Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Best environment for social growth?

I am curious about what social opportunities he has had so far. It is possible that he will connect with some kids better than others.

Perhaps our experience will illustrate what I mean. By chance all my best friends had boys and so I mostly saw DS interact with boys his age. I saw him get very frustrated with them and they got frustrated with him. There was a lot of hitting and yelling and tears. He was very verbal and was not much intersted in playing guns or cars or knocking things over, which are the mainstay activities of most 3 yo boys.

Then he got into a group of girls his same age a pre-school and they got along famously because they all loved to talk and engage in imagination play. Had we only judged based on his limited experience with other boys, i would have despaired, but seeing how well he got along with all these great girls really was very reassuring. By the way, when the other boys' verbal abilities started taking off around age 5-6, they became really good friends with DS, too.

[quote=GreenBug]Trinity,
The concern about the academic shortchanging the social comes from my perception that Montessori education emphasizes independent learning.

Hello Trinity,

I have never posted here before, but I finally felt I had something to add to a discussion, so here goes. I had all three of my pg children in Montessori preschool prior to beginning our homeschooling journey. I spent a lot of time reading about Maria Montessori's philosophy and from it I derived this information. From her observations she deduced that children between the ages of 2-6 want and need independent work time. Their focus is on personal development, not social interaction. Maria Montessori observed that older children wanted and needed social learning situations, so her elementary schools are based upon learning in a group setting. I would not worry so much about social development. I believe it will come about when your son is developmentally ready, not just intellectually ready. You may want to try observing a Montessori elementary school, if you have one in your area, so that you can see the different approaches that are implemented during the periods that Maria Montessori believed they were appropriate.

HTH, Candace

Candace -
Thanks so much. I have suspected as much, when I see the lengths we parents go to for our little ones to be together under "appropriate supervision." I also think it's say how so much is set up by strict age-mates groups. I think Montessori understood the value of having mixed age groups.

So if you had a magic wand, and could make the U.S. more "gifted-friendly" what would you change?
Smiles -
Trinity