<p>i guess the title pretty much sums it up. i know the middle school cty programs are good, but how are the ones for younger kids? are they worthwhile? are they day programs only? my little sister is taking some flak at school over being gifted, and i am wondering if it would be good for her socially to meet some kids like herself. she is in third grade.</p>
<p>There are day and residential programs both. I think the residential programs don't start until 5th grade, though. My son did two sessions of baby CTY, but not ultra baby CTY; he enjoyed his programs a lot (both of which were day sessions).</p>
<p>I know someone else who attended baby CTY; I think we can assume that since he continued with CTY until he aged out of the program, he found it worthwhile.</p>
<p>"my little sister is taking some flak at school over being gifted"</p>
<p>Does the school staff know about this, and if so, what are they doing? Can you encourage her teacher(s) to work with all the kids on accepting all kinds of differences?</p>
<p>FWIW, my college pal's son did some elementary school CTY stuff. The program must be a hit with the family because the dad is now on one of the local CTY parent committees.</p>
<p>S attended the baby CTY program after 4th grade. The ones for the 3rd and 4th graders are day programs only and at least when he attended (more than 10 years ago!) only in the Washington DC area. He took an Inventions course and found it enjoyable. It was rather pricey, and I'm not sure it was worth more than other science-oriented camps. Later he attended "real" CTY at Lancaster from 7th grade until he aged out and considered that a life-changing event where he met his soul mates. His college search criteria included that it had to recreate the CTY environment as closely as possible.</p>
<p>S2 attended a program at Loyola Marymount in LA when he was 10 and another one at Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts when he was 11. Loved the first one, didn't care for the second. But at the second, he had a very weird kid for a roommate, and much of what was in his course he had already covered in some other enrichment stuff. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, on balance, I think it was worthwhile.</p>