Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion 8 Gripes of Gifted Kids

My DS8 would agree with pretty much all of them. #1 he understands only because I've discussed it with him. #2 isn't an issue anymore since we have moved him to a gifted private school. Now it's challenging in some ways and still finding his place (it's a small school and I mean 6 students from grade 2-9). But we persevere and support him in it all. #4 & #7 are our biggest struggles right now.

Me too. My oldest has been a totally different experience than my youngest. I suspect that dd11 actually could agree with 2, 7, & 8, but when she saw the list at a middle school we were visiting in their GT program, she was so turned off by the start of the list which smacked of, "I'm so smart, that I don't know what to do," to her that she threw the whole thing out.

DD8 says 4 and 5 a lot, 2 to some extent. Definitely not 3.

#2 & #6 for DD16

We knew after the 1st month at middle school that we would be seeking a private high school education for our kids. Dd walked into the big city private high school knowing only 1 kid who was a junior.

After the 2nd week of school she says to me with tears in her eyes, "Mom, I've finally found my tribe." It nearly broke my heart. Dd is very outgoing and has always had friends, tho they may have been one year ahead or lower. I knew school was a drag but she'd never articulated just what an outlier she'd been.

I'd work 5 jobs if it meant keeping her there and sending our son.

#2, #6 & the last one for DS12. I caught him watching the news when he was only 8 years old. And then he'd obsess about crime or hunger etc...

all of the above except #5 and only because I think our former school had a serious no bullying policy. We used to go to the same school as SDMom and even though her Mr B was the focus of some bullying, it wasn't because he was smarter...

Now we homeschool so we are *mostly* removed from the environment where giftedness is even ever brought up. THey don't even do regular testing in our homestudy program, so it's not like kids are getting tests back with scores on them...

For my own life...all of the above. I was even called "Brainiac" in college and my vo-tec nursing program. Early in life, I learned to flip my tests and homeworks over real fast so others wouldn't see...and the last one actually caused me physical stress as a child...

We have yet to find Butter's "tribe", though she doesn't seem particularly bothered about it at the moment...

2giftgirls: We've been having more discussions lately about what gifted means to us as individuals and as a family. (Probably because we've had lots of together time as we've all been home with a nasty cold).

Anyway, it's occurred to us that 99% of our friends are gifted, as are their kids. We didn't consciously seek out gifted friends, it just turned out that way. That said, not all of our friends live in our small town or have children - thus the lack of tribe for my kids.

It wasn't an issue in elementary school because both kids had their bff's and a few other friends who are also gifted. But it was a tiny school and as they move through mid and high school, the classes are larger and gifted friends are far fewer.

Dd16 detests her "regular" classes. Her school is 60% boys and she says so many of them are obnoxious. But since she's on the honors track there are always at least 3 or 4 other gifted kids in her regular classes. It's just that the entire tenor of the class is changed.

It sounds as if Butter is doing well in the homeschool environment. What exactly happens at girl scouts that is making you uncomfortable. Dd hated Brownies because the tasks seemed too mundane.

I can relate as I was asked not to return to my girl scout troop after an exceptionally (fun) trying for the adults camp out. LOL!