<p>Our situations sound very similar, except that my son has lived at home for all four years of high school. Looking back, I see a lot of advantadges whereas at the beginning I had a lot of fears. </p>
<p>I think it’s been very valuable for my son to go to school with such a diverse population, it’s a reflection of the real world, the world he will live in for most of his adult life. While his closest friends do tend to be the other brainy kids, some of his friends are passionate about other things and I have found that it has helped my son to keep his gifts in perspective. There are other kinds of smart than academics and he has lived that.</p>
<p>I also did not have enough faith in my son’s, well, brain! We knew he was different from a very young age and the pressure to “maximize” that is extreme. But the fact is that he has always been an academically bright and curious kid. It’s such a basic part of who he is and not being surrounded by clones of himself didn’t change it. </p>
<p>Lastly, I truly believe that it has been valuable not only to us but to him to live with his parents. It’s not such a bad thing to live with two people who adore, love and support you for 18 years.</p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with four years of high school! Even if your child is highly gifted, he may lag in a few areas, particularly non-academics. My oldest was a grade ahead (but had a fall birthday) and he did not suffer, but was, of course, the last in his group to drive and turn 21. One thing that is very important to boys is their growth rate. If he is short and young, he is not going to feel comfortable among older kids. This is not easy to predict, so go with your instincts.</p>
<p>I have a friend who accelerated her son through a combined HS and college program at a California State University. He is now a college graduate at 19 1/2. Not many kids are ready to move out into the work world at that age - it’s a kind of limbo that removes kids from their peers when they need them the most. If your son is happy at the HS, let him be. You’ll know in a year or two if 1) the school can keep him in classes for four years, and 2) if he has the stuff to play varsity ball. If not, the decision to accelerate or transfer may be easier for all of you.</p>
<p>It all depends on the kid and the situation. A young lady I know went from freshman yr of HS to an early college in California at 14 or 15. This was definitely not as notable a college (in general) as would have been on her list if she went for a full HS experience. She got into great grad schools from the early college, but really skipped both a “normal” HS and “normal” college experience. In terms of career it has been great - socially, it has been really less than great. </p>
<p>If there are private or public options that allow advanced academics and social development with similar age peers that would be my thoughts on the ideal situation. However, on the other hand, there are those students who are so interested in the academics that it doesn’t matter whether the social life is “normal”. I hope you understand what I am trying to say.</p>
<p>My sister-in-law’s oldest got great test scores, wasn’t putting in the effort in middle school classes, and, while he hung out with his small group of friends, didn’t participate in any EC’s or school-sponsored social activities. After a lot of soul-searching, they put him in a program at the local state flagship instead of high school where a small group of kids spend a year in a one-room-school setting on campus getting prepared for college, then go on into the college classes after the year. Socially he was much more comfortable with kid’s more like him than he was in middle school, and he really enjoyed the college classes. His mom told me that kids in his college classes were surprised when they found out how young he was (his age only came up a couple of times… in language classes where he had an assignment to introduce himself and once when there were a discussion about voting in an upcoming election). The program he was in was a resource for him until he graduated, with advisors in place specifically for these kids.</p>
<p>It worked for him, but they said that they never would have considered it if he had any interest in the high school social scene, team sports, band, etc.</p>
<p>i considered graduating in three years. my high school is exactly like the one you described, Apollo6 (moderately-scoring, not many 30+ scores on ACT or NMSFs), and most of my friends are a year older than me. ultimately, though, i decided to wait it out because i wanted to attend the best college i could. so far my senior year hasn’t been wonderful, but i have reacquainted with some old friends from middle school with whom i shared no classes previously.</p>
<p>@wis75: i am very interested in this girl who took classes all year at UW Madison! you mean she was a full-time, on-campus student there her senior year of HS and still got to graduate with her class? wow, wish i had known about that! my friends are mostly there.</p>
<p>Every kid is different. My son skipped kindergarten and went straight into 1st grade (at the school’s recommendation); he later skipped 6th grade (at the school’s recommendation); then, finally, at the school’s recommendation, he applied to college during his junior year and went off to MIT at age 16. I couldn’t have slowed him down if I’d attached lead weights. Now that he’s been out of college for almost three years… I’d do it again.</p>
<p>What does your son want? What would be his preference? That matters a lot!</p>
<p>Same thing with my son. The one thing we regret now is that we did not accelerate him more! He had a not so happy k-6 experience because he was held back. Once he was accelerated, he could not have been happier.
There are ways of accelerating a child without sending him to boarding school even though the school itself may not be very good, as long as the teachers are willing to accommodate and accelerate.
By the way, diversity can be achieved without pandering to mediocrity. Our school is very diverse, and the school stats are not impressive, but it has produced some truly impressive students.</p>
<p>Apollo6, the Davidson Institute offers a summer program as well (I saw that someone posted about Davidson Scholars above). 3 weeks in Reno at the Davidson Institute with other students like your son, for kids between 13 & 16. My D2 has applied for this summer (and is also bugging me to move to Reno so she can attend Davidson all year, but that isn’t happening!). I think face time with other highly gifted kids is really valuable for kids who are so academically advanced, whether they choose to stay in their “age appropriate” grade or not during the school year. Here is the link (however, the first round of applications for next summer are due on Jan. 12, but they accept a 2nd round at the end of January). Or you could wait a year (D2 is in 9th this year, so would be 15 if she is accepted for this summer).</p>
<p>Also, you should look into the Johns Hopkins online group called Cogito ([Cogito</a> - Home](<a href=“http://www.cogito.org%5DCogito”>http://www.cogito.org)). Although the site says it is focused on science, D2 is a writing-English-social sciences type kid, and she has made tons of highly gifted friends and finds plenty of stimulating discussion with kids with her interests. Also, don’t be put off by the Templeton Foundation link, there is no effort to censure or direct their discussion that I can see. You could e-mail the address on the Cogito website for more info to get your kid signed up. My D was invited based on her SAT results through CTY.</p>
<p>There is eep at univ of wa that some kids do.(I think the oldest is 14)
it basically accelerates 4 years of high school into a year and then you begin university.
