade quiet kid on the team! He took advantage of our week off for hurricane Irma to get his college applications mostly done. Finishing up this week. He is my gifted kid who didn't need too much extra from the school for his giftedness but did need accommodations for his 2e. He has mostly learned to deal with 2e and has outgrown most of his need for accommodations. Real growth there.

    DS12 is doing well at his school that is 6-12th grade arts school. He is great on his instrument. Because the school is both middle and high school and small, they have been able to subject accelerate and place him wherever he needed. And the music part is just great. I would love to say it gives him something he has to work hard at but I would say he does have to put some effort in....still not hard. He did got to a summer program through Duke TIP and loved it.

    Joined: Nov 2012
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    It's been a terrific start to the year. DS is attending a small private school in a class that offers personalized learning plans in all subjects, and one of his teachers is also trained as an engineer. The school offers a great selection of STEM-focused clubs and activities, and DS has been thrilled to build a new group of like-minded friends, complete with secret handshakes, in-jokes, and collaborative inventing. He woke up on the weekend and asked if it was Monday yet, because he was so excited to be back to school.

    In short, a dream. Last year's me is glaring at this year's me with furiously green eyes.

    Don't pinch me!

    Joined: Oct 2015
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    DS8 finally started the advanced LA and Math this year (the gifted program starts in 3rd grade in our school district). The advanced program is a pull out program that happens every school day. Because DS is in both ALA and AMA, he spends his whole morning with the advanced teacher and other advanced kids.

    We had curriculum night just last week and I am very happy to learn that the teacher has advanced degrees and extensive training in gifted education. She was in gifted programs all her early school life and she's now been in the program in our school district for over 20 years (ever since the program started). She also has a gifted son of her own.

    Overall, I feel pretty optimistic with this school year for DS8, in terms of challenging school work and social aspect. I hope DS8 will enjoy school more this year.

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    DD16 started her freshman year at university earlier this month.

    +1 on the class front: She already feels like a biology rockstar as she was one of the few in her lab who already knew how to set up and use a binocular microscope. She could also prep her own slides without the instructor's assistance. Ended up getting out of lab way earlier than everyone else.

    +1 on self advocacy: When a class she needed for next term was full, she emailed the head of the dept. and talked to him about getting her into a section.

    +1 on fitting/blending in: One of her varsity sport teammates said to her, "Have you heard that one of our teammates is only 16?" "Uh, yeah. That's me."

    -1 on fitting in (in her father's opinion): She has met a "really cool guy" who walks her home from lunch even though his dorm is in the other direction.

    So, other than this supposed "cool guy", things are going swimmingly. smile

    --S.F.


    For gifted children, doing nothing is the wrong choice.
    Joined: Mar 2014
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    DS18 started his freshman year at his choice of school. So far, we brought the wrong bedlinens (I grabbed the wrong box when loading up), no one remembered where his credit card was (in my purse), and he had two debit cards: one not activated, one old. So right off the bat, he was almost a week delayed in getting his books. He didn't have a certain piece of equipment needed for his instrument.

    On the plus side: He already figured out that his meal plan isn't appropriate for how he's eating on campus, so it was changed. He gets along with his roommate, says they counter each other well. He has a chipmunk who follows him out the dorm.

    Now, as far as classes go, he was invited to take a particular unusual math class for high-scoring freshmen, but he will take that in the spring. I have no idea how he is doing class-wise! (TBH, I'm not even sure what he's taking...) We are letting him take the lead, and thank goodness DH and I are totally distracted/overwhelmed by events on the home front (cf the wrong bedlinens and credit/debit cards) so we aren't checking up on his account.

    Joined: Feb 2016
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    DD6 is perfectly thrilled with her first grade class. The teacher is super excited that she's advanced and looking for ways to challenge her. So far the "challenges" are still too easy for her but it's at that sweet spot where it's not so easy that DD thinks it's for babies but not so hard that she can't spend most of her time chatting and socializing (which is what DD thinks school is about :>). I would say the math she's doing is at about a 2nd grade level, so just one level up, but since she doesn't mind I'm okay with that. Looking at my fellow parents, it's nice that I don't have to spend time helping her with homework or spelling words or anything.

    I think this all will shift when she gets older and we'll need to make sure she's appropriately challenged, but it's fine for now. Also, things might change a bit when her teacher actually gets a look at her MAP scores (she still is"explaining" the harder homework to me as she sends it home, making sure I know how to help DD with it. So I don't think she realizes how easy things are for her.. probably because at school she spends more time talking than completing her work)

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    We are having an interesting time. We have moved to another country, but DD12 and DD13, both in 8th, are attending an American international school. We have been told it's a tougher curriculum but so far both are achieving A's with no problems. We shall see. Both seem to like their geometry and language arts classes. They were assessed for math at the beginning of the year and have a few algebra gaps, but nothing too concerning. What is really lovely is that that both girls seem to have found friends quite quickly, boys and girls. As DD12 really struggles with social skills, that is absolutely amazing. The school principal was eager to email DD12's DYS letter about gifted kids to all the staff! That was exciting.

    Another bright spot - 2 of the staff found out DD12 was a co-editor for a literary magazine last year (and is a whiz at creating videos). They are hoping she can help the high school kids!! Fingers crossed that this happens.


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