Cool! Wish we were in Nevada, but $15,000 is awfully steep for an online school. We could do full time dual enrollment with a local college for many times cheaper than that with an actual classroom experience.

Concerns we have personally experienced putting 2 kids in at 7th grade: anxiety organizational skills depending on the kid frustration with kids who behave poorly in the classroom placement should heavily take into account mom's opinion of readiness Positives Enjoying the social aspect Enjoying class discussion/participation Lots of activities/sports/clubs/field trips Pressure to become organized, etc...

I'm already starting to think Christmas. I like to be ahead of things! My oldest loves the Life of Fred...he owns just about all of them now and the Horrible Histories and Science. My 2nd loved Murderous Maths. I am wondering if there is anything else out there I am unaware of? I think I will order The Pun Also Rises for my pun-loving 16 year old and Science Matters for the 14 year old because he keeps reading it when I get it out of the library. But I am looking for more and better ideas, preferably light-hearted since they will be gifts. DS11 loves to know how things work, but doesn't seem to like the 'how things work' series.

Wow - I was going to mention strep but figured it was a long shot. When my kiddo went through a year of recurrent strep his behavior ranged from downright weird to aggressive. Once we finally figured out his his brother was an asymptomatic carrier who was amox resistant, it was like night and day. I would just stop in the middle of my day and thank the Lord for the change in our household. It was SO different having him strep free. I do believe it could be a huge component since you mention that it is an issue.

How old is he? My oldest tested somewhat below average at 6 years old but when he took the WISC at 12, he was 2%ile processing speed. He still does ok on tests...usually. He did fine on the SATs in 7th grade. So I would say if he's middle school and it's 50%, the processing speed is not the main issue. However, I would watch him take a test and see where he gets bogged down. I tell my math students that if they're slower, they might just be deep thinkers. This is part of the issue with my son...he's a more creative, global thinker and not detail oriented. It's a gift in many ways...just not all ways. Plus my understanding is that on the processing speed and working memory, gifted kids are just as average as everybody else (in other words, they follow the same normal curve).

DH agrees it's an issue, just probably not as concerned as I am....bc he was like that. Hmm...self-sabotage. He's done it 3 times in the last 18 months that I know of...always regarding an academic competition where he did not want to do an oral /on-stage component.

Funny - he just finished orchestra practice and was frustrated by the lack of focus and effort of the other trumpets. BTW this is a consistent reaction for him. He has very high standards of behavior across the board. He doesn't see the irony that he is complaining about their lack of effort. He also recognized some of the high school kids coming in for the next level up. Maybe that will motivate him...but when I mentioned that having a good tryout would help him to move up faster and away from the annoying kids, he was frustrated with me.

He has plenty of friends and is very well-adjusted. Yes music is easy for him. He's not a prodigy or anything, but he's very good. His site reading is superb, he memorizes with ease, and he's been told his tone on the trumpet is really good - whatever that means. Everyone hits the wall where they have to work to succeed eventually. I guess I should mention that he is almost a duplicate of my husband. My husband and his nephew have both given me personal experience with young men who are allowed to coast and then struggle to handle a challenge when it arises. I don't know how to make him go the extra mile for anything since he is not super-excited about anything. His favorite thing is his music. This orchestra is where I was looking for that challenge to occur. And he hates being the center of attention so trying to stand out will not inspire him (quite the opposite). It's not as if he has excelled at everything he has ever done. He just never makes an effort and he can be anywhere from OK to incredible with no effort. Actually, I think he would go the extra mile for grades. I warned the trumpet instructor so I think I am going to contact him again and mention that ds is not practicing nearly as much as requested. DS is a very compliant child so if the instructor holds his feet to the fire, he will make the effort, but he can't do that if he thinks ds is practicing. Realistically from the standpoint of addressing this specific issue, I get that the best solution would have been multiple grade accelerations, but I did not feel that was in the best interest of his development overall (social emotional, his interest in soccer, etc...) That is why I homeschooled him. I'm not sure I accomplished anything, though maybe it would be worse if I hadn't homeschooled. I certainly pushed him harder than the school would have.

Yes! I'm annoyed because I value hard work and also I value the persistence that is not learned if you never have to work hard! I do recognize it as a blessing in some ways - he can pursue more interests because he doesn't always have to be able to fit in his practice each day to make it work. But he never studies or practices at anything. I worry about that. He does have a younger and an older brother, both of whom are harder workers and more passionate, but also things do not come as easy to them. I think later in life this will serve them well.

