School District/Gifted kids

[olwyngdh]

.

BTW - Keeping backing her teacher up, in trying to teach your daughter to control her enthusiasm in the classroom. This becomes SO important when they get older! Here's what my mother told me, that I've passed on to my daughter...

What to do when you really want to contribute in class:

1. Take a deep breath.
2. Count to three.
3. Look around, see if anyone else has their hand up. If yes, give them a chance to answer first - MOST of the time. Every now and then you can treat yourself with a first answer. My mother recommends a three-to-one ratio.
4. Put your hand up.
5. Wait.

The benefits of practicing this routine include:

1. Getting called on more often (if your hand is always in the air, the teacher begins to ignore it).
2. Not irritating your classmates. (There's a reason they mock smart children on TV - just think of Martin in the Simpsons, "Oh, teacher, pick me, pick me! I'm ever so much smarter than the rest of them!")
3. Practicing your listening skills (many gifted children REALLY need practice in this area).
4. Getting to make the most salient point, because you've had a moment to think and compose your answer. The person who sounds smartest is never the first one to speak, it's always the person with the LAST answer.

I talked to her teacher about this when I went to pick her up after her Forensics club meeting today, and she thinks it is a great idea, so I am going to work on this with her. She says she loves the contributions that DD makes, but she gets so excited about things she doesn't stop once she starts talking. She is also going to work on this with a couple of other kids in the class that have the same issues

 

[olwyngdh]

I just finished reading Little Girls Can Be Mean, and highly recommend it. At 8, a lot of the meanness is about the other girls, not about your DD.

For school meanness, you just have to teach strategies for dealing with it (which the book covers) and hope for the best. But for an extracurricular, I wouldn't put up with it unless your DD was insistent. And if she is insistent, taking a few weeks off might resolve things - we took my DD off the bus for 3 weeks over little girl drama, and there wasn't any more drama when she started riding again.

Thank you! I will be looking for that when I hit the bookstore Christmas Shopping!

 

[olwyngdh]

Have you thought about starting your own troop? Her troop should have them taking turns an picking trips at this age. As far as her earning try-its outside of the meeting that is something I have always encouraged. There is no way was as troop I cant always cater to every persons likes for each trip so we try to do a variety of things.

Also look into a surrounding town.

Being an indepenant is also an option and you would have to register as her adviser.

Between being 50 and having Fibromyalgia, I just don't have the energy to run a troop anymore. I don't feel I can be dependable enough either if I am having a bad pain flair. I was thinking with Julliettes, since we go to council activities and work on badges on our own anyhow, we could go that route--doesn't help much with the things that need to be done with a group though, so I will have to look into how that is handled.

 

[NewCrew42]

Ideas to help with raising a gifted child:

1. Reading books - Books are awesome. Any kind of book. Both of my kids loved to read. I cannot tell you how many times DS got in trouble for reading in class while the teacher was teaching. You need to make friends with a librarian who can suggest books to your child. Often, truly gifted children take suggestions better from a "trained professional" than they do from their parent. We also struggled with the "But I have already read ALL of these books..." syndrome somewhere around 4th grade. That is when I made friends with the middle school librarian.

The DK books are wonderful!!!! And books like that. You may notice that your child has a freakish interest in something like airplanes or horses or outer space. Feed that interest. As they grow, they may have several of these odd obsessions, but it is ok. (Just remind them that just because THEY are uber excited to talk about the mating habits of the trumpet swan, most other humans could care less and might even think they are a little bit weird.)

2. Take them to museums, parks, plays, musicals, etc. When you are able have a docent at museums and parks give you a tour. Most often the child will listen to the docent better than they listen to you. My kids are always "on to me" trying to feed their brain, but they haven't caught on to the guided tour trick just yet.

3. Take educational vacations.

4. Watch the History Channel and other channels and programs like it. You would be surprised the interest these channels can spawn. Also, if you have a child who is a sport fanatic, there is nothing wrong with learning all of those stats and what they mean, and predicting who will be in a BCS bowl or win the Heisman. There is some really cool math in there and if you start predicting standing and looking at stats... Wow, what a way cool way to do math.

5. Computer games, PC games, video games can be the friend of a gifted child. Strategy games? Wow!!!! There are some awesome ones out there!!! Talk about using your brain.

6. Board games, card games, dominoes, chess, etc. Yet another area that you can add enrichment to your child's life.

7. Writing.... Poetry, short stories, children's books, journaling, etc. Fabulous outlets for the gifted mind. My DD wrote a children's book during the Arkansas/LSU football game on her iPhone the other night. We are in a stadium with 1000s of screaming fans, and she is writing a book on her phone. How cool is that?

