I'll be honest - I'm not super active on forums like this, so I don't know all of the ways that things work and whether people are sincere or just baiting me, but sometimes ignorance is bliss, so I'm just going to go ahead and respond and hope that it's the former!
@AmazedMom - Most of what we do for youth is independent of location, so feel free to email me and I'll send you more information (lisav@americanmensa.org).
Regarding the poetry memorization - although the games are for young kids (and our outdated, about-to-be-redone site landing page is juvenile), there are lots of resources there for older youth and even adults, including the poetry memorization, some of the TED Connections, and the older reading lists.
With regard to the poetry, it would never be expected or recommended that a young child would memorize something inappropriate for them. I'll go add a disclaimer since there was confusion on that.
As far as the reading lists go, the books were chosen by youth librarians in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities. Many are older classics, but one of the keys is that we want kids to be able to access the books readily, even if they only have small, rural libraries.
The list starts with Kindergarten, so we have some quite easy reads there. Of course, as you all know, simple books are quite deceptive sometimes, and upon analysis reveal themselves to share deep themes. For example, "Where the Wild Things Are" is a retelling of Homer's "The Odyssey." Just because something is simple or of few words doesn't make it inappropriate for bright minds. Some books have cultural value. If you are in third grade, at some point, you should have read "Goodnight, Moon." Who knows? It could be a question on Jeopardy!
I may not see further posts on this because I'm out of pocket right now with a family emergency, so if you have suggestions for books you think should be on (or off) the list or have other comments for me, please send me an email - I'd love your input.
Lisa
lisav@americanmensa.org