No, I'm not in it. It's a youth orchestra. He chose to do this, and I said if we paid for it he would have to commit to practice. I checked in with him over a period of weeks and asked if he was sure. He insisted he was...thus the frustration that he is again skating through. He likes it. He appreciates that the other kids don't take months of practice to get a piece sounding good...in fact they tend to sound lovely the first time through. Kids who don't take stuff seriously bug him tremendously...apparently he doesn't see the irony here :(

I've never even heard the term CM before this thread :) and I don't know how competitive this orchestra is. The top level goes to Europe every three years but it sounds like its pretty much upper classmen. We are in the 3rd / lowest level which I think was partly political since he's new. It must be hard to jump the new kid over the kids who have been members for 2 years and have been your private students. However, he has been playing trumpet for 4 years and piano for 5.

That is interesting! We are completely new to orchestra since he is a trumpet player and has only played jazz band and concert band in the past. That would explain the comment from the instructor...though I wish he hadn't made the comment! Now DS sees no reason to practice.

It is a relief to read that my kid is not the ONLY kid with this concern. I was reading an article from CTY about gifted kids yesterday and it mentioned how they all have this passion for learning, and I can't say my middle child does. This is why I pulled him out initially after kindergarten...that and not wanting to accelerate him with older kids. I did put him back in though for 7th grade at our highly competitive, intense public school. I am only homeschooling one child anymore but I am seeing issues and if he is not willing to take advantage of what the HS has to offer so he can be like his friends, I may have to pull him out and do dual enrollment instead.

I think I need to email the music teacher and ask for some support getting him to practice. He has only been with him 2 months and I warned the teacher that he would coast. He has only been to TWO orchestra practices and only has 1 friend there that I know of from before it started. This was supposed to be the competitive community activity where he would be challenged, not coast. I was actually surprised they put him in the lower group but thought it might be political since he is new. Now I'm sure of it...if the teacher told him he was assured of 1st chair in a blind audition, it doesn't make sense and now he won't want to move up. He won't try new stuff and he's modestly gifted athletically too so he succeeds sufficiently there and/or hides so as not to stand out. He doesn't like attention or risking embarrassing himself. Risk averse is his personality.

Middle DS is 8th grade and PG. He has me upset and I don't know who to ask. Has anyone else got a kid who underperforms in order to NOT be the center of attention and NOT be different from his friends, none of whom have qualified gifted, though bright. He will throw tests for qualifying for competitions so as to not be "on stage". It's never been on anything important really - yet - until now. However, his only interest that even approaches a passion is music and today I received an email that there will be tryouts for seating in the new orchestra group he is in. I told him and when he said he already knew, I asked why I haven't heard him practicing. He promised if I paid for this group and the necessary private lessons from the director, he would practice. His 1st response was that the teacher already told him he will get 1st chair (uhm...blind audition so no guarantee). I responded that then he should excel and improve his chances of moving up to the next level orchestra. He yelled at me that it's not just about how well he does...he's not moving up and leaving his friends or he will quit. I'm pretty shaken that he got upset with me. It's not like him. To me the big issue is that he coasts through everything and is never really challenged. He has no frustration tolerance as a result. An average kid and even his older HG brother with executive functioning issues are constantly being pushed by life itself but nothing ever stretches this kid and he won't push himself. His focus is on blending in. :(

I agree. Saxon can be tedious for an advanced kid. I mostly used Singapore (Miquon a bit in the early years too). Or skip problems and double up on lessons if you want to finish the book you are on.

How old is he? Mindstorm, while it can get quite complicated, is good for the beginner as well! It is also fun! All three of my kids started around 8 years old. FLL is a fun option to look into...all three have done it and one went to the world festival and another to international competition and medalled. My 15 year old is now on a nationally competitive FTC team and will most certainly major in a comp sci field. He had a Raspberry Pi...it held his attention for a few months until he figured out how to gain access to the internet with no filters on it and we took it away but I think it is more complicated to get started than Mindstorm.

I posted here years ago! My son did end up doing the Duke Tip course. For the cost, it was worthwhile. Now he plans to be a computer scientist and is fairly knowledgeable about things like hacking competitions. So while I bet he doesn't remember this course, I think it helped widen his exposure.

