Educational Residential Program for Elementary School Students?

Parents Forum
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<p>Are there any educational (academically) residential summer programs out there for elementary school students?</p>

<p>My sister has just completed the second grade (with much difficulty), and I really want her to develop academically and socially this summer. I am well aware of some residential summer programs that take 7-8 year old kids (I participated in one when I was 6 and 7), but those tend to be the more outdoorsy-swimming-hairbraiding kind of camps, and although I am positive she will develop socially at a camp like this, her academic skills definitely need more work than her social skills.</p>

<p>I really would like for her to go somewhere where she can realize that learning is fun and that she has natural academic talent (runs in the family hehe:]) because she is SO LAZY (earning a C in on-grade-level math, most likely will not place in the higher level third grade homeroom class that both my brother and I placed in when we attended the school, needs parents help to do homework, etc.).</p>

<p>I attended the JHU CTY programs starting from the 5th grade, and it's a program like that that I am looking for for her. Unfortunately, they only take kids that have completed the fifth grade. Ideally, this program would be residential, but if any of you know of any day programs in the DC/MD area that fit the description that might be better than my mom's current plan (letting her go to swimming/lanyard making camp for the second summer in a row).</p>

<p>I am also considering tutoring her personally, which may work, but I'm not sure if I have the patience (lol). I also might not be around this summer if I get off of the waiting list for a summer program that I applied to. If I do end up tutoring her, can anyone suggest some curriculum builders (or an already built curriculum) for a kid in between second and third grade for math, reading/grammar/English, and possibly Spanish that is not to rigorous but not too easy?</p>

<p>Sorry for the long post
Thanks guys :]</p>

2

<p>CTY does have programs for kids starting in 2nd grade. But she would need to have taken the SCAT test for admission (and it may be late for this summer anyway to apply, even if she has test scores). And if she had trouble in math in school, she might have trouble with the test & courses.</p>

<p>[CTY</a> Young Students: Grades 2-6](<a href=“http://cty.jhu.edu/summer/yscoursebysite.html]CTY”>http://cty.jhu.edu/summer/yscoursebysite.html)</p>

<p>Here is a thought. With your mom’s permission (very important!), show her the course options for third graders in your area. But tell her she has to do well on the SCAT test to go summer after this one, and offer to help tutor her for SCAT. I really have no idea if you can get a SCAT prep book :smiley: But I am guessing you can find out what specific items are usually covered on the test.</p>

<p>That would achieve several goals:</p>

<ul>
<li>Give her some motivation to improve her reading/math skills</li>
<li>Give you a framework to tutor her in</li>
</ul>

<p>You would also need to find out when SCAT is offered. I don’t know much about it… my daughter took the SAT through the Midwest Academic Talent Search, but that was in middle school. But I bet if you look at the CTY site you can figure out when it is offered and how to register her through CTY. Again, you need your mom’s buy in. And your sister’s (that might be the hardest part).</p>

<p>I applaud you for wanting to help your sister. My older daughter is often the only one who can convince her little sib to do things like this. If you make it fun and show her you are proud of her when she does well, it might work.</p>

<p>There are a few things that could go wrong with this plan, though. </p>

<ol>
<li> She just might not want to do it. You can’t really make her…</li>
<li> There could be some underlying reason why she isn’t doing well – possibly a learning disability that hasn’t been diagnosed. That can look like laziness to the untrained eye.</li>
<li> She still might not do well enough on the SCAT to go to one of the programs.</li>
</ol>

3

<p>My sister has taken a SCAT test. She needed it to gain admission to the magnet school that she currently attends. I haven’t exactly seen the results, but I am fairly certain that her scores are high enough to attend CTY this year. </p>

<p>The only problem with a day camp is that the nearest site is a quite a ways from our house, so my sister would really have to commit to going every day. She gets bored with programs really easily and last summer, she would bail on her swimming/lanyard making about once a week. So, the reason that I want her to do a residential program is that she would be stuck there. It sounds mean, but hear me out: I want her to learn how to deal with a situation that she may not like without just giving up. This is assuming that something during the program will be hard for her (academically or socially).</p>

<p>I think the major problem is her not wanting to do things. Once something starts not going her way, she gives up immediately without working through it. Time-telling was hard for her, but instead of working harder she just said it was “stupid” and moved on. She’s the youngest in our family, so that behavior is kind of expected, but I really want her to change so that she can have a successful school career.</p>

<p>Thanks so much for your detailed answer intparent!</p>

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<p>Hmm… if your mom pays a significant fee for the CYT program, she would have some incentive to tell your sister that she should go. Gotta ask, does your mom see this as a problem? Because ultimately this is an issue your parents should really be helping address, and I assume they are concerned if she had trouble in school last year.</p>

<p>Also… if your sister is really smart, maybe lanyard and swimming IS too boring for her (although I confess, I loved making lanyards at our nieghborhood summer program at that age :)). Can’t blame her for ditching on that.</p>

<p>I do go back to the possibility of a learning disability. My kid has statospheric test scores AND a learning disability that makes it super hard to stay organized. Which results in some trouble at school, although since she is in high school she has made some great progress. My other kid does not have those issues, so it really can vary within a family.</p>

