Yeah-- the ASE internships are
way better than their other offerings, which are grade-level locked. DD has enjoyed some of the programming, make no mistake, but it was hardly intellectually much to write home about.
If you have a chance, DEFINITELY look into that internship (ASE) program in particular. There are quite a few internships that have age restrictions associated, but mostly they are
grade-based, so radical accelerants aren't shut out. They've had participants as young as 12 and 13.
We also got shut out of appropriate offerings with OSU's summer programs--
in spite of DD's grade designation, in fact, w/r/t the "gifted" summer camp. I have to say, it might be fine for MG kids, but 90th percentile and up groupings were
so not going to work for my DD, either.
She did enjoy their (regular, not GT) robotics offerings, and had fun socializing in science camp when she was about 9-10yo, but after that it was increasingly clear that she'd outstripped the level of most offerings. She did some computer science, I think.
OMSI classes can be good, but I think that you'll find that many of them are pretty remedial at this point, too. The last one of those we did, my DD 9 wound up talking to the instructor about special adaptations in the squid eye.
She was fairly uninterested in the standard spiel, though she was a year or two younger than anyone else at that table.
If you're willing to drive a bit, the Hatfield Marine Science center and Oregon Coast Aquarium both have great programs-- both do homeschool days that have a variety of flexible levels of instruction, and there is also a youth volunteer program at the aquarium-- we know that they WILL take younger teens, since one of my DD's HG friends is doing it now, and he only turned 15 last summer.
We're with the latter of the two virtual schools here. It's somewhat better than the former for GT programming and flexible differentiation strategies... that's not to say that I think it is "good" by any means. As you've discovered, youth program organizers are VERY wise to the TigerParenting culture here in the Si Forest, and they have
hard firewalls re: grade levels in program admissions. Ergo, we need that grade level to reflect ability enough so that DD has the access to what she needs in extracurriculars. Not ideal, but it's the least-worst situation for us.
That meant a +3 skip and judiciously searching out programs that are pretty high level for the grade range. So far that has worked out pretty well.
It's the best we can do-- we're realistically just out of range of routinely doing the PDX thing for educational opportunities, though OSU and U of O are both within reach.
