Apologies if this thread exists somewhere and I wold have just needed to post, haven't seen it.
I very much enjoyed this thread last year, reading about the many ways gifted kids can be made happy (and the way some are made unhappy, always the same story...). Please relate and comment.
DS10 has started his second year (6th grade) at the public gifted magnet. He was happy to see his friends again and harmony appears to reign. After an initially auspicious beginning, there were lots of conflicts and some bullying throughout last year, which the teachers say is par for the course for the first two years in the gifted classes, with so many high strung personalities with difficult histories coming together from many different elementary schools, having to sort out new social and academic hierarchies, but that by 7th grade, the community tends be be strong. Hopefully they have already calmed down somewhat for this year.
He's started Latin, which he very much enjoys, and has signed up for orchestra, research club and, of all things, Ancient Greek club! Held once a week during lunch hour ("oh, we've got 20 minutes to eat, that's plenty!"), with another avid Percy Jackson fan, and only another two or three kids from higher grades, a teacher will sit down with them all year and teach them Ancient Greek. I would never have dared come up with this! But I guess that is his enrichment needs mostly sorted, only needs to be driven to his individual violin lessons and sports now.
DD7 is now officially skipped and has started 3rd grade. She was in a 1st/2nd split last year and moved up together with another little girl from first and all the other 2nd graders, looped with the same teacher, so it doesn't feel like a big change for her at all. She told me she feels calmer, more settled, clearer about what she has to do, so I guess she felt somewhat unsettled by sometimes doing first year and sometimes second year work, and now knows where she belongs. So far, so good, and I now just have to put off worrying how we can prevent her finishing high school at 16!
DS4, severely physically disabled, but at least mildly to moderately gifted (still hard to tell, due to the speech delay and some socio-emotional issues) has moved from special needs preschool (6 kids to 3 teachers) to mainstream preschool (24 kids to 3 teachers). We thought he'd be so overwhelmed, because he spent a visit in spring crying on my lap, but he's been doing great, has already found two little friends and and has shown a clear intellectual and emotional growth spurt already. At his former school, the staff and resources were wonderful, but most of the other children multiply disabled and barely verbal. It is clear now that he desperately needed the intellectual stimulation from other verbal kids, just as he needed the time to grow at his old preschool (he only started speaking at 3 and walking at just before 4).
Right now, it feels we've mostly done the right thing with everyone for this year, which feels really good. Whew! Now if only l could get the horrific afternoon therapy and enrichment logistics sorted....
