Any strategies from parents who’ve BTDT and helped their kids make progress when special schools/programs aren’t available? Mine is big time asynchronous and really not ready to socialize with older kids, but has a hard time working at the pace of same-age peers. Our school tries to build classrooms that are very ‘balanced’ – equal numbers of boys/girls, fast/slow readers, etc. Not open to any changes in how they do things. If we don’t find a spot at a more flexible school, any tips for making it work where we are now?
Apologies, I meant to post this in the section for parents. Could it be moved?
@skieurope ?? Can you help move this thread to the parent forum? Thanks!
Thank you, gardenstategal!
Done
Thank you @skieurope !
Do you mean advanced academically and behind socially?
We supplemented a lot outside of school in the summer. Not sure of your kid’s age, but check out the Davidson THINK program. Kid also got involved in more intellectual ECs - robotics, Quiz Bowl, fencing (club, outside of school). AoPS books or online classes if your kid is advanced in math. If MENSA is active in your area, see if they have any activities for kids.
We sometimes worked with individual teachers on requesting more challenging work in classes, but with mixed results.
@CaliMex somewhat, yes – not across the board. She’s right with her classmates in some subjects, ahead in others, but would not be a good candidate for grade skipping. She comes across as more naive than her same-age classmates to me.
@intparent thank you very much. I think the teachers are willing to help, but I don’t know what to ask for in terms of more challenging work (rather than just more of the same). She’s working through Beast Academy in a sort of casual fashion, does some robotics but I should look for a more structured program – do you know of one? She did a Python course through CTY but my partner, who’s a programmer, had hoped for a bit more depth. CTY courses (the one we did was online, self-paced) are costly enough that for us, we have to think carefully about them. She tried fencing and liked it, but felt that so much of the class was devoted to putting on and taking off the gear that there was little time for actual fencing. Instruction outside of school, where you show up in gear and ready to work, might address that problem, but again, we’d have to look at the costs and see what we can make work. I am not familiar with Quiz Bowl and hadn’t thought of Mensa having anything for kids. Great suggestions, thank you again.
How old is she? What grade now without the grade skip, and what subjects is she strongest in?
I just looked at your other posts. Assuming this is your 9 year old (and even if not, they have advice for any age), you’d probably get better advice on ways to support an asynchronous kid on the Davidson forums:
Yes, this is my 9yo, 4th grade. I will go check out the forums! We just recently joined and our consultant has been very helpful with ideas for the social-emotional side. I’m just now getting to trying to tackle the academic stuff once again. Off to check out the forums there! Thank you again!
No problem. These forums are really mostly for kids approaching college age, and even if your kid is quite gifted, she is probably still a ways away from colleges or worrying about that. Just keep her involved in things that engage and interest her. Don’t force it, just introduce her to a lot of things, and also try to make sure she has a healthy balance of at least a few friends and some kind of exercise/sport.
9 is a little young for a lot of kids to try fencing, which you mentioned above (most clubs will take kids at 8, but a lot of kids at that age get frustrated and give up). Maybe try club fencing again in a couple of years if that is an option. We had an excellent local club that was pretty inexpensive to train with, and my kid was fine with just fencing in local and state competitions. The costs ramp up if your kid is serious about it because they start traveling to compete (true of many sports, but fencing ramps up to international travel more quickly than most). But my kid found it to be good exercise with smart, quirky kids like herself, and she rarely competed – her club coach was fine with that as long as she worked hard in training sessions. If the school has a chess club or Destination Imagination, those are things sometimes available in late elementary grades that could work for her, too.
When she gets to middle school (maybe next year for her? Depends on your school), more extracurricular options should open up to her, too.
So go check out the Davidson forums. There are a lot of parents of kids in your kid’s age range or a few years above it who can provide advice. I found them quite helpful for several years. 
I really appreciate all the practical tips and it sounds like your advice is based on firsthand experience, thus doubly useful! I don’t expect her to go to college early, but am finding myself scrambling in the search for middle schools, so I figured it would be wise to look ahead to high school and start learning about some options (and found the prep school subsection here). I only ever went to the closest public school to my home so this whole world is pretty new to me. I will look for Destination Imagination as well. This should keep me busy for a while!
My kids went to s local private independent school, but there were public schools in our area that could have worked as well. You might Google and see if your state has any organizations with resources for gifted kids. For example, MN has MCGT — they and their members can give the low down on various school options. So see if there is a similar org in your state.
@intranslation I agree that Davidson is a great resource and you have been given solid advice here. Our school district had a highly gifted program that started in middle school that was also helpful to us. We used Center for bright Kids (regional talent search) for additional resources. Hoagies gifted is another nice information source.
We found public schools did not meet our kids needs and tried almost every variety of educational format over the years- parochial, home, virtual, magnet, public, and ultimately boarding. The best advice I can give is to find intellectual peers for her and continue to develop her love of learning.
I think here in California we have CAG, that may be the equivalent. I went through our local public G/T, magnet, etc. programs as a kid myself and while the instruction was great, the resources were really limited, so we chose to live someplace more affordable and spend the difference on a private school with some special features. But my impressions of the local offerings are certainly very stale – I’m an old parent. Perhaps there is a hidden gem near me!
@InTranslation Google to see if your city/county/state has a gifted parents advocacy group. These can be very helpful. I also recommend the Institute for Educational Advancement, based in Pasadena, CA. Most of their gifted offerings are for people local to them (not sure where you are in CA) but they also host a few summer camp programs and increasingly have on line resources for people out of area. The IEA also sponsors the Caroline Bradley scholarship, which may be of interest when your child is a 7th grader.
Does she play a musical instrument? That can be challenging on its own and joining a musical ensemble in middle school will connect her with peers who share her discipline and drive.