Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Any experience with NUMATS Gifted Learning Links?

The middle school enrichment GLLs are on offer from DD's middle school as a potential solution to her soul-crushing boredom. I have my own criteria as to whether or not to accept this solution, but I cannot find many online reviews of these classes, nor much as to the time required for the classes. The one comment I read about it on this board is that it appears as though the lessons might be synchronous (at a fixed time and day).

Questions:
*Are the lessons well run? Do they use age-appropriate pedagogy?
*How much time commitment is required, and how flexible are the deadlines?
*Did your child enjoy the program?
*Are the lessons synchronous or asynchronous?

Between our two kids, we've done a number of courses through GLL, and have generally been happy with them. The format is highly variable from instructor to instructor - some classes have been more structured than others. We've found most instructors make an effort to schedule "live" lessons at times all participants can attend, or schedule more than one session with the same lesson to accommodate. Many of the classes (or the ones my kids have chosen - for our kids, the classes are strictly for enrichment, although they offer core subjects as well) involve open ended projects and are fairly flexible on deadlines. There may be end of course deadlines that are more rigid.

Ds (8th grade) is now doing his first high school level GLL course - the topic is computer programming. This course is run more like an independent study than the courses for younger kids, but I don't know if that is typical.

Ds took a summer computer course through them. He learned to make a computer game and what consumers and gamers look for in a gaming experience. It was informative, fun and supportive. The instructor presented the instruction weekly, was available for questions through email, though ds never needed to, and in the end, ds received an evaluation and comments from the instructor.

It was a great, empowering experience, however, very pricey.