"Only boring people get bored" is a philosphy we have in our home. If don't like your situation, change it. DD was not enjoying the football the other night, so she started writing a story on her phone. She writes poetry all the time too. I've told my kids, if you are in a situation where you can't write down what you are working on, then memorize what you are working on and write it down later at an appropriate time.

8. Do science experiments with your kids. It's fun.

9. Magazines are awesome. My kids like National Geographic Kids, National Geographic, and the Travel National Geographic. They also like Imagine.

AND

10. Let your kid be a kid!!!! Let him have fun!!!!!

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Good luck OP!!!!!!!!

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

I went through it myself as a kid. For me it was a one day a week pull out in elem. and a one hour a day class in middle school. We had honors classes in ninth grade. My elem. librarian created an honors book club when she saw that I and a couple of others were not being challenged and I had individual teachers that were wonderful at allowing me to do the same projects but on a harder level.

I did not feel sufficiently challenged in my district with what they had and ended up skipping the last three years of high school and enrolling in the Program for the Exceptionally Gifted at Mary Baldwin College. So I completed 9th grade and then went on to college. I have no diploma/GED, but I do have a bachelor's and a master's.

I think it's good for gifted kids to be in regular rooms and to have to learn that yeah, sometimes you are bored but that is no excuse to be disruptive, but at the same time the teachers and the schools do need to create challenges for them so that they can continue to grow.

 

[allyphoe]

It is the theory (that I only know from reading Science Fiction) that if you travel out in space some distance, then turn around and come back, that more time would have passed on earth and would have passed for you.

Oh, I know what you mean. It's not traveling out that matters; it matters that you're traveling at relativistic speeds (close to the speed of light). If you're going short distances, though, the high speed of travel is going to be more important than the relativistic effects.

Has she read A Brief History of Time? (Or the more-recent and more-kid-friendly version, A Briefer History of Time.) The ideas are complex, but the vocabulary ought to be manageable for a bright kid who likes the topic and has a helpful adult. It might give her some good ideas for her portal, and it's not heavy on math. The Uncle Albert books (by Russell Stannard) might be interesting to her, too.

 

[honugirl]

Thanks guys, I will try to talk her into it. I do believe it would be useful. It's funny, but I liked Organic Chem too! I was a Biochem major. Math was not my thing though, she did not get those brain cells from me!...I drifted into Biochem looking to do Cancer research. I loved it until I quit working to be a SAHM. DD wants to be a science major of some sort...she is uncertain which kind. She is not looking for Ivy league, just a good merit scholarship at a state school will be fine. If no great offers come her way, she will follow in her parents footsteps and go to Texas A&M. Whoop!

I've decided to go for a biochem degree, I'd like to get into pituitary/adrenal disease research. I get all excited when we do o-chem/biochem stuff in class. He he he. It's absolutely fascinating! Even at college though I get teased about it. Fortunately, the chem department staff at my school are amazing, which makes all the teasing worth it. I just got my book for next quarter's class and I've already started reading it... I'm going to have to hide it though so I'll do my other reading. I guess I'm in a class of my own! Not many people would rather read "Chemistry: A molecular approach" over Robinson Crusoe....

 

[Let'sGoFlyAKite]

Ideas to help with raising a gifted child:

1. Reading books - Books are awesome. Any kind of book. Both of my kids loved to read. I cannot tell you how many times DS got in trouble for reading in class while the teacher was teaching. You need to make friends with a librarian who can suggest books to your child. Often, truly gifted children take suggestions better from a "trained professional" than they do from their parent. We also struggled with the "But I have already read ALL of these books..." syndrome somewhere around 4th grade. That is when I made friends with the middle school librarian.

The DK books are wonderful!!!! And books like that. You may notice that your child has a freakish interest in something like airplanes or horses or outer space. Feed that interest. As they grow, they may have several of these odd obsessions, but it is ok. (Just remind them that just because THEY are uber excited to talk about the mating habits of the trumpet swan, most other humans could care less and might even think they are a little bit weird.)

2. Take them to museums, parks, plays, musicals, etc. When you are able have a docent at museums and parks give you a tour. Most often the child will listen to the docent better than they listen to you. My kids are always "on to me" trying to feed their brain, but they haven't caught on to the guided tour trick just yet.

3. Take educational vacations.

4. Watch the History Channel and other channels and programs like it. You would be surprised the interest these channels can spawn. Also, if you have a child who is a sport fanatic, there is nothing wrong with learning all of those stats and what they mean, and predicting who will be in a BCS bowl or win the Heisman. There is some really cool math in there and if you start predicting standing and looking at stats... Wow, what a way cool way to do math.

5. Computer games, PC games, video games can be the friend of a gifted child. Strategy games? Wow!!!! There are some awesome ones out there!!! Talk about using your brain.

