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    Joined: Jan 2010
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    amylou Offline OP
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    My 4th grade twins just received invitations to our state awards ceremony based on their Explore scores. This is a first time experience for us and I would appreciate any input from experienced parents here on what these ceremonies are like? Did your child get much out of attending? Attending the ceremony is not a hardship for us as it happens to be ~2 miles from our house and at a time with no conflicts for us. However, I was surprised from the invites that the ceremony duration is *2 hours*, followed by a reception. My 10 year olds have squirminess as well as intellectual gifts, and I am concerned whether this ceremony will be engaging enough to keep their attention for two hours. Also, I am deeply conflicted about the whole concept of an "awards ceremony" for this.... I am guessing the primary benefit may be contacts with other kids and/or programs at the reception, but fear that after two hours sitting still, my kids will just rush for the sugar and start bouncing off the walls.

    Also, I notice that NUMATS now have criteria posted for recognition at their awards ceremony. Although we have not received an invitation yet, it is clear that dd meets their criterion based on her Explore scores. Thus, the same questions apply for that one. The NUMATS ceremony would be a hike for us, so it is more unlikely we would go (especially since ds barely missed the criterion) unless there was a compelling reason.

    Thanks for your input!!

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    I'm also curious about this. We're leaning toward going to the Wisconsin one for DD, but I'm (perhaps wrongly) assuming that they don't really fill the whole 2 hours with handing out medals.

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    Hi,
    We went to the DukeTIP awards ceremony last year and it took forever to hand out the awards. They had a small group of Explore kids with a large group of SAT/ACT kids from 7th grade. The speaker was good but there was a lot of sitting and waiting.
    Even though it was a 2 hr drive I still felt like it was worth it because my child attended a small rural school and got to see that there are other kids like her, just not at her school.
    Hope that helps.
    Wendy

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    When dd11 went to the RMATS awards ceremony for her 4th grade Explore scores, it too was two hours long, but I don't recall the kids having to sit still for the whole two hours. At the start, there were tables set up with groups offering information on their services for GT kids. DYS was there as I recall. We wandered around and picked up various flyers. After that stuff wrapped up, the kids all sat in the center of an auditorium on chairs and the family members sat in the bleachers. They called the kids up and read off their names and hung medals around their necks & then people mingled a bit at the end.

    We will probably be attending again this year although it is an hour from home and the official emails won't be out until next week. I am pretty sure that dd will get in with her 7th grade SAT scores since all they are requiring is a score in the top 25% of the region for her grade -- not a specific cut-off like some of the other talent searches. Looking at the TIP percentiles they have posted online, dd would be in the top 10% in CR and writing for their group, so I assume that she'll at least make top 25 here.

    For dd, I felt that it wasn't as often that she had an opportunity to be honored for doing well on things like athletes do, for instance, and it was nice for her to get recognition for her gifts.

    eta: I forgot about the speakers that the pp mentioned. Yes, that was some extra sitting time, too, before the medals were handed out.

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    D14 had a wonderful experience at our state ceremony last year. She had the top score in one of the categories, and the woman handing out the medals happened to have administered the Stanford-Binet to her at age 4. D, of course, had no clue who this woman was. But when she gave D her medal, this woman recognized her name. She quietly said a few words to her about having tested her, and remembering D's great potential, and how exciting it was to see her succeed all these year's later. D said later that it felt a bit like Harry Potter finding out that people knew who he was. It made her week, that is for sure. She did ask on the way home if her Hogwarts letter would be arriving soon smile

    She also went to the NUMATS ceremony (a top 3 finisher, so maybe worth it because of the extra recognition), but her dad took her, so I am not sure about the format for that. They happened to be traveling through Chicago that weekend, so it worked out for them.

    For us these have been worth going to over the years (esp. the state one) because it pretty infrequent that our kids get true applause from a crowd for being gifted. My D has been very proud of her accomplishments in NUMATS, and we have enjoyed celebrating them with her.

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    cym Offline
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    Regrets...I've had a few...

    I'll stop singing. We didn't go and now that they no longer hold award ceremonies in my state (because of poor attendance & low participation), I do regret not going. That probably won't happen in your states, but I would go once and then not feel like I had to go year after year.

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    DS9 just received his notice for NUMATS Chicago ceremony today. We think it will be a great experience for him. Even though it is a 6 hour drive, we are going to make a weekend out of it. He's excited and we are excited for him. I figure it'll be similar to a graduation type ceremony. It'll be a good time.

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    amylou Offline OP
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    Thanks everyone for the input. Dd just also received her invitation for the NUMATS ceremony. I think what I'll do is tell the twins that they have been invited to the state ceremony and let them choose whether to attend or not. Since dd made the cut for the NUMATS ceremony and ds did not, I think we'll definitely skip that one.

    I still feel uncomfortable about attending -- it would be one thing if the ceremony involved achievement based on significant effort on their part. But in this case all they did was show up for a test I signed them up for. It wasn't even their idea. I fear that making a big deal out of it will some how send the wrong message about our expectations for them. So when I ask if they want to go, I guess I'll be up front about that.

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    Originally Posted by amylou
    I still feel uncomfortable about attending -- it would be one thing if the ceremony involved achievement based on significant effort on their part. But in this case all they did was show up for a test I signed them up for.
    That's honestly the case here too. I guess that I didn't think about it that way b/c some of the kids who get accolades for their athletic achievement, for instance, didn't necessarily work super hard to achieve that well. They may just be fast runners who get ribbons at school for being the first place runner at field day.

    You do bring up an interesting point, though, b/c I am interested in stressing work ethic more than just being "smart" with no effort. We'll be hearing tomorrow, I believe, via email if dds made the WATS awards.

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    Quote
    I still feel uncomfortable about attending -- it would be one thing if the ceremony involved achievement based on significant effort on their part. But in this case all they did was show up for a test I signed them up for. It wasn't even their idea. I fear that making a big deal out of it will some how send the wrong message about our expectations for them. So when I ask if they want to go, I guess I'll be up front about that.

    I view these things a little differently.

    I see so few things out there that recognise the achievements of gifted children that when something like this does come along to me it symbolises the culmination of all the unseen and unrecognised effort. I understand where you are coming from and if my children receive awards like this, that is usually the angle I address it from, the cumulative rather than the single.

    Go to the ceremony, enjoy and have fun!

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