Great story about the gold mine trip. If you are having trouble getting folks to write the recommendations, track down the presenter at the gold mine.
My son had 'just over the borderline scores' and I didn't know where I was going to get reccomendations, since back then he was severely underachieving and a PIA to every grown up he could find. Our state gifted association sponsors occasional Saturaday afternoon learning events for elementary aged kids. I got permission for him as a young 3rd grader to take a class that captured his interest that was geared to gifted 4th and 5th graders.
We also just naturally compare DS13 to ourselves, and frankly, he doesn't seem that impressive when compared to gifted adults in their 40s and 50s! ((Humor Alert))
Anyway - DS attended the program, and I checked in at the end to see if I needed to appologise for his behavior, and to the contrary, the two presenters, who did a gifted program at another school district, were very positive. I got their contact info, and asked them to fill out the YSP reccomendation. They did. DS is tall and broad for his age, and they had had no idea that he was younger than the others. They said he was 'head and shoulders' more interested and mature than the others. I tried not to gasp, because, well, when placed with agemates, his behavoir was so bad that the school didn't want to accelerate him - LOL - Catch 22, eh?
So that's a pretty good guide to PG behavior in elementary school - fitting in seamlessly and shining with regular gifted kids who are 2ish years older.
I hope that this is what you mean about the 'wow' factor...I'm actually not sure from your post...say more,please?
Most PG kids are surrounded by HG and PG families, friends, cousins and really don't seem that 'different' (in a good way at least) until you sit inside a classroom and see what real, 'randomly selected' kids are like. IF you can't sit in your own child's classroom, try a classroom of a similar age in a different district. Really, we like to blame the teachers, but our kids tend to be much more unusual that we give credit to.
Smiles,
Grinity
