Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments After-schooling with CTY???

Hello. I'd appreciate advice. My question is similar to the one asked in the prior posting - but a little different, so I am going ahead. Thanks in advance!
DC is happy in school and high performing. Only in 2nd grade at a general education public school. DC's score on the city's Gifted & Talented test of 99 percentile qualifies for a seat but in fact due to over-crowding none is available. (WISC-IV FSIQ on individual test is 146 and the GAI is 154.)

The gen Ed is very easy for DC but still DC learns and has fun. There is a nice robotics club and after-school there are sports and chorus. DC is happy.

However DC is learning below potential and not learning how to learn challenging material. We do supplementary math with workbooks at home and every other week I pick the book to read ("The Hobbit" instead of "Judy Moody")

DC took and qualified for online learning with CTY. I like the idea of formal supplementation. But I hear the programs are a lot of work. My child is clearly capable of more, but is happy at school; my child might enjoy CTY but if it is demanding, might resent the extra time (??); my DC is prone to some anxiety and I certainly don't want to stimulate stress over learning instead of making it fun.

Does anyone have experience with CTY? Does anyone have a high IQ kid in a gen Ed environment who just "let's it be"?

Thoughts?

What's the landscape ahead look like for middle school and high school?

I'd be inclined to look elsewhere for challenge--music, drama, another area of interest?--or do informal afterschooling. Or....try to advocate a little more in school. I haven't done CTY with my kid, but it seems like a lot to ad don top of regular school unless the workload is very light. That's a really high GAI, though so I'd be concerned about just going on as usual.

My dd 10 has similar numbers, and she has taken classes through CTY, so I will chime in. First, I like ultramarina's suggestion about non-academic challenge. An instrument, perhaps? We are very relaxed homeschoolers, just so you know where this is coming from, but I am a huge believer in free time and imaginary play. Your DC is pretty young. Yes, I think gifted kids need to be challenged, and you could probably wait a year before pushing that as long as your DC is happy. I know some PG kids really crave academics early. That was not the case for my DYS dd. She was happy to hang out and read and play pretend when she was that age. So unless your kid is asking for it or super excited to try it, I would suggest holding off a bit.

However, if your DC is on fire to try something through CTY, then maybe take a look at the self-paced courses. Because you can take them at your own pace, they don't have to be terribly demanding in terms of time. They will just take you longer to complete. My dd is taking a cryptography class now that is definitely challenging her. She does enjoy it quite a bit. She is doing lots of other things, so the class is taking awhile to complete though!

Our experience has been with CTY middle school (online) courses... so take it fwiw. My ds *loves* the courses he's taken... and they haven't really added any huge burden of extra work into his day. He's basically flown through the courses very quickly (except when he's run into technical IT-type issues, which has happened). From my perspective, the downside to the CTY courses is the expense.

I am not sure what the answer will be for your child, but I'd encourage you to do something to advocate at school no matter what you do outside of school. My ds was in a "regular" public school for K-5 and we *thought* his intellectual needs were being sufficiently challenged, and suddenly at the end of 5th grade ds simply told us he was "done" with the school - unbeknownst to us he'd ben bored beyond tears for *years* but just never said anything to us. There are things you can do with an individual school - one thing you can do is to offer to work with a group of the more highly capable kids in the class, maybe once a week, giving them some differentiation. Another thing that one of the kids in my ds' current school does is an independent study set-up where he works through a CTY course online in the library while the rest of his class studies the same subject together in the classroom. Another thing my kids always loved was when parents came in and taught the full class about something they were either an expert at or were interested in or was a hobby etc. Maybe you could help encourage that type of thing from a few different parents so kids could see a wide swath of career paths etc.

The other thing I'd watch out for - is your ds on a waiting list for the gifted magnet, and if so, do you think there is a chance he will ultimately have a spot offered to him? If so, will he have to requalify on any kind of achievement test? If that scenario is a possibility, I would see after schooling and advocating for him as essential, so that he doesn't fall behind his gifted peers and lose his opportunity to join in with them when/if it does happen.

Best wishes,

polarbear

I agree with the others about exploring other options. Is your DD asking to do extra coursework? If not, she might feel resentful. Either way, at a minimum, you should probably talk to her about what she wants to do.

My eldest has taken four CTY courses and dropped two others. In our experience, the homemade courses are fantastic and well worth what we pay for them. But the canned courses aren't worth the price by a wide margin. By canned, I mean courses that have been created somewhere else (usually by a corporation) and licensed for use by CTY.

Before you sign up for a course, you might want to call CTY to get details about the course(s) you're thinking about.

Which corporation makes the "canned" courses?

And what do you mean by "homemade" courses?

AP History was created by a subsidiary of McMillan called Bedford St. Martin's. CTY was also looking at in-licensing a number of courses from an online education company. can't remember its name now. The courses were made for at-risk students, not gifted students. This is the problem with an in-licensed course: it isn't made with gifted kids in mind and therefore may not meet their needs.

The homemade courses tend to be made specifically for CTY. Crafting the Essay is an example of one of these courses.

Pearson is another huge player in this market-- same problems that Val identifies. Oh, and for additional info, see my recent Ultimate Brag post.

You'll see. It's related.

Thanks. We're using k12.com courses through a public virtual school. These courses are not designed for gifted students, but they are compactible so it's easy to accelerate. The lessons usually clearly identify what's review, repetition, extra practice, etc., so you can skip through without much risk of accidentally skipping new material. But it's free for us, so the price is right, it can be made to work for gifted students, and it beats our otherwise appaling options here.

But, I would not pay good money for these courses. If CTY (or EPGY) are charging large money for these type of courses, then it's not worth it, and personally I would pass. It's only worth paying for courses aimed specifically at the top students meaning they have chosen to shrink their market by at least 90%.

Thank you everyone for very helpful feedback.

It is interesting that the concensus seems to be to let her relax and enjoy herself.

I am afraid that she will fall behind the kids in the better schools - we are pretty stuck where we are. So it is good advice to do more so that it is time to take tests for middle school, DC has a really good chance and solid preparation.

I think the advice here is great. I will let her do after-school and enjoy herself, offer her CTY IF she wants to (and let her drop it if she really hates it), making sure that it isn't a canned course. And whatever I do I will keep supplementing but not making it so awful that she feels unhapply.

Great and balanced advice.

Any experience with the literature options at CTY? I see there is a book series on dragons pitched for 5th grade but adapted for the 2nd and 3rd grade readers. That might be something to *try* over the summer.

Grateful for great advice!