I want to say a word in support of the recognition ceremonies. My perspective is that of a parent who child went to one, and who later on actually MCed the state ceremony for several years as a volunteer.
In Maine, many of the honorees come from my area, near Portland, which is probably more like the places where the rest of you live. (Although still far more relaxed than the upper-middle class suburbs of NYC from whence I hail.) But others come from communities where college graduates are the minority, old mill towns, very small rural towns–even smaller than mine, which has about 7K people. These kids, and even our kids here, have seen other kids publicly recognized over and over and over again for accomplishments in sports. Intellectual achievement is almost a dirty secret. This is likely the only time in these kids’ young lives that THEY have been the star of the show, and publicly praised in a ceremony just for them.
Some people really appreciate this. Some don’t care. As always, it depends on this kid.
I have also attended a few recognition ceremonies (as a volunteer- long after my kids aged out of the program) and was moved by how rare it is in some places for a child to be singled out for something that doesn’t involve athletics, cheerleading, or the pageant/Miss Teen something or other-- which even though they claim to be scholarship programs are still stuck in the “are you thin and do you have nice teeth” mode of beauty pageants.
For some kids, Talent Search Programs are the only option to learn at their level, to explore strengths and passions without pressure and to get answers in areas of interest. All my kids took on line classes only through CTD , and we were very satisfied with the curriculum and teaching. Two took SAT at 12yo, with no preparation and no previous acceleration. On line classes through NWU helped them supplement the school curriculum, which was insufficient. Third child took Explore at 8 and the results allowed him to pursue his passions: Mythology, Latin, writing, etc, at an age where any school would still teach basic reading and writing. None got awards, medals, etc…it’s not about awards or recognition, it’s about quality education, adequate for the child’s ability and age…
ok so I was in NUMATS starting in 7th grade and I took the SAT in 7th and 8th grade. I really didn’t do that well on them, maybe because I took them cold, but I didn’t really feel like it helped and I guess I didn’t really qualify for anything. Also, my parents could barely afford to pay for the SAT itself, so I couldn’t participate in any of the pre-college programs or whatever DukeTIp is. Then, my sophomore year I just decided what the heck I’ll try the ACT instead of continuously getting a poor score on the SAT, so I took the ACT no prep and got a 34. So, no NUMATS didn’t really help me at all. It really isn’t worth the money, unless you have a lot of it, to participate in NUMATS, because it’s definitely not make or break; your child can still be valedictorian and go to Harvard w/o it.
@eiholi My kid took one practice test at home under timed conditions. It was a real test that had been retired by the College Board. We figured it would give her some familiarity with the test and it would let us know if her scores were in range to sign up for a real test. Her results were good so we went ahead (old SAT with writing). The real test took over an hour longer because of all of the instructions at the beginning and various breaks. She was tired by the end. Provide snacks!
So far, she hasn’t done any of the on-line courses or camps.
When I first asked the question I meant the test itself and didn’t think about the summer camps at all. Almost all posters loved their camp experiences. I then checked the CTY course listings and saw interesting titles only in the defunct section. I guess some sort of changes have happened over the years.
Anyway, I gave son a practice test, his first ever in life, and asked him to do it at his own pace and convenience. He finished it in about a week. Two things become clear. First, what he doesn’t know is what his school hasn’t covered yet. Hopefully his school will cover the rest in the next few years. Second, he won’t be going to any awards ceremony. That’d be good as no one will talk about summer school. I’ll see how he does on the real test and share the results with you to collect your evaluations and suggestions.
We are in the Duke TIP area. When my oldest (D19, twins) brought home the forms a few years ago I was intrigued and looked it up. When I saw the prices…um, nope. Thankfully we live in an area where the public schools offer a variety of enrichment opportunities, and the population is high enough that a 95th percentile kid is going to have a lot of same age intellectual peers. We also are close enough to a few universities that offer summer programs for middle school and high school kids without the TIP price tag. If we lived in a small town in the middle of nowhere I’m sure I’d feel much differently, but when there’s so much opportunity right where you are, it’s just not as attractive.
I didn’t have my kids do any of the testing, like you said, it was on my dime and there didn’t seem any reason to do the testing if they weren’t going to be doing the programs.
If you are invited to the recognition ceremony you should go. All of the keynote speakers we saw were very interesting and worthwhile.
My children did well on the tests so I pulled them from standardized testing at school.
The online classes were not as extensive as they are now. The scores allowed me to enroll them in college level Latin while they were in middle school. Their choice.
