Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy EG/PG and not accelerated?

I agree with posts. One of our daughter's classmates at an all gifted charter school... spells words we can't. they have not skipped him but at this school he goes to math class 2 grade levels up. like the other posts, i agree that math is the hardest to deal with in a non-gifted classroom that uses repetition to teach. Reading is so easy to deal with... kids are reading froggy but here is harry potter for you, etc.

The specialist that counseled us advised of us of a variety of horizontal activities... which basically aren't just to make her well rounded but distract her so she doesn't pick up so much school related knowledge or skipping may become a habit/habitual need.

I think the other aspect is social. Our daughter falls more as highly gifted (under 160) than PG but she doesn't have much in common with her same aged neighborhood friends. The one time was almost painful to me as the little girl came over and the things she was interested in doing appealed to the hg 4 year old not her sister who the playmate came to see.

We do have the advantage of girls so sports isn't a concern... dating someday will be :-) be then we can use "you are younger" instead of the equally true - your parents are too strict.

I don't know but I don't see how based on where we are how it can be avoided at PG. Now, we are still so little so who knows... but even with skipping and being in all gt class we are still getting "special" assignments from school, and next year we'll probably skip out of grade level for math. And again, we're only in the hg category (assuming we didn't ceiling out and I therefore have no idea what I'm talking about ;-).

I am ordering IAS - no library in system has it. But, I'm on the list for Ruf's book thanks.

Since my kid is one of the oldest here, let me speak from experience and totally screwed perspective:-)
No matter how much you grade skip/accelerate in math, they are still going to top the class if they are PG. My DS was put into Algebra in 5th grade, a class generally reserved for 8/9 graders. He was still the top student. His homework was hell, but he still managed to be the best in that class. This year he is in Algebra II as a 12 year old(late b-day), and the class tempo is so slow, that he is working ahead in the book, on his own. He scored 33 in ACT, his lowest score being Math, in which he is accelerated. He is not accelerated in any other subject.
My point - regular school is not an option for PG kids, whether accelerated or not. I do not know what options there are, that I might not be aware of, but at this point I am sure that my son would be accomodated best having some subjects taught one on one with a tutor.

An excellent question, kimck...which I don't know the answer to. When DS6 took the SB5 (granted, on a really bad day...), he looked verbal; on the WISC, he looked visual-spatial. His verbal achievement scores were higher than his math, but then I hadn't been enriching him in math as I was in reading at the time. <shrug> Yet another instance when I'm clueless about my child!

I would say he has some qualities of VS (puzzles, mazes, "sees" the answer, etc.), but that he's also verbal enough that he's probably a fairly balanced learner overall. I'm trying to approach math more visually than I might naturally do so, just to cover my bases. He's a natural at geometry, patterns and those sorts of heavily visual math subjects.

I <heart> Lisa Rivero! Next to Deborah Ruf, she's been the most influential writer for my trek down this GT path. (Though the questions she offered to distinguish what sort of learner you have on your hands didn't help me.)

Anyway, I do think you and she might be on to something there...

BTW, here's the link to "Murderous Maths": http://www.murderousmaths.co.uk/

It is a very verbal approach to math, but it's great fun, with plenty of gruesome pictures. There are lots of subjects to choose from, dealing with everything from basic arithmetic to algebra and geometry to off-beat subjects like codes. I use it for days (like today) when DS6 just doesn't seem to feel much like doing problems AGAIN. It's a good change of pace, and is very much about the "why" of math, not just the how.

The "Horrible Histories" are great, too.

Harumph! Sports very well might matter to a girl!

I lettered in two sports in high school and played sports my whole life. Maybe sports won't matter to your particular girls, or maybe they just don't yet, but I'd be very wary of making that particular assumption based solely on gender.

Interesting! We haven't had a full assessement of DS. He hit the ceiling on part of the NNAT which is heavily favors visual spatial kids, and was close the ceiling on the 2nd half. But now he is surprising us with verbal ability. He is also puzzling!

But yet, I'm still too cheap to go see Deborah Ruf who is right down the road. Maybe one of these days. I'm keeping my eyes open for a more reasonable assessment/testing too. Or maybe we'll wait and just do a test like the EXPLORE and see how we fare there.

This is one of the reasons I have not subject accelerated my dd. At the elementary level a grade skip does not gain you much for all the inconvenience (IMO). I am trying to hold out a couple more years until 6th grade when my dd can take algebra without commuting between schools.

Meh. I would have been at a disadvantage in sports if I were younger than everyone else, I think, just as a boy would be. Maybe the puberty thing isn't as big an issue for a girl, but you still have height issues and coordination issues. Not to mention eligibility issues.

I just don't think you can completely dismiss sports as a consideration simply because of gender. That sounds like a highly loaded sexist statement to me that I couldn't let go past without comment, lest my feminism membership (as in "card-carrying feminist") be revoked!

Boy, the posts are flying fast today! I keep thinking I don't need to quote the person I'm responding to because I'll be the next post in line, and then 3 or 4 more are between us.

So fun!

Long ago, I asked this question on this very forum: is my child Verbal or VS? I think I've decided that he's just really, really smart, so he can work either way, depending on the context.

To hear him, you'd swear he's verbal. His reading is much more advanced than his math skills. Yet his approach to things is often VS. So he seems to be both. Maybe yours is similar?

I think with these ridiculously smart kids, they're frequently just "fluent in all languages" when it comes to learning!

I thought my dd was a verbal kid until she took the SB. Her lowest score was verbal and she hit the ceiling on the VS subtest.