One other possible criteria to consider is when your middle school children are too old for the Explore but standardized tests don't tell you anything useful because they score really high. Otherwise, I find it to be a useful experience unless your kid will get frustrated. I took it 2x in middle school and it only helped and encouraged me. My oldest 2 have both taken it in 7th so far.

How does Davidson want to receive a copy of qualifying SAT scores? I did not receive a paper copy, but I can pay to order one. Their name is not listed under colleges and scholarships to have the CollegeBoard directly mail an official report. Also, if anyone has applied recently...it looks like they are no longer requiring supplemental information, so it's just a letter of recommendation, the test scores, and answers from me? I need to apply for my 13 year old. I have put this off too long. He more than qualified on the Explore test 3 years ago and more than qualified on the SATs this winter. Thanks!

I think we did the TIP cryptology. But it was cheap ($70?) and fine for $70...my son did it on his own so I don't have a lot of knowledge of the course. My friend's son did a CTY math camp in eastern PA last summer. Loved it and is going back this year. He is gifted in math and does lots of enrichment locally. I wish I could send my kiddos but with food allergies and the dining hall, I don't think my 7th grader is ready to handle that.

We are heading to Detroit for a wedding in 2 weeks and will have from about 11AM until 5PM to spend at the Henry Ford museum if we decide it is worth the cost. My boys are 14,12 and 10. 14 year old is a physical science / computer science addict. But mostly I want to make sure the 10 year old enjoys it...he is very concerned about having a hands-on career where he actually gets to build stuff :) For example, he loved watching a documentary last week on building models of the Hindenburg and blowing them up to try and figure out what caused the explosion. That would be his dream job! He is also fascinated by Edison and spent this past spring making his own homemade lightbulb and testing filaments for the science fair so I was excited that they have "Menlo Park". However, I read here there some find Greenfield Village boring and I think this is where "Menlo Park" is? So which part would you recommend for us if we choose 1...museum, Greenfield Village, or factory tour? and can you tell me what exactly "Menlo Park" is? Is it a reproduction of Edison's labs? Is it a significant exhibit? Thanks so much! Brownie

This totally cracks me up! I never would have thought to try this. I definitely have to keep playing with this. I am tired of the tears on material he totally knows. When my oldest was in Saxon 7/6 (I think), I put the problems on the dry erase board...totally a pain but it seemed to work. I went back to my old standby of giving him 5 baking butterscotch chips for every 5 problems completed on Friday, but the novelty only lasted through about 10 problems. Brownie

Ooh - I forgot about "Key to...". I did use that once to fill a gap for one of my other kids. I will look at those again. Yes I sit with him and when I tell him to pick his pencil back up, he argues that he is thinking. He tries to do too much in his head. His writing ability is quite strong, so that's no it though I wouldn't be surprised if the back and forth between the book and the paper is adding to the focusing issues. I have one other child with really poor working memory. With a lot of effort in past years on my part, his math facts are quite good. He is not a natural memorizer. Oddly, he took test 2 today and got through it in reasonable time without me admonishing him so perhaps the use of the text book rather than workbook is a significant factor.

Not sure where to go next. My 4th grader finished Singapore level 5 around mid-year. He's my 3rd kid and my next step is typically a year of Saxon pre-algebra, then a little more algebra-like pre-algebra to fill the gaps (McDougal Littel), and then algebra. I use Saxon for just 1 year because I feel like the spiral nature insures the computational foundations of algebra are definitely in their memories. This kid in particular can do anything you show him 100 problems in a row, but then the next day has no clue how he did it. Doing a mix of problems daily helps cement it in. Well Saxon is never fun, but my 4th grader ends up in tears almost every day. It is not the material. There is nothing for me to teach him yet in lesson 12...it is all review. But he is SO SLOW. We attempt only 20 problems a day and it is still a nightmare. Today I pulled out the long division and multiplication problems because they are the most time consuming and it was still a nightmare. I think it is a focus thing. Every time he has to switch tracks, he loses a few minutes. I don't want to go buying some other math curriculum that won't be a good fit. Does anyone have any suggestions? Ideally maybe 4 types of problems a day with 20 problems total would be more reasonable right now but I don't really want to devote the time to creating my own pre-algebra curriculum for him if I can avoid it. Thanks! Brownie