6. Board games, card games, dominoes, chess, etc. Yet another area that you can add enrichment to your child's life.

7. Writing.... Poetry, short stories, children's books, journaling, etc. Fabulous outlets for the gifted mind. My DD wrote a children's book during the Arkansas/LSU football game on her iPhone the other night. We are in a stadium with 1000s of screaming fans, and she is writing a book on her phone. How cool is that?

"Only boring people get bored" is a philosphy we have in our home. If don't like your situation, change it. DD was not enjoying the football the other night, so she started writing a story on her phone. She writes poetry all the time too. I've told my kids, if you are in a situation where you can't write down what you are working on, then memorize what you are working on and write it down later at an appropriate time.

8. Do science experiments with your kids. It's fun.

9. Magazines are awesome. My kids like National Geographic Kids, National Geographic, and the Travel National Geographic. They also like Imagine.

AND

10. Let your kid be a kid!!!! Let him have fun!!!!!

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Good luck OP!!!!!!!!

These are all great ideas!! Thanks so much. When ever we travel we DO look for ANYTHING that the kids can LEARN something new. We went to south Dakota this year and learned about the wild Buffalo, Mt Rushmore, and even saw a site where scientists are excavating Mammoth bones. When we go to Disney we use Epcot as a learning experience of cultures around the world. One pice of advice you gave me that I really appreciate is to ask the Librarian for recommendations!! I hadn't thought of that. My son loves video games, but I'm worried he's ADDICTED to them. I know some really make you think. He is really enjoying Epic Mickey right now, he's much further in the game then I am....lol

 

[mhsjax]

I swear everyone on the dis has at least one gifted child!

Not me, and sorry, but from what I have seen at my kids elementary school, I am glad they aren't. They are in a class just for gifted, they see the same kids year after year, and if you ask anyone of the kids, (and I know parent also that agree, because they took their kids out of gifted) most of these kids don't socialize well with anyone other than gifted. I would never put my child in a gifted program that wasn't a pull out one day a week. I did have mine tested but he didn't quite make it, but I had decided that even if he did qualify that I wouldn't do it, he wasn't a good fit. His best friend did make it and only stayed 1 year and then they pulled him out.

 

[agnes!]

Depending on how advanced a reader your child is (and their age, I'd think it wouldn't be beyond a really advanced reader maybe starting around 6th Grade?), I would suggest 'Freakonomics'...I finally picked it up yesterday after buying it a while back and think the book would be *ideal* for a kid who is always looking at how things are interconnected. Someone who is creative, interested in science, wants to know how things *really* work would probably really like this book.

agnes!

 

[Acklander]

They are in a class just for gifted, they see the same kids year after year, and if you ask anyone of the kids, (and I know parent also that agree, because they took their kids out of gifted) most of these kids don't socialize well with anyone other than gifted.

I think that's the point many parents on this thread are making. When their kids are in regular classes they have a problem with socializing and once they were swapped to the gifted class they had peers that they were able to socialize with, and they didn't feel so alone. I don't see anything wrong with that, and if I had a child who, for the first time in his school career, was able to find kids to socialize with, I wouldn't pull him from the program, just because he only hung with the other gifted kids. I'd probably be glad that he finally had a friend he felt comfortable with. Every kid needs a friend who "gets" him.

 

[Aristomommy]

Not me, and sorry, but from what I have seen at my kids elementary school, I am glad they aren't. They are in a class just for gifted, they see the same kids year after year, and if you ask anyone of the kids, (and I know parent also that agree, because they took their kids out of gifted) most of these kids don't socialize well with anyone other than gifted. I would never put my child in a gifted program that wasn't a pull out one day a week. I did have mine tested but he didn't quite make it, but I had decided that even if he did qualify that I wouldn't do it, he wasn't a good fit. His best friend did make it and only stayed 1 year and then they pulled him out.

I can offer my experience on that. DD was not making friends in a regular classroom, most of her friends outside of school were 2-4 years older. Once she was placed in the gifted classroom, she finally fit in, bullying stopped and she gained self confidence. The first year of middle school, was an adjustment but she still saw her classmates during math. This year she is a social butterfly and enjoys academics and social aspects of 7th grade. Being in a safe place of a gifted classroom let her breathe a few years and gain confidence for later time. For some kids this may not be a good fit, but for a bullied kid that didn't feel like she fit in, it was great!

 

[Hannathy]

For some kids this may not be a good fit, but for a bullied kid that didn't feel like she fit in, it was great!

Amen to that! I think we would have had to home school my DD if they hadn't started the gifted charter school. She was finally happy to go to school and be with kids AND teachers who understood her.