Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Out of options, hoping for the best

With his bd, he sounds just about one year younger than my dd13 (she turned 13 in early Sept). She's in 9th this year and no one seems to know that she is younger. I'd definitely push for at least more subject acceleration. Unfortunately it sounds like your high school doesn't have to offer what he socially needs given the general level you describe. Do you have any options for extracurricular programming (summer camps, weekend programs, etc.) where he could find a peer group if he isn't going to get it at school?

I'm thinking that, if you could get him accelerated more in school so he'd be at least a little challenged, and then try to meet the need for peers externally from school, that might be the best you'll get for now.

Cricket2, glad to hear your daughter is doing well in 9th grade. I think I'll talk to the TAG coordinator about subject acceleration. I know we'll get a ton of push back, but there's got to be something better for him.

He's only in 2 accelerated classes. What does he do the rest of the day? Talks to his seat mates of course. Once we explained that these boys DO need to pay attention, he stopped talking. But now he's bored once again.

My son is 13 and at 5'10" taller than some of his 16 year old friends. Because he is tall and talks more like a young adult, people are surprised to find out that he is only 13. We live in a small town that some have described as being like a Norman Rockwell painting. They don't like it when people move here from the city and expect them to change the way they teach when a one size fits all education is all they offer. We have no library but we do have a very nice football field. My son is 2E because of a mild disability that affects him mostly physically so he could not fit in that way and he doesn't fit in because of the giftedness.

My son is homeschooling but if I had to put him back in school I would hope they would put him with kids several years older because he fits in best with them. The only problem is that they are all driving now and he won't be old enough to do that for a while.

Lori H: Wow, he's a big kid:) Is he enjoying homeschooling? How is it working for you? Is he involved in sports or other activities where he might encounter other gifted kidsl?

We've considered homeschooling but ds isn't interested as he is very social. Wheels turn slowly here, but a court ruling allowing students to attend other districts without charge will force schools to do better if they expect to keep funding.

Unfortunately for my family, the improvements will come too late, which is why ds will go to private high school.

Hi Agent99!

My son is now a senior in college, but we had similar challenges. When he was in sixth grade, he started taking math classes at our local community college. There was no way he was passing for a college students. He was around 12 and pretty short. I was very concerned that during down time (like waiting in the hallway for class to start) he would be surrounded by sex-talking older teens, but this wasn't the case. Maybe it's because he took mostly math and science classes, but while some students were curious about the kid in class, they were friendly and helpful. They didn't care if he was assigned as their lab partner. I think they got a kick out of him. Eventually, people got used to him being there.

When he was in seventh grade, he wrote a letter to the presidents of the two four-year colleges near us telling them about his plight, his huge thirst for math and asking them if he could simply sit in on one class each semester. Both men agreed to let my son take one class for credit each semester, which thrilled him. So for the next few years (until high school when he split his days between high school and college) he was able to take the calculus series and some physics. It was great for him. He got his first "B" in physics II and discovered that he didn't know how to study. He was frustrated and challenged and thrilled.

This ended up being the way we went. He did also skip grades, and it was sometimes hard socially -- in some ways. But it had been terribly hard socially when he was unchallenged and miserable with his same age peers. Sometimes we couldn't address both issues, so we chose what was most important to him, and that was academics.

Maybe you could try to community college for classes? We didn't need any special permission. We just walked in and signed him up. At first, he took evening classes. There was never any issue with him hanging out with inappropriate kids. There was a mix of college kids and adults. Quite frankly, who would "hang out" with a twelve year old?

At community colleges, they usually have math starting right from algebra, so you child could jump right in. The nice thing is that they move more than twice as fast as the high school classes!

Accelerating was probably the highlight of my K-12 education. For me, a good mix of academics and social fit was to be accelerated 3 years. Though the academics still needed to be supplanted through college courses or independent studies, I found a group of kids who shared my interests and could attend classes that were interesting enough to assuage the boredom and creative solutions to said boredom. Was it weird that I was 15 and in class with kids who were 18? Maybe for the first week or two post-acceleration. My classmates were good about giving me rides and respecting my curfew, and I even ended up being pretty popular with them. It can work, especially if accelerating once has worked.