Gifted Children - Long Island

[kayo_michael]

I think this group is great. Parents are taking thing into their own hands. Kudos!
How many were in this so called "gifted" program when they were kids? Care to share their experiences? IMO they aren't that great. It was my parents who kept me challenged and engaged into what I was good at, not some special program.

I made a post about this in the past, but I remember in 4th grade being bussed off to the local community college to be immersed in academia that was beyond what would typically be offered to a 4th grader. I remember parents on the bus were talking about what high school they were going to send their kids to, and they were asking my mother (who is native Japanese, and new to the area at the time) where she was going to send me. (wow, sounds a lot like LI!)
The whole experience was really a waste of time and money given the fact I got nothing out of it. It was fun because I got to get out of a boring class, hang out with my friends and mom, eat fast food, and got no HW. But none of it made me anymore "gifted" than I already was, whatever that word means. I also missed a lot of Music, PE and recess... The school wanted to let me skip 5th grade, but my parents declined.

It's great to read parents are getting involved in their child's lives and taking things in their own hands. I see so many people that move into a "great school district" and set their child's academic life on auto pilot.

[Rich10]

The discussion that arises from the topic of gifted education is interesting. Some view it as pretentious and "parent bragging". Others look at it from the perspective of letting your child reach their potential.

From my perspective, we regularly separate children into different sports leagues/teams based on their physical abilities. Is it so unreasonable to separate children according to their academic abilities?

I have nothing against public education and there are some fine public schools on Long island. For those that want and can afford it, there are alternative in private schools. There is an excellent grammar school in Huntington for gifted students - Long Island School for the Gifted. I know others that prefer Eastwoods.

[arlen1]

3VSAGE : "Three Village Schools Advocates for Gifted Education", a local chapter of the National Association for Gifted Children, has been created.

Three Village's Gifted Kids Get a New Advocate - Three Village, NY Patch

3VSAGE | Three Village Schools: Advocates for Gifted Education | Wix.com

[arlen1]

I would highly recommend "School Nova (formerly School Plus) at Stony brook": Sunday enrichment school:

http://schoolnova.com/nova/about .

The website has very detailed info on the teachers and the courses.

[arlen1]

Intellectually gifted children - distance education K-8 "Stanford EPGY Open Enrollment" (Math and English):

EPGY

The cost is extremely low: $135 for 10 months (lower for 5 months).

See the flyer at http://epgy.stanford.edu/pdf/soe/EnrollmentWebPost.pdf .

No entrance exam, but need a group of at least 8 students to register. (This is where a group of interested parents would be useful. )

You can call their office directly to find out more how it works.

--

Regular Stanford Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) and John Hopkins University Center For Talented Youth (JHU CTY) are both well-established, popular programs (JHU CTY goes back to 1980's as far as I know) and provide distance education. They both require an application and some kind of entrance exams, though, and have much higher costs than Stanford EPGY Open Enrollment (Stanford EPGY: $495 per course, time-limited to 3 months; JHU CTY: $690 per 3 months, any number of courses sequentially).

So Stanford EPGY Open Enrollment is way more accessible than the regular EPGY/CTY and may be a good place to start.