<p>My kids have been to a lot of residential programs. They can still give up on stuff even if they have to stay there, believe me… so I am not sure that is the answer to this issue.</p>

5

<p>If she’s at least 8, and profoundly gifted in math, there’s [Epsilon</a> Camp](<a href=“http://epsiloncamp.org/]Epsilon”>http://epsiloncamp.org/) - put together by someone who has created wonderful math camps for older kids. It’s residential but requires a parent (I don’t know if an older sib would suffice) to go also because the camp doesn’t want to be responsible for taking care of children that young. </p>

<p>It also will have outdoors stuff. It will probably have Zomes and paper-folding instead of lanyard-making.</p>

<p>Also, check out <a href=“http://hoagiesgifted.org/[/url]”>http://hoagiesgifted.org/&lt;/a&gt;, both for camp ideas and general gifted/underachiever/LD issues.</p>

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<p>“My sister has just completed the second grade (with much difficulty)”</p>

<p>“she is SO LAZY (earning a C in on-grade-level math”</p>

<p>“Once something starts not going her way, she gives up immediately without working through it. Time-telling was hard for her, but instead of working harder she just said it was “stupid” and moved on.”</p>

<p>pokm12 -</p>

<p>This has learning disability written all over it. She should be screened for dyslexia and dyscalculia. Even if nothing as specific as that can be pinned down, being identified with “specific learning disability” (which doesn’t refer to any one specific disability, but rather to the specific fact that some disability exists) will get her access to services during the school year, and possibly during the summer. She needs help learning the appropriate compensation techniques so that she can start using her own brain in its own best way. </p>

<p>And, by the way, there is nothing in the world wrong with a kid who earns a C in on-level math. That is by definition average for that age/grade. Spend some time with this kid and find out what makes her tick. When the hand of life was being dealt out, she may have ended up with all of the high cards for design, or social intelligence, or patience, and just the 2 of math. The game that she will play with her hand is not the one that you will play with yours. It will require a different set of strategies, but she still may beat everyone else at her table - even you.</p>

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<p>My parents definitely do see this as a problem; they constantly complain about my sister not being motivated enough to do her work quickly and alone. My brother and I would normally finish our homework on the bus ride home, but my parents have to sit down with her for an hour or two before she can get her homework for the week done. They see the problem, but they have no idea how to deal with it because neither my brother nor I had this issue. She is also the baby of the family, so I don’t think they want to ride her too hard.</p>

<p>She is not very talented at math, but thanks for that link! I kinda wish she were so I could suggest it to my parents. Unfortunately math is her worst subject She also disdains reading, something that both my brother and I found amazing at her age (my parents had to limit the amount of books we could check out at the library and punished us for doing the old flashlight-under-the-covers trick).</p>

<p>I highly doubt she has a learning disorder, but I will talk to my parents about that when I go home for the summer. I honestly just think she cares much less about academics than she should, and I am hoping that once she gets a little bit ahead in school, she’ll take the lead and run with it. This is the primary reason that I want her to go to an academic summer program or be tutored. </p>

<p>This year has also been her first year at magnet school. Before this, she went to a normal public school and made stellar marks. I don’t want to believe that the coursework is too difficult for her, but it is a considerable step up from the non-gifted school that she used to attend. It is possible that all of this is due to the change in school, and maybe next year will be different/easier for her, but if I remember correctly, third grade at this school is EXTREMELY difficult. She absolutely has to step it up if she wants to survive. </p>

<p>It is quite possible that I exaggerated when I said it was difficult for her to complete the second grade. The only bad marks that she received were in Foreign Language (apparently she was good a Japanese, bad at French, received a B second semester) and math (3 B’s and a C). However, if she earns another C in third grade, I will try to convince my parents to put her back in regular public school, or possibly an arts magnet school that is very good as well. I really want her to be able to get into boarding school for middle school if she wants it, and bad grades throughout elementary school will not help her case.</p>

<p>@happymomof1
“The game that she will play with her hand is not the one that you will play with yours. It will require a different set of strategies, but she still may beat everyone else at her table - even you.”</p>

<p>I loved this. Thank you. I will take your advice and spend some time with her when I come home from school. I also hope to attend college close to home, so I just need to get through my senior year, get into college, and then I can give her bi-weekly tutoring (or something along those lines) if she still has issues(hopefully not!).</p>

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<p>It’s very nice that you want to help your sister to succeed but have you ever thought that this little 7 or 8 year old girl already feels the disappointment that her parents and older brothers clearly have in her?</p>

<p>I am a parent of 5 and sister of 1.</p>

<p>My younger sister sounds like yours did - very bright but unmotivated. My parents attempted to shame her in to doing as well as I did in school, which resulted in her resenting me for making her look bad and me resenting her for making me feel badly about being smart. My sister and I are in our 50’s and we have NO relationship, in large part because of our school issues.</p>

<p>As for my kids: One of my sons is dyslexic. He is very smart - his verbal IQ is in the profoundly gifted range, he has social skills up the wazoo and is loved by all of his teachers. However, he will never take an honors or an AP class even though he makes honor roll in his regular classes because it’s just not in his ability level. Do I love him less? No way! </p>

<p>My younfest son used to hate math and reading with