Hi all - I had written a post a little while ago about DS4 being in the process of being tested. Well, we received the full report today and it turns out he's officially PG, (FSIQ 159+ on the WPPSI-IV) which we maybe thought but...it's nice to have the official confirmation, as well as additional info.

He was also given the PIAT-revised achievement tests for math (Grade 4.8) and reading (total reading = grade 2.7).

So now what? We are in the unique situation of being able to move somewhere (anywhere, within reason) because DH is going to be applying to astrophysics post-docs in the fall. So it makes sense to us that we should not only look at locations that are good for DH but that also have options for DS. So...please, throw me some ideas! What are really great programs/schools, areas that can work with PG kids...places where there are gifted co-ops, etc. We haven't ruled out homeschooling, but DS is very social so there needs to be SOME kind of interaction, plus, we really would love to have him be around kids that he could relate to.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

anyone...anyone...testing?

Besides University of Washington (which the psych recommended to us), and Primoris in North Jersey, we really don't have a great idea of what's out there, school-wise (especially outside of NJ). I mean, we have looked on hoagies and all that, but I feel like it's one thing to look online, and another to hear it from the people who are actually 'living' it. Any recommendations would be very appreciated!

I know people who have been through the UW-Seattle program, and it has it's strengths and weaknesses. Honestly, the range has drifted down from it's early days, when the kids were true PG (scoring above 200 on the old SBLM), to its current population skewed toward MG kids. OTOH, the UW itself is very welcoming of PG students, because there are so many MG+ students there. The Seattle area does have an active gifted and homeschool community, to my knowledge. You might try picking a handful of the communities you are thinking about based on Hoagies, etc., and googling homeschool/gifted homeschool groups or their forums. The Northwest Gifted Child Association is also a good resource in the Seattle area.

jklm, yes, I do know - they essentially take out the memory and timed tests to calculate the GAI. Some people think GAI is better view of "pure intelligence". I can give you more specifics if you need, but I'm on my way out the door...pm me if you need more info than that! Hope that helps!

You can calculate GAI on the WPPSI-IV, but not the earlier versions. If you have an FSIQ, you can derive a GAI. The tables for doing so should have been in the manual. (And yes, you do just take off the wm and ps subtests.)

I can certainly understand why you'd ask this, and you might as well find out what you can, but it seems quite risky to choose a location based on potential schooling, when the schooling could turn out to be far below expectations. (Sorry, I don't have any information about such schooling.) I'm also surprised that one could find an astrophysics post-doc "anywhere, within reason". I thought the academic job market situation was rather grim.

We are in a similar situation (Post-doc & gifted-school search)only that:
1. We are looking for anywhere in the world, not only US options
2. We know that our DS 6.10 is gifted but as he tested with WISC-IV without the extended norms we do not know how gifted he is (he hit the ceilings in some sub tests). With a 142 in the VCI and a GAI 140+ in a sub-optimal testing situation (he even ran out of the room once, hid under the table etc.) we realize that it may be good to retest in a year or two.
3. We have a few additional requirements- clean environment (air, water), balance in life (not terrible working hours)etc.
4. Both parents want to work (homeschooling not an option).

We are considering Boston (i.e Acera school), Stanford (i.e Helios new school), Canada (tricky thing is that in some parts the kids will be required to go to French-language schools, but then again, that may be a good thing)(Westmount charter school), Australia, Singapore (No 'perfect' option found yet). But all those places are not specifically for PG kids. I realize that you probably need to be more selective.

I hope you (we) can learn more from those with experience. Are you considering Davidson Institute? (Sorry not from US so I don't know if you may do astrophysics post-docs in Nevada).

Well don't come to NZ. We have fairly clean air and nice weather and scenary. But we have terrible life balance, no gifted schools and very few or no gifted programmes within schools.

I would be hesitant to send my child to school in Singapore or South Korea or Japan based on their reputations for cramming. Germany doesn't allow homeschooling, but the school day is short, so you can enrich at home.

But what I really want is an academic field where you get to choose not only country but city where you'd like to live. Very jealous.

It's not about picking a location based on schooling, more the fact that we could theoretically end up anywhere in the world, due to the post-doc search (DH has talked about the possibility of Sydney and Cape Town, for example.) Obviously there has to be an appropriate program for him, but again, it could be anywhere so we mainly wanted to gather some info about any excellent gifted programs/areas so we would have at least some ideas of what's out there, when having to make our decisions.

Sounds reasonable.

I wonder if you could edit your thread title to better attract the attention of posters who might have that kind of information.

I am attempting to change the title of the thread. I have no idea if this will work! ::crossing fingers::

...Success!

....or not.

That's just your latest post. Go back to your original post and edit that.

Done. Hopefully it worked this time! Thanks

Ah, the dreaming phase. I do that too.

Thank you puffin. You saved me a lot of time there!
Thank you Tallulah- Germany is an option for us- but there is no time for homeschooling as we both work.
If we would go to Singapore or Japan we would choose an international school which are not quite like the local schools. As for now, Canada is at top of our list. Marnie, have you considered moving abroad?

