Any Moms of Gifted Teens ???

Joelene - posted on 04/14/2009

Several of my children have been gifted. My son who is seventeen right now has had a real rough time with school being bored and not challenged. He took the placement tests for a ged and got over 6,7,and 800's on his test's He has to take no classes, he can just take the pretests and then the ged. I wish I had got him into the program earlier so he could be on to bigger and better things. He quite school, because of bordem, so the GED was the next step. It would have been better to try for the GED earlier. It's hard to know what's best sometimes.

Tammy - posted on 04/14/2009

Kelly to prepare your son for rocket science he will need a lot of physics and areonautical studies.  Try to find a Challanger Space Center near you.  We have one in Illinos and my daughters class went there in 7th grade and prepared for a month and got to simulate a real mission.  She loved it so much she was tempted to work for NASA as well when she grows up. 

Carrie - posted on 04/14/2009

Hi Carol,

My son sounds much like your daughter.  He used to do so well until the social scene hit him.  However, he doesn't do well with children his age.  When focused he is remarkable, testing top 2% for national tests. However motivation is now lacking.  As a single mom, I have no idea what I will do for college.  He is concerned of this and has decided to join the military after h.s.  Sometimes I feel he may have lost motivation in h.s. because he feels I cannot afford to send him where he truly wants to attend.

Tammy - posted on 04/14/2009

WEllsurprisingly me daughter did some research  into different colleges that are going to be at her college fair and she is no longer dreaming of strictly Ivy league schools.  It has always been her dream to go to Harvard.  Now she is considering Georgetown and we are going to visit the campus this summer, but she is also open to less expensive but hgihly rated colleges.  I'm glad she's finally becoming a realist without sacrificing her dreams.  She will definitely go to college but I was afraid she would get her heart set on one and not be satisfied with anything else.

Aramanth - posted on 04/14/2009

My daughters are 14 and 13 (as of next Friday, anyway) and both are in specialist Gifted education. They were the 'kiss of death' unpopular kids at regular school and terribly lonely. Once they were tested and accepted into the specialist Gifted program their social life has grown exponentially! As my older girl told me 'at last they are just normal kids!'. They are in classes where it's 'cool' to be smart, cool to like science and maths, cool to get As on tests. Moving them to the school with Gifted classes was absolutely the best thing we have ever done for them.



Fortunately for us, in Australia it's possible to get a great College or University education without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars! It will be expensive, we know this - one plans on doing Engineering, the other a double degree in Fine Arts and Science - but we should be able to afford it.

Kathy - posted on 04/14/2009

My son will be 13 this year. Next year he will entering the Honors Academy in our school system. This program starts in the 7th grade and focus's on higher education. It helps the kids be better prepared and get scholarships for college while focusing on indivualized learning. After reading yours and other posts I began to realize how lucky we are that the school has such a program. As for his social life, Nick has always been less mature than the other kids in his class. He has made some great friends but overall does not have many. He gets picked on because he does not go with the norm. Thankfully so far this has not had a major affect on him. However as he gets older the social aspect of school becomes so much more important . I constanly worry that he will not "fit in" the social scene as well as other kids his age and how this will afffect his years in Junior High and High School.

Nick loves math and science and wants to be a rocket scientist. Does anybody have any idea how to prepare for that???????

Tammy - posted on 04/06/2009

Exactly what I'm afraid of!!  I'm a single mom so I have absolutely no money for college savings.Her father doesn't pay child support or that would go into an account for her but right now she will have to work and get loans if she doesn't get any scholorships and I don't know if it will be enough.  Congratulations to your daughter, hopefully you will figure something out.  My son is only one year behind my daughter and just as gifted YIKES!

Marie - posted on 04/05/2009

Quoting Tammy:

Any Moms of Gifted Teens ???

Just wondering if there are any parents of gifted teens on here andwhat you may be experiencing with school and social life ect... I'm really stressing about my daughter being accepted into an awsome college I can never afford.

Hi Tammy,

I am exactly where you are (or are stressing about being there in the future). My daughter just got accepted into Stanford; we never expected her to get in, and we never even considered a private school. The highest we ever allowed ourselves to imagine was for her to get into a UC (Berkeley or LA...and she did). We are kicking ourselves for not planning ahead.  We make "too" much for financial aid other than loans, but in our part of CA, it's what we need to do to just keep a roof over our heads, so we were not able to save much for her education.  This month could be a very sad time for us if we have to tell her she can't go...