I would imagine similar programs are at other state flagship schools.</p>
<p>A few friends of d’s did thus, but I agree that high school is not just about appropiate curriculum unless you want to spend the
rest of your life under a hood in the chem lab.</p>
<p>I’ve only skimmed the thread but wanted to chime in. I definitely agree that the decision depends on the student. 1000 years ago, DH skipped the last two years of high school and started college at 15. He did live at home so didn’t have to deal with the pressures of dorm life. He had a group of friends at college but wasn’t a social butterfly. He is borderline aspergers so the lack of socialization never bothered him. He still talks about how wonderful college was compared to high school which was so boring it was “physically painful”</p>
<p>DD2 has a father’s brain’s. We are fortunate enough to live in a state with a wonderful magnet residential high school for gifted kids. She went there and loved it!! She is now a freshman in college and made deans list first semester.</p>
<p>Like Midmo, we are lucky to live in a college town, where my son was one of many who started taking college courses early in high school. Without that opportunity, he would have graduated high school early. One semester he carried 13 university credits, as well as his high school classes and extracurricular activities (I think we had to pay for a credit or two, as there is an upper limit that is free; and the books are loaned to the student, so none have to be bought). He ended up doing research with the honors Astrophysics professor (whose course he took in hs) the summer after his first year of college.</p>
<p>Elementary school, on the other hand, was terrible. His first grade teacher refused to accelerate him in math, because it “wasn’t in her job description.” His second grade teacher promised she would do so over and over again, but never did anything. We timed a sabbatical to Germany to avoid the fourth grade teacher, and then it all changed and he had one of the best teachers ever. He pulled out a group of kids and started accelerated math for them.</p>
<p>We found various summer enrichment activities for him, one of which netted him two academic papers as a co-author, an all-expense-paid trip to present a poster at the annual professional meetings, and I’m guessing pushed him over the top and earned him a huge merit scholarship at his college.</p>
<p>Above all, the choice was his. I’ve asked him since graduating high school whether he did the right thing, and he said yes. He had lots of high school friends, loved his math and science competitions, loved orchestra, and was challenged by a select very few high school teachers and his college courses (while in high school).</p>
<p>Good luck. I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out what will work best in your case.</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s any one answer that would fit all kids who are academically advanced. Since emotional development could be completely different from academic development, you don’t want to just drop the kid in college with others several years older unless you were confident he would fit in. If in any way it’s possible for you to get him involved in more advanced material while he’s still with his peer group, it woud help. Similarly exposing him to other kids of his age who are extremely talented in his area of expertise sometimes works out better.</p>
<p>My S was quite ahead in math - 800 SAT M by age 10, so I kept him busy in math- (AMC, ARML, integration bee), programming-, and chess tournaments, and in math and comp sci projects that lasted weeks/months (in PA, PJAS and PRSEF) and it seems to have worked out. We also lucked out that he could go to college close by that’s rigorous enough to keep him on his toes. Having said that, I know of a few families who have actually placed their young children in college and they seem to have done well.</p>
<p>Intparent- I showed S the Think Institute course descriptions and he seriously considered it. I also showed him the CTD summer course listings and Concordia Language Villages. As a rising 9th grader he couldn’t choose the more interesting CTD courses that are for older students. I think the Think Institute sounds like a great value for the price but I think we’ll check back next year for that one. He decided that he would like to do Spanish immersion camp this summer. He’ll get high school credit, be able to do AP Spanish as a 10th grader, and above all have fun while getting excellent instruction.</p>
<p>Dad_of _3, I’m amazed that you were able to find appropriate math instruction for your son at a young age - or else you taught him or he learned by osmosis! My S was precocious in math at a young age - Looked over at speed limit signs and warned me if I was speeding at 3, Told time including minutes until an anticipated activity later in the day at 4, but I just could not keep it going because my math ability is limited and school could never teach him what he was ready to do. He is currently in geometry and taking Alg 2 online. That was the best we could do. We had to start a Mathcounts team. His middle school has never heard of AMC 8. I hope I can get him the chance to do AMC 10 at high school next year.</p>
<p>We are somewhat limited financially due to having 6 children. S2 will be watching his 3 younger sibs while I teach summer school in order to raise funds for a summer program. D1 went to CTD and took psychology the summer before 9th grade. It really opened her eyes when she got to know bright kids from all over the county and some international students. She says that if she ever gets married it will be to an East Indian. LOL. She self studied and scored a 5 on AP psych that year to the surprise of her school that never allows students younger than 11th grade to take AP psych. With that score we got her into IB psychology in 10th grade so she took this class with seniors who were 3 years older than she was. She scored a 5/7 for the IB certificate but her teacher felt that was primarily due to her inexperience in writing. She’d love to do something exciting this summer, too, but I don’t think I can afford more than one summer program. Ugh!</p>
<p>Funny, Apollo6, I gave D2 the same set of choices this summer (CTD, Concordia Language Villages, and THINK - - we have also registered her for CTY, so added those as well). My kids have done Concordia Language Villages in the past (8 summers of Finnish for D1, including 2 years of high school credit, and 3 summers of French camp for D2). Both enjoyed them a lot. Agree that THINK, while not cheap, is more reasonably priced than a lot of the other programs (CTY, CTD, etc.).</p>