Is there anyone here located in Orange County? I would love to trade ideas about the state of gifted education in the area and possibly set up play dates?

Thank you!

Yes, we're here! I'm in Orange County. We have an 8-year-old daughter. Have you had good experiences with gifted services in Orange County?

We are in OC with DD9. There is a meetup in north OC that I cannot speak for since I've never gone, but it apparently has 45 members:

http://www.meetup.com/Orange-County-Gifted-Parents-Meet-Up-Group/

We found a gifted magnet school in a local district that clusters high achievers and gifted-identified children, which does wonders socially, but academically there is no individual differentiation. There is spelling list A or B, etc. I don't see how there can be much differentiation with 38 students in one class!

There is also a Gifted OC Yahoo! group but it's nearly dead.

We're still flirting with home schooling but DD is an extrovert who loves daily interaction with peers.

I am in Orange County!! DS 7... Would love a meet up!!

This is great. I have DS8 and in third grade.
Okay next question. Please name your school districts if you feel comfy doing so. Then we can figure out generally where we are that way.

We are in Tustin Unified.
There is a magnet school in the district that has classes that GATE only as well as others, but it is by lottery for GATE-identified and non-GATE identified. My DS8 is not at that school.
At his school, they differentiate for GATE/high achievers.

There is also a San Diego gifted kids group on meetup.com. Might be great to see what resources could be shared by organizing a get together. We live just below the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton- DS6 in 2nd. We are in Vista Unified (no GATE program) but we did get them to allow a grade skip- not sure what we will do if/ when that stops meeting his need for challenge.

Holy moly,
I let this completely fall off my radar. I am so sorry!
Let's try this again!

Now that summer is on the way, let's try to do a meet up somewhere central to all. Maybe we could all bring a friend, too?

Maybe the Bowers, DSC, or tide pools at Crystal Cove?