Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Active Threads This Week

My son was so focused on his own interests that he would completely ignore others, including figures of authority, although he wasn't badly behaved per se. We were advised by staff at his daycare centre to check his hearing (I had no doubt of its acuity) and for ADHD/ASD, so I didn't think it likely that any school would take him as an early entrant.

When my son realised at the beginning of grade 4 that his sisters had been early entrants and we hadn't applied for him (although he was in the youngest third of his class), he was very annoyed at first, but when I pointed out how disappointed he was when a well meaning relief teacher had given him a grade 6 booklet to work on, disrupting his contemplation of infinite sets of rational, irrational and other numbers, he agreed that it had been better for him to have stood out so far from his age peers that his regular teachers had not insisted on him doing regular work and given him free rein as long as he didn't disrupt the rest of his class.

Eagle Mum, I find this interesting as in my case I was a bit of a late developer. Though, I wonder if I had been given sports science information and time to train, perhaps I could have used my older environment as motivation to improve my cardio base, and my academics?

I stayed amongst age peers through most of my school years. 1 subject was lagging, and I wasn't very well-behaved. Despite that, in hindsight these weren't sufficient reasons to deny me a grade skip. I could simply receive intense tuition in that subject, some ADHD coaching and tolerance from teachers.

I wonder how bad was your child's behavior when he was younger? I wonder if they didn't want him to skip grades or do similar things, or if he rejected them? If so, why? You do not need to be extremely mature and well-behaved for a grade skip as there is a large range of maturity in a grade. Academics is a different story, though.

In hindsight I would probably have skipped 1 grade first, then if I still wasn't challenged try enrichment/subject acceleration. Something similar to a "blend" of your daughters and son's experiences

Alaanc64: Yes! I agree with you! If they still have time left, they can try cycling/running/rowing at 60-80% maximum HR for 80% of the time, then hard workouts for 20% of the time to build their aerobic base and speed respectively! (Stephen Seiler's rule, check it out). Then gym wouldn't be as bad!

We live in a different country and found that a byproduct of acceleration was success at sports. My daughters started school as early age entrants and physically developed alongside their older grade peers (6-18 months older), but when they competed at sports, they were placed amongst age peers and the physical difference was startling when they lined up at the starting blocks.

Academically, however, because my daughters did not perceive that they were much younger than their grade peers, they only thought of themselves as average achievers until they eventually overtook their grade peers, whereas my son stayed amongst age peers throughout his school years (no one would have considered him for early entry as he was not a well behaved, compliant three year old as my daughters were) and was far ahead in knowledge and understanding because he was a consummate self directed learner (many of his teachers admitted that he often exceeded them and allowed him to substitute activities as long as he didn’t disrupt the class). He was offered radical subject acceleration at the beginning of high school and has much greater self confidence in his abilities.

We did this for our kid (two grades actually). Best thing we ever did. PE is awful later on in middle and high school, but who cares, really, when they're making straight A's and enjoying the challenges in everything else?

One thing I never understood are these two words, "high achieving". That's not a synonym for high IQ . Or, shouldn't be. The challenge in our case was to get our low-achieving kid, but high IQ, to become a higher achieving. They're much more so, and, believe it or not.... very confident because they know they've been advanced due to their potential. Just the opposite of what you would think with all this 'red shirting' stuff going on.

Neither school seems ideal at first glance. However, considering your child's interest in engineering, perhaps the second school may be better, especially considering their robotics team.

It depends on what the robotics team is about, what it specializes in, etc.

Pull-out gifted may not be enough especially with your son's high IQ, and often times these "pull-out" programs are simply holdovers that are not efficient uses of time.

I'd lean towards the second school, especially if the high performing classroom is one where many of the students are gifted.

However, these pullouts may not be enough. Any thought of some sort of acceleration or even grade skipping?