Sue Yen - posted on 03/24/2009

Tammy - That is the toughest thing as a parent - $$$ the other kids are always in an different situation and able to do thing that our kids can't due to other restraints. Your kids are a bit younger and I wish I could say there is a magic answer. All I do is to let my kids know that what they have is more and better than many other kids. Of course there are people who will have more than them. Some days it works, some days??? well, some days, it doesn't seem to matter.

Tammy - posted on 03/24/2009

My daughter gets like that with sports and school too.  She already gave up music cause it was too much, but she makes it look so easy, I'm really the only one who realizes how much she pushes herself and how hard she works.  I don't want her to burn herself out.  Great job on all the colleges Sue hopefully she makes the best choice for her.  I know my daughter will do fine, i just worry a lot and feel guilty for not being able to do as much for her as far as $$$ goes as her friends get.

Sue Yen - posted on 03/23/2009

My 18 year old daughter is the youngest of three and is a gifted teen who has a drive and expectation for herself that is difficult to manage. She is trying to balance between her AP academic classes and her passion for dance, flipping between the two constantly and driving her mind and body beyond what normal adults would do. I struggle with her keeping a good balance (she is sick right now - in bed working on a paper). She has been accepted in several schools and the best thing I can do for her is provide a framework of analysing the pros and cons of her choices. I have found for my daughter - she is very analytical and needs to see the logic on paper. Cross your fingers for me. Good luck all.

Terry - posted on 03/23/2009

Let her apply to all the colleges she wants and then figure out the finances.  Most colleges will make offers on scholarships.  We found with our daughter that with her scholarship we actually needed very little financial aid. 

Tammy - posted on 03/18/2009

My daughter is 16 and goes to a residential high school for gifted kids.  She is very social and athletic and Princton is looking at her for softball (even with partial scholorship no way I could afford it)  My son is 14 and applying to same school next year.  He is a freshman and was always popular and social and athletic in jr high but since they have combined with other schools he has been very withdrawn.  He came home with a huge bruise on his arm and when I asked him what happened he said his "friends" all started punching him in the arm and calling him nerd boy when he got a 100 on a test.    He tried to  blow it off saying they do that to everyone all the time not just him, but I don't care that is still bullying!!  Probably explains the withdraw if all the kids think it's cool and acceptable to pick on each other all the time.  They say they are just horsing around.  I'm really hoping he gets into the other school though since I don't see any bullying issues there and I think he will come out of his shell more with kids more like him, but because being smart made him a target, he started downplaying his abilities this year.  All the problemsof hormonal teens plus problems with giftedness FUN FUN!! lol

Mandy - posted on 03/18/2009

Quoting Tammy:

My problem is I'm a single mom but i make just enough to support my kids but too much for alot of financial aid but definitelt not enough for ivy league. 

Once the kids are 18 I believe they can apply for financial aid.

Mandy - posted on 03/18/2009

My son will be 12 next week...not quite a teen. Socially he wants to have friends his age, but makes friends more easily with older students and adults. As for college, I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I do know that most State Universities let students go for little or no $ if a parent works there. LOL I'm sure he'd love it if his mom worked there. LOL Oh, boy!

Sandy - posted on 03/17/2009

I have two gifted daughters, they are 12 and 13.  I don't feel that the school is challenging them as much as they should be.  My oldest is planning to be a surgeon and will begin high school next year.  She has completed one year of high school math already.  Socially both of my girls are very active in sports and maintain an active social life.  This hasn't been effected so far.  I am hoping grades and sports will help with college it's scary though.

Tammy - posted on 03/17/2009

My problem is I'm a single mom but i make just enough to support my kids but too much for alot of financial aid but definitelt not enough for ivy league. 

Carol - posted on 03/17/2009

I am the mother of a gifted teen. She has great relationships with adults; however, she has been somewhat challenged within her own age group. As for school, when focused she is in the top two percent of her class; however, that focus has not been there since she entered high school. The social scene took its toll. I am stressing about college as well; however, since my husband and I are now both out of work it appears there are many more options available to her. That surprised me.