Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Regions Hatterdays in Fl

Kerry and Belle, I would suggest that you contact Lynn and ask about moving up as the grade levels are not cast in stone. She may consider it, but it depends on the class and she may be less flexible for the weeklong summer classes. If your child has a specific interest or aptitude in a subject she is willing to try to work it out, but some of the activities are not just academic and need other age-appropriate skills such as advanced fine motor skill, safety awareness, etc. The specific example she has described is that she would not be likely to let anyone move up to any of the dissection classes due to the fine motor precision necessary. Rocketry would likely be another I would guess for safety reasons.

Also she wants to make sure that she has enough spots for students in those age ranges. We have been quasi-regulars for about a year and she knows my DD7-almost 8 (in 3rd grade). So Lynn was willing to register her for one of the 4th-6th grade classes in April, but she was very upfront about the fact that if the class filled past capacity that she would likely bump us to our second choice the BER (K-3).

I know that Lynn works nearly all year on getting the summer classes put together. The remote locations and finding teachers are the hardest from what she has said. She is always looking for new ideas for classes, so I'm sure she would be receptive to suggestions.

In my experience Lynn is very accessible via email and will also speak with you by phone; she can be quite busy on the actual Hatterdays, so that is not usually a good time to get into any extended discussion. She is also a parent of a (former) HATS student so is sympathetic to these kinds of situations and is willing to work things out where she can.

Is anyone going this month?
Belle, how did it go last month?
We're definitely going this month, and DH is keeping DD2 at home, so I can listen to the parent discussion this time rather than walking the halls with our little chatter box

We'll be there next weekend. DD(now)8 will be in the Irish folklore class.

Belle, in addition to hearing how your DS liked the class, I'm also curious about how the parent session went. I think you mentioned the topic was perfectionism, which rears its ugly head in our family as well. We are always looking for new ideas on managing that particular monster - extra tools for the toolbox, ya' know!

Hi all,
We will be there in April, I sent in checks last week.
Will any of you be there?

We are planning to be there in April. Not entirely sure which class though - we registered for the Predators/Prey class (which is above my DD's grade level), but Lynn warned we might get bumped back down to the Dolphins class (in my DD's actual grade level).

I don't think there is much specifically planned for parents that day, but there are several things related to Earth Day planned.

Good luck! Have fun!

We went to the Feb Hatterdays and DS7 said he really enjoyed it -it was about the heart/body and was based around the Magic School Bus theme....At the end of the time, the older kids had been disecting pig hearts and the coordinator brought a pig heart down to show the younger class and my son thought that was awesome. The parent session was okay...I didn't quite know what to expect as this was our first - we kind of thought maybe that a specialist or someone would be there to do a small talk on perfectionism and it was the Hatterdays Coordinator who gave the talk....she is one great lady and man talk about energy! She passed out some fliers from some sites and shared some book ideas but it was about the same kind of materials you find on the SENG site and on here so nothing new to really pass on - but it was still interesting. I would have loved the chance to hear some of the parents share some of their issues with perfectionism and then maybe have a guest speaker address some of the issues brought up.
We didn't make the March one on March 13 because it was the same date as the Huge Pokemon State Championship Tournament DS wanted to do...and then the next one lands on April 17 and DH and I will be going to see Bon Jovi in Tampa that evening and the grandparents are coming down to watch DS...they said they didn't feel comfortable driving 1.5 hours away with our little guy so he is going to miss out- we tried to tell the grandparents that it would give them a chance to see the various activities we try to do with him and for them to get involved but it was a no go - he was bummed because he is really into Dolphins and the ocean - we had the concert tickets bought before we started Hatterdays so we can't change anything :-( and we may aim for the last one in May - the only downside is that DS is not really into learning about plants so the topic wasn't very interesting to him...so I am not 100% sure if we will go or not. We are trying to figure out if we want to try their summer camp or not

We aren't going to April's because many of my students are involved in my school's robotics club and they made it to FIRST nationals in Atlanta the same weekend. I took DD to the regional competition in at UCF and she loved it, so the whole family is driving up for the nationals with the team. It should be a lot of fun.
We are planning on going in May, but I need to look at the date again.
I don't know about the summer program yet either because of job issues, but we'll see.

My DD9 will be in Predators/Prey and DD6 will be in the Magic Tree House. If we like it, we might go this summer.

Hi all,
We are considering relocating to the Orlando area for a bit. Are there any website links to the Hatterday stuff? I did see a link to the MASA stuff. I would love to find some other families in the area if/when we do come down. We are homeschooling too so I would love some homeschool resources if anyone has any. Thanks so much!!!

Hello :-) Here is the link to Hatterdays....or the Hats Program

http://www.stetson.edu/hats/