Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Tester finally sent extended norms

That's a good idea or maybe she could do a scientific project of her own with a mentor if you could find one.

Congrats on getting the scores!

Just a few thoughts about resources within a community like that. Ditto on the above suggestions. Many scientists/mathematicians... enjoy conversing about their fields, even if it's via e-mail for a while. There may be scientists within a longer drive from your area, as well. It sounds as if you already have some great learning opportunities in your back yard, and looking up some of the science on-line about those adventures could be a good place to start.

If there's an issue of getting to the library (not sure if you have one nearby), many publishers offer deals on higher level reading material. Dover prints some of the classics, as well as history/math/science books at various levels (some recreational math, some all the way to graduate-level math) with completed exercises.

Also, if she enjoys math and making graphs, there is an excellent free software program with many on-line help resources called R (from a website called CRAN) that allows users to make graphs and analyze data (might be a good addition to some of those outdoor outings). Most of their (free!) add-on packages come with scientific papers, as well.

ITA, those are super high scores, intellectual peers would be very hard to find anywhere, even in a very big city.

Hi amazedmom-

My DS6 was tested a couple of months ago and has scores very, very close to your DD6. Our tester told us that it would be extremely unlikely to find an intellectual peer for him near us, and we live in a decent sized city. He has some friends, but he has also had a hard time lately. His friends don't want to play the same way he does and he takes it very personally. Thankfully, my DS6 and his younger brother are best friends and get along great. They play together all day long and I feel very lucky that at least they have each other. Based on things he has said, I know he feels like he doesn't fit in anywhere. It's so hard to see him lonely and sad sometimes, because he is very aware of those kinds of things. He has Sensory Processing Disorder, auditory sensitivity issues, and we recently found out he has vision tracking problems. His sensory and auditory issues make it really hard for him in many different environments.

It's been difficult, because his needs are so unique and I don't feel like there is anyone I can ask for advice. We are applying to DYS this month, so hopefully that will help. He did an online school this past year (his "kindergarten" year). He completed 3rd and some 4th grade courses, but it was a breeze for him and he wasn't thrilled about it. His achievement scores were near his GAI and that's confused me even more about how to teach him. Anyway, I didn't mean to go on and on and complain this much, but just know that you aren't alone in this. It's tough and exhausting to raise these kids! I'll send you a PM when I have more time. It would be great to trade ideas about what we are doing with our kids.

Heather, have you done any reading about unschooling? It might give you the confidence to start majorly messing with curricula. Our school kind of does it (on a group level), and while it's a huge amount of work for the teachers it's wonderful for the children. You can take his interests and dive in deep, teaching things like grammar and writing and math in the context of whatever you're focussing on.

At the end of the day, he's not going to end up unable to read or do math, but what you could do is teach him the joy of questioning and discovery, and how to really think about stuff. Your kids are a standard deviation above mine, and mine respond so well to this style of teaching. Of course, maybe all kids do and they just don't have the time and money to do it in schools.

I don't know about other children, but for mine third+ grade work as presented in curricula and other resources is dull. It's designed for eight and nine year olds whose brains work differently to four/five/six year olds. Now that my oldest is the right age for third grade I could see her sitting down and focussing without pictures and stuff, but until now it's been completely inappropriate.

So, yeah, that's the long way of saying I think you should take the leap and just start exploring the world together.