Best Elementary School for Highly Gifted Kids? (Carrollton, Allen: homes, dorms)

[compSciGuy]

Anybody have any comments on the best elementary school for highly gifted kids? Anybody have comments on Carrollton LEAP, or out of district enrollment for Lovejoy? What about the magnet GT Elementary in Allen?
My youngest daughter is in 2nd grade, and while she loves the GT program and instructors, it's only once a week. Her favorite class during the week is her GT pull-out class. Am I being too wishful in thinking the options may be better nearby?

[DFWUser1]

I heard good things about full time GT school in Allen. I think it is only one of a kind and not sure if there are completely GT school models like that anywhere. But the issue/down side is it is only through a lottery for the pool of existing GT students. So, cannot guarantee chances of selection. If you already live in Allen, give it a try and see what happens. They do lottery before start of school year and chances of getting are more in K than at other grades.

[Aggielina]

I don't know much about it, but my friend's now high schooler was in LEAP from the very beginning. It always sounded like they were doing some very advanced work. I believe it was more of the academic side of GT than the creative side. He may have been one of the few white kids there, if that matters to you. Most of his cohort were of an Indian or Asian background. He has Aspergers and ADHD. If I remember correctly, his teachers in LEAP weren't the best at accommodating his needs.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by compSciGuy

Anybody have any comments on the best elementary school for highly gifted kids? Anybody have comments on Carrollton LEAP, or out of district enrollment for Lovejoy? What about the magnet GT Elementary in Allen?
My youngest daughter is in 2nd grade, and while she loves the GT program and instructors, it's only once a week. Her favorite class during the week is her GT pull-out class. Am I being too wishful in thinking the options may be better nearby?

Any input from me re: schools and districts would be so dated as to be worthless.

I do have some thoughts on your "situation". We have a daughter who the IQ chart authors refer too as "Highly Gifted" and a son almost in the "High Genius" category - they get it from their mom trust me........My point is my wife and I have dealt with these issues twice.

I'm betting you all've already done/thought a lot about some or all of this so forgive me:
1). Find out how rare your kiddo's IQ is ASAP. Verify with multiple tests.
2). Try to understand not only which subjects kiddo enjoys but why.
3). Try not to put any limits on what she can do/wants to do intellectually.
4). Be careful equating her intellectual age with her emotional age and keep an eye on others in this regard. The two may be incongruent for years. Years ago my wife, son and myself successfully argued that our kid should skip 5th grade, he had already skipped 3rd, the school agreed. We walked to the car he very happy. Next thing I know kid shuts his door and immediately was balling like a baby with a bad ear infection. I thought OMG he's crushed his hand in door or something. Nope he had shut the door on his GI Joe. Being the great father I am I buy him a GI Joe every several Christmases - he sees a lot less humor in it that than I do. But please take my point.
5). Don't listen to anyone who isn't invested in your kid and places your kid #1. It's on you to decide if she can get enough challenge in her "age appropriate" class or not. Or if a mostly regulars class augmented with extras is enough. Or if you need to do so move.
6). I've grown to believe that a good number of kids have high to very high intellectual/academic ceilings. But disengaged parents and a bureaucratic educational system squelch much of that potential.

Good luck - it's a fun ride enjoy it.

[tcualum]

Are you just looking at public or also at private? EA Young Academy in NRH is an excellent private school that is just for gifted students.

I agree with EDS that intellectual ability and emotional maturity don't always align. My older son has a very high IQ. We would have considered starting him at a university early (My husband went to TCU for engineering and lived in the dorms when he was 14.) but he lacks the emotional maturity to do so. He actually lags in emotional maturity due to other issues. The private school he attends decided instead to just place him two grades ahead in math since we are more focused on developing his emotional skills instead of his intellect right now. We have no desire to raise an emotionally stunted genius who has no friends.

We've never tested his younger brother's IQ but he's turning out to be quite smart too, although not quite the genius his brother is. We never noticed it until recently because he's never been as academically motivated as his brother is. The school they attended offered to have him start kindergarten at age 4 because he was intellectually and emotionally ready (It's a small school so they knew him well before we applied.) but we chose not too because we knew he'd rebel when his friends would be allowed to do things like drive a year before he could. He was already mad that his older brother could do stuff he wasn't allowed to do. We settled for him skipping a grade in math. We now wish we had considered him skipping two grades because the homework he's bringing home is too easy for him.

I guess this is my long winded way of saying that it's not just about the intellect. Make sure your child continues to love learning. Offer your child enriching activities, books and experiences that help him or her stretch him or her in new ways. A lot of gifted children don't learn early enough how to cope with failure. Find ways to teach your child how to cope with failure. Encourage your child to try things that don't require "book smarts" to be successful and aren't just an intellectual exercise. It's too easy for gifted kids to get stuck in their heads. During the summer we find ways for our kids to try new things and to grow in new ways. So far we've tried sleepaway camp, Shakespeare camp, art camp, nature camp, pioneer camp and cooking camp. I want my kids to learn to value people for things other than how smart they are and to value themselves for more than just their intellect.

[UnfairPark]

I know it's not a possibility for everyone but many families who have more than one gifted child decide to go homeschool route so they can customized children's education to match their strengths, pace and interests. They do all afterschool activities and sports with neighborhood children so their social needs are fulfilled as well. However, it's only possible when you have at least one dedicated parent or grandparent who has time, ability and patience to do it well.