I save those comments for two friends and my parents. The email is generally titled, "because I can't tell anyone else."
We are threading a small needle, though, as DD is internalizing this. She got an award for a math contest, and failed to tell anyone. We talked about who do you tell about things like this. We had to explain it was a big deal, of the degree that had it been sports, her picture with her and the other awardees would have been in the local paper. Tell your teacher, principal (award was from another school), and *your parents*. Yeah, skip your friends, though. ;(
Yes.
DD recently had the experience of sharing her official 'portfolio' for an activity with others-- because they needed the guidance on how to do that kind of recordkeeping, basically.
Even the one friend there who knew that my DD is +3y accelerated and "very smart" was awestruck by her GPA. DD was clearly uncomfortable about it-- I gather that it had made her feel very awkward among that group of kids who are mostly mediocre students (though the one friend is a pretty smart cookie herself-- thus the awestruck excalamation over it, I suspect). Basically, my DD, who is a year younger than this friend, is kicking butt and taking names in the same (and harder) classes that her OLDER BROTHER is taking and working hard-hard-hard at for slightly less stellar grades.
DD almost treated it as though she had done something shameful-- by making her friend feel awkward.
