Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Chicago area parents..

Many of you have mentioned Northwestern's programs for gifted. Has anyone lookedinto or enrolled in The Center for Gifted through Northern Illinois?

Thanks
Sheila

Yes. Unitl now, it was affiliated with National Louis University; not sure why it changed. My DS enjoys the classes, and they are much less expensive and more conveniently located for us than NU's program. There were a couple of classes that I thought could have been much, much better, but overall I think DS gets enough out of them for us to continue. And now that he's older (4th grade) the classes seem to be getting more substantial.

We did Center for Gifted last year with my two boys, ages 8 and 10. I hate to be negative, but I was not too impressed. First of all, one difference between them and CTD is that they will and do accept almost anyone on "parent rec." They really seem TOO laid back. Secondly, the director, Joan Smutny, is long past the age she should have retired. I am not really saying this about physical age (have known many older individuals whom I hoped would never retire) but I can only assume Ms. Smutny was not always the stereotype of the old grandma next door who just wants you to listen to her talk. Really...not kidding. Her presentations were excruciating.
The classes we had were not wildly challenging by any means - they are short and seem to veer towards "fun." I'm sure by now I sound both mean and overbearing, but my kids actually ate up the 3-hour (1 topic) classes we took at CTD a few years ago. These at CFG were three 1-hour classes that never seemed to really get in depth. Also, we took both a lego robot and a robotic arm type class and no one was really interacting with the kids. They were pretty much left on their own. A computer class was better (and less chaotic since each kid was seated at a computer) but it really wasn't the right level. I especially wouldn't do it for my entering 6th grader... oh, that's another thing. They are very loose with grade levels. Depending on enrollment, they might put 2nd and 6th graders together.
My ds8 took a math class and literally came out the first day and said, "Umm, I think they put me in the wrong class." He wasn't joking or being dismissive... he really assumed that a mistake had been made. We turned around and went in and the CFG was great about letting him switch, but...
Overall, I bet my kids had fun, but I wouldn't consider it "gifted" programming... just a fun class to take.

Sorry I can't be more positive.

Are there any other programs that your familiar with? With are in the western burbs. Northwestern is just too far (and too expensive)

I have no experience with the other program, but we are in CTD right now and we really love it. It is pretty expensive though and wish we didn't have to shell out that kind of cash to get something worthwhile. They do have other locations besides Evanston. We have to drive 40 minutes, but we go to the Naperville location(closest one to us). It is a haul every Saturday morning, but my dd6 is very eager to get out of bed and go. Next week is the last class in the session and she is very disappointed. She starts soccer in the spring and even though we gave her the choice between CTD and soccer I don't think she realized that she couldn't really do both. We plan to do a week of the summer session though. I know they do offer financial aid and payment plans if you need them. They talked about options at one of the parent seminars.

A few other things you can look into: Aurora University has a Young Scholars program. College of DuPage has a Talent Search program. Fermi Lab sometimes runs programs (the Open Houses are really fun, too - I think they have those twice a year, and just had one recently). IMSA has camps in Aurora (on their campus) and as the other poster mentioned, there are CTD at North Central College. Actually, we only live a few minutes from there (and our dd20 is a senior living in the townhomes on campus). We've never done the Saturday enrichment because of sports... and we tried to get dd to be a student aid, but apparently, getting up early (Naperville has only morning classes) was not in her plans! The local gifted program PTA just had a summer fair, but I didn't make it. Sometimes the library has enrichment programs - not run by the library, but there have been a few gifted programs that lease space at the Naperville libraries for their stuff. Keep an occasional eye of the IAGC website as well (Illinois Association for Gifted Children) and they can help lead you.
Good luck

Hi Frannieandejsmom,

I live in the western suburbs and found out about a group in Downer's Grove called "Friends of the Gifted" (FRoG). If you google it you should see the link. They offer classes for GT kids, and do special presentations for parents as well. I haven't been to any of the their events but am going to check it out, thought I'd pass along the information.

Nadia