Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Sacrifices your family has made...special schools?

The road not travelled is always tempting to rehash in our minds. But you've got good kids, Dottie, and they are doing well. I vote for not doubting yourself. You've done very well for all your kids IMHO.

Just honest.

Grinity -

I so agree with Kriston and melmich! Hooray that the other stuff is behind you.

On the upside, now your awesome parenting skills/insight/wisdom is helping all of us be better parents too!

hugs,

EW

We've made decisions over the years that might be called sacrifices, but to be honest for our family it is all about peace of mind. When I feel comfortable with a schooling decision, the weight off me is tremendous. There have been times in my life of having gifted kids I've gone without sleep for worrying - and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone judging by the timing of some posts. Peace of mind is priceless!

eeeexACTly!

And I second what Kriston said about Dottie's parenting! Go Dottie! Getting the fit through a public school system is awesome!

Love and More Love,
Grinity

I have applied to the Davidson Academy for my dd. If she gets accepted this year moving to Reno would be a big sacrifice!

Thanks Dottie. It would be a big move, but it just seems like the logical next step...

My dd is in 6th grade. I guess we have made some different choices than others in this forum that have resulted in some sacrifices. Although we have not had a full scale IQ test on her, she has always scored the max on all subjects in achievement testing. Last year she was given the TOMAG and OLSAT. TOMAG score was 147 and OLSAT was 142. I think the OLSAT test was lower than what a full-scale IQ test would show because it caps out at 150. My dd said that the other kids in her "gifted" class struggled with the test. She said it was super easy and that she finished it quickly. If a more difficult test had been given, I think it would have showed a mastery of more complex subject matter.

However, my dd has been a chatter box from a young age and enjoys socializing. She is on the small side- her growth rate has been in the 10-25 percentile. Therefore, we did not try to accelerate her to the next grade. She joined the gifted program, which starts in 2nd grade in our school district. She easliy gets straight As and her teachers love having her in their class. Of note is that she said that she does not learn anything in school. In our school district, they lowered the standards to be in the gifted program, to be more inclusive of others in the population. Therefore, it seems to be more of placing kids in ability grouping rather than in a gifted class. I think the classes are geared towards kids who have IQs of approx. 115-125. Therefore, all the material is very easy for my dd.

My dd had a growth spurt this past year and continues to complain of how easy her classes are. We discussed advancing her into 8th grade instead of 7th grade. She said she has a lot of school friends and wants to try out for cheerleading, so she does not want to do this.

Soooo... our sacrifice has involved extracurricular activities. She does competitive dancing, for a cost of 8-10k/ year. Now she plays a musical instrument in the marching band and the band teacher has told me he is very impressed with her progress- he said she sounds quite "adult-like" with how she plays her instrument. We have added tumbling too so she can do cheerleading. Interestingly, she is quite the artist as well.

Anyway... I work so I am gone from 6:30 AM until 9:00 pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday nights and until 8:30 PM on Monday nights, because she has activities these nights. She has rehearsals on Saturdays from 9:00 - 2:00 and tumbling from 2:30 - 4:00 PM. I am exhausted from all these activities. However, dd has no problem keeping up because school is so easy for her. I have not attempted to cut back; most parents cut back when their kid's grades suffer- this is not likely to happen. Oh, and sometimes there are conventions or competitions that start Friday afternoon and continue from 8 AM -9PM on Saturday and from 9 AM - 4 PM on Sunday. This is a lot of commitment for a Mom who would like to be a homebody.

I can identify with the extracurricular time drain for the parent! Thankfully most of my kid�s activities are included with the tuition, so we only pay out a couple additional thousands in gas and fees. My primary occupation, in addition to getting them to and from school, has become to coordinate and drive them between their separate schools to various locations around the city.

Our life is crazy right now with my daughter�s activities which include practices and competitions for mock trial, swimming, music (both solo and ensemble). She also leads a photography club that she started. She has one or two after school activities every day during the winter. Additionally, I just signed her up for an evening driver�s education class. Oh, she is also plugging along with an online programming class in addition to her eight high school courses (no PE this semester).

Currently, my son has practice and competitions for swimming and water polo, attends an afterschool math program one day per week and math circle sporadically. He is also preparing for his Confirmation at church and will have completed over 60 hours between volunteer service hours and school work study by end of year.

For example, today�s schedule; dd has mock trial practice and a swim meet. She will go to mock trial for approx 45 minutes (the team teacher allows her to be among the first for questioning), then I will drive her to the swim meet (she had asked her coach to put her in the last half events so she can warm up after the diving). I won�t be able to watch her swim today. I will just drop her off so I can drive out to pick up her brother (after his swim practice) and then drive back to the meet site hopefully before it ends. Then we face the hour long commute home through the tail end of rush hour traffic.

Next year ds will be in high school, so it will be saner at least in terms of school athletics. Ds will swim in the fall, dd will swim in the winter and ds will play water polo in the spring. DS will probably be adding school clubs too then.

My son is also becoming more social at school and has become less interested in being identified as a super smart geek. He wants to give up the after school math program beginning next year despite doing so well and learning so much. �.. I don�t know how I�m going to break it to him.