Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion The ultimate brag thread

Two weeks before the CTY Grand Ceremony, DD12 took the October SAT as a benchmark/prep to try to qualify for SET/DYS in January, just before turning 13. She went in with no prep other than 1 sample test, and we requested the scoring service so we could see what she needed to focus on/study over the next 3 months.

No need - 650/730, qualifying for both. Woot woot!

Wow, no ones bragged in a while here. Time to revive this thread!

DS10, as part of a team of four, took part in the fifth grade section of an international math competition. The website just shows they have done well enough to win a prize, but their teacher told them that they placed first in our tri state region (apparently the nation has been split up in five regions) and ahead of at least another two state region. So, probably fourth in the nation. Sadly, only the very first team in the nation gets to go to Budapest for the finals.

(Unfair, she rails in secret, considering we live in Europe's second most populous country and our tri state region alone is actually more populous than 35 existing European countries. I could wish for the schools of the teams that are ahead to be hit by funding crises and his team being invited at the last minute, but I happen to know the community the public school of which is fielding the finalist team, and even if the school couldn't afford the airfare, one of the parents could probably donate it from petty cash.)

I did ask DS who he thought was the best mathematician of the team (yes, these days, after having been told all my life I am not that smart, and several times in DS's life that he as not that smart, I am that petty. I own it). DS said he couldn't say, since they had split up into pairs and worked on one half of the problems each. However, he then recalled that when they swapped problems to go over the other pair's solutions, the other pair hadn't been able to solve three out of seven, which he had to solve for them.

I left him to his deductions.

And yay, we've probably got another one.

DS4 was born with a severe disability which has involved two spine surgeries, four brain surgeries and countless hours of full anaesthesia for MRIs during the first three years of his life, lower limb paralysis, severe speech delay and bladder and bowel dysfunction. He learned to speak at 3.5 and to walk at 3.75 years respectively.

His special needs preschool did their routine yearly assessment with a view to having him mainstreamed this fall.

His motor skills came in at the first percentile - no surprises there. He can walk, but is slow, and needs a wheelchair for long distances.
His socio-emotional development came in at the 50th percentile. That is HUGE and is the one most important thing for making mainstreaming successful, in what I have seen.
His speech came in at the 40th percentile, which still worries me but the teacher said was HUGE considering he was barely speaking 20 words a year ago, and is now basically caught up; also, it's mostly articulation for which we will go back to speech therapy soon anyway.
His fine motor skills came in at the 73rd percentile. So, ready for mainstream school in this, too.
His cognition, however, came in at the 95th percentile. And considering his speech delay, is probably a low estimate, too. We will have loads of fun with providing him the education he needs, considering how easy he is to underestimate!

Tigerle - you've always been able to see the amazing kid and the ability hidden under all those external challenges. Now, they all see it too. So awesome! And so much hard work, I can only imagine, on your son's part, to get here. He is going to be unstoppable.

Tigerle, that is awesome. Full stop. Big congratulations to you and your sons.

I find it incredibly difficult to brag, and I might delete, so please don't quote me. But I feel like I need some support, or something! DD9 this year scored in the 99th percentile on her state assessment (most of it), MAP, and the CogAT (all three batteries), but more than that, her CogAT batteries were so high, her composite SAS was at the top! The school concurs on a grade skip. So much has changed!

Good news for my kiddos. We decided to switch to public school and they've both been approved for gifted services. DS6 will be accelerated 1 year and get in class differentiation and enrichment. DS9 will be in an all gifted classroom with age mates and get a mix of accelerated material and enrichment. They're both super excited.

Not sure if this is brag-worthy, but it made me giggle. DD4 is into knock knock jokes at the moment. The other day she was trying to convince me to play with her (princesses - urgh) so she put on her most charming smile and came up with this one:

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Salmon. (pronounced like sammen)
Salmon who?
Salmon want to play with me? (geddit, as in 'someone want to play with me?')

Hahaha, groan.

Thanks, Portia!

Sometimes I wish this board had the "like" function, so could easily note "way cool!" on on other brags. 😂 I love reading about the accomplishments and triumphs over struggles here. You are all such dedicated people looking out for these kids!

LazyMum, you really can't resist with a charmer like that!

DD3.5 was playing in the playground when she fell down. I went up to her and asked "What happened, how did you fall down?". She replied "Because I lost my Centre of Gravity"

Last week, it was raining, and DW told her "It's raining". DD replied "It's precipitation"

DD's latest question to us, as of yesterday evening - "What is Life?"