My goal for my daughter is success in college and post-college. She wants to be a surgeon.
Learning should not always be "fun and productive" for our kids. They will grow up and will need to work according to a boring teacher. I teach in college and I really tire of seeing these kids fail.
They need to work problems that take time - many, many steps and respect the inabilities of some teachers. This is a really tough part of being gifted.
Not that I think they should be in classes they should not be in, but they must learn subjects that they don't care for.
My daughter is now in 8th grade and has never liked Social Studies - but she knows the subject. I teach students who know nothing about social studies. It is so hard to explain the feudal system 10 minutes before an exam.
La Texican - patterns are the most important part of math and you are right about that. Most of upper math is looking for the pattern based on many types of principles. I help college students with their math. If they cannot decipher a pattern, they really never get the entire solution - maybe they can just answer the homework. but the big picture - never.
So many gifted kids are procrastinators (if they ever turn their work). They have been taught to only work the interesting work and carry that idea through their lives. If this is their "rule", they cannot be successful in a job.
I generally believe that parents should make educational choices for their children. Most parents (in the US) believe that a child may choose to take the courses or clubs that the child chooses. A child - no matter how intelligent - does not have the overall picture. They get used to making their choices and are unbearable when they hit puberty and basically think that they should make their own decisions.