If you are looking for "good work balance", one factor you may need to look into would be cost of living. We moved from a very high cost of living city to a much lower cost of living city (smaller city but with major cities 2-4 hours drive in 3 directions) - and currently we live in an area where the commute is not that bad for us (definitely nothing like the area we moved from, traffic-wise where at times, it seems like I could bike in the same amount of time to get to my location, although biking was definitely a much higher risk of injury due to the higher incidence of bike accidents).

In fact, even in my company, folks internally have noted that my site location has better work/life balance than our HQ location, and we have had lots of folks relocated to my site from HQ location specifically because of the lower cost of living and lower stress of daily life.

We have - two locations that are apparently very good for DH in terms of post-docs (as per his advisor) are Cape Town and Sydney. So we are definitely not confined to the US (of course that is where all our family is, but a post-doc is only a finite amount of time, so the idea of being able to go someplace for 3 years and then return does hold a kind of allure.)

Soccermom (and Marnie if you are looking at Canada). You mentioned Westmount and I grew up in Calgary and go home quite often so let me know if you have questions (although I don't have experience with the school). I also have some experience with the French language schools if you are curious on that front. Feel free to start a new thread or PM.

I have no idea about astro in Canada, would have to ask DH, but like I said earlier, we aren't really ruling anything out. (And have gotten a few Canada suggestions...so we will certainly have to keep that in mind, thanks!

Also, DH's mom speaks fluent French, and DS has picked up on some of that, so French immersion was always something that seemed pretty of interesting to us.

You may wish to look into the DYS program and sign up for a tour of Davidson Academy for 6th grade and beyond (which may come sooner than later if your child is accelerated in school).

I'm in the Boston area with a 2e/pg ds8. My son has attended two of the private gifted schools on Hoagie's - http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/schools.htm. He's now being un/homeschooled because neither school could accommodate him in terms of acceleration and there's really nothing else around. I spoke to Acera but they were newish (less than 5 years old) and would not have worked out.

Hoagie's does list US and international schools that you might consider. Please bear in mind, that with any of these schools, it really depends on the teachers, curriculum, ability to accelerate/accommodate, LOG, other students, etc. on whether your child will find a match. There's a lot of variables with schools and lot is going to depend how much your child will or will not tolerate in a particular school environment. Unfortunately, you don't always know how your child is going to react until they're placed in a particular school environment.

Many of the private gifted schools will accommodate a few grade skips or maybe more in one subject, but IF you've got a child working 4+ grades ahead across many subjects you may be out of luck. Some kids are fine being in a public/private school setting with modest accommodations. Others are not.

My advice would be to look at alternative schooling options online and all your options (even crazy ones) before ruling them out. There's a lot of free/open source un/homeschooling opportunities today that might work for the academics. Khan, BBC, Open U, and many, many others would offer both the flexibility and acceleration opportunities. There's also a number of virtual schools online (many fee-paying) which you might want to consider too before ruling them out.

Also, the situation can change very quickly with pg kids. One minute, they may be doing addition and the next minute they're doing algebra or calculus. Nothing is etched in stone here.

If you are considering Canada this might be helpful. http://www.ourkids.net/gifted-kids-schools.php Sydney is otherwise a lovely place (would love to live there). For the US I found this list helpful as a starting point: http://www.duketipeog.com/ It is not very easy, searching for a research position AND a good school for gifted.

At age 6, my DS has changed schools 3 times already and we are still looking at better options and expect to change schools a few more times!

We live in an area with access to very high quality enrichment opportunities and we also afterschool intensively. We don't think that we will find a school that is the perfect match for DS. Based on my experience, my advise would be to either move to Reno and enroll your child in Davidson academy or to move to an area that best suits your careers and find the best option for your child's education there. A highly gifted child like yours can easily outpace any acceleration that a school can provide. I have visited some schools that have a high reputation for catering to the highly gifted child and shadowed their classrooms and was underwhelmed by what they were teaching in the classrooms. But, a positive aspect of these "gifted" schools is that your child has a lot of peers at his LOG. Good luck.

That is pretty much how I feel.

Thank you for your candor, ashley! Finding kids of remotely similar LOG would be amazing - I just want him to connect to his peers in a meaningful way, which is few and far between right now.

I know there is most likely no perfect situation, and if we managed to find one, it probably wouldn't last. But I'm a research by nature (and occupation) and so...collecting information to make make informed decisions it just how I tick. I feel compelled to find out as much as I can - it's my way of taking some control over the situation. Luckily DH is the more laid back one, so he is usually there to reel me in when I start delving too deep, too fast, lol.

Thanks everyone for any info provided, we will definitely keep locations in mind as the post-doc search trundles on.

By the way, Hoagies has a list that shows gifted schools and specifies ones that cater to HG+ kids. It looks like California, Minnesota, Missouri, of course Nevada, North Carolina, and Washington each have schools that specify HG+.

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/schools.htm

Finding kids of remotely similar LOG is the main reason that we are moving. Where we live gifted education and home-schooling is prohibited by law(!) and although the schools are good at making sure that no-one falls behind there is NO focus on gifted students at all- the teachers at our son´s school admit that they have no idea what to do.
Thank you so much for sharing Marnie!