My daughter tested with Johns Hopkins CTY in 6th grade and took the SAT in 8th grade just to get some practice. She loved the fun summer family programs and she took several on line courses over the summer. One in particular, Crafting the Essay, was very helpful for her as she transitioned into high school. It really helped develop her analytical writing skills. Although it was pricey, it was well worth it and she got a lot out of it.
re post #52. The big deal with gifted summer experiences is being with a peer group- gifted kids of your own age. Not at all the same as taking a class offered for older students. Back in son’s day some were enrichment classes while others were AP- very different goals. The benefit wasn’t always the academic but the time (finally) spent with kids who got things in one, mentally travelled at the same speed…
Yes, there are often a few scholarships available (need based only of course as all students are in the same league academically).
Low stress exams unless the parents choose otherwise. A chance to see where a child fits. The local school may praise little Jane/Johnny to the nth but- is s/he really all that special? Child really is- so what to do with it? Information on guiding your child instead of finding out when they leave the nest there was so much that could have made life less boring…
@SageMom@Hunt That sounds very interesting. I was looking for something local but couldn’t find any. Is online better on onsite better? Either feels strange to me, one lacks face-to-face interaction and the other too short. But an expensive stay away from home with same aged kids itself may be attractive @wis75.
The BEST part of a summer camp is the interaction with other peers. The academic knowledge can be obtained in many ways and solo. But- bouncing ideas off of each other, solving the problems of your world, being with people who really know what you are going through- invaluable. Some of the best education occurs in the off hours in college- likewise for HS students. Being in the majority instead of a lonely only. Having others willing to discuss intellectual things (along with the usual teen stuff).
Finances dictate opportunities. Taking the test for a one time fee is worth the expense. Knowing where your child is on the gifted continuum helps you decide possibilities later and maximizing the childhood experiences- both for happiness now and future opportunities that need a good academic background. One day in the life of a child is not a sacrifice of their time. Given how much is spent on so many trivial things the cost of a test is not much. Knowledge is power.
Remember- we are talking about gifted kids here, not just the bright students. It does not matter if 90% or 95% plus of kids would not do this. We are talking about those far from the middle of the Bell curve.
@eiholi the Johns Hopkins programs are all over. You can see the list of summer programs once you join. They are at UCLA, Berkeley, etc. You can choose to stay local or go across the country. The family summer program we did was at Yosemite. It was really fun and my daughter met a lot of great friends from all over the country! Only the on line classes lack face to face interaction but you do communicate via computer with the entire class and professor. The kids these days are very used to that sort of thing.
@suzy100 - Same here. My S1 had the opportunity to attend CTY, but we only had so much money to spend on education and we decided it was best spent on parochial school. I was pretty disappointed that he didn’t get to go, though.
@Consolation no, it’s still called CTY but within the various programs they have some programs that are “intensive studies”. http://cty.jhu.edu/ is the website and look under “Programs” and you will see there are short on line intensives, some are 'go at your own pace", some are family summer programs that are more fun and adventurous, some are like summer camp programs where your child stays there for several weeks. Some programs are limited to your test scores to qualify.
D took the SAT [cold] in 7th grade, but only to apply for the Caroline D. Bradley high school scholarship. Ii think she did a couple of CTY on-line programs but was never really thrilled with them.
Our kids took talent search tests in grade school because S really enjoyed standardized tests and D didn’t want to be left out. They continued taking the tests annually, including the SAT in 7the and 8th grades. They did really well on the SAT, with no prep–would have been high enough to get into state flagship U. S fit such high scores, he was awarded a scholarship to take a class of his choice at local private U with tuition waived. S redeemed the scholarship in the summer after 10th grade, when he took a statistics course that he said was way too easy but would count as college credit.
Neither kid took any other talent search offerings. They both wanted to do other things over the summer and felt the prices were inflated.
I feel taking the tests was probably good practice/experience for both kids, so they were very relaxed when they took the PSAT and later SAT and had good time management during the tests.
Regarding the price of the summer camp sessions: completely comparable to other good residential summer camps in Maine at the time S went. (Roughly 2003-7) The only one I knew of that was significantly cheaper was a Y camp called Camp Nellie Huckins in NH. (Which is still incredibly cheap. I’m sure that there are probably other comparatively inexpensive scout and Y camps elsewhere.)
@SageMom, what I meant was that the old CTY courses appeared to be in the section called “Intensive studies,” and seemed to be offered at the familiar campus sites such as Carlisle and Lancaster. They may be offered online and so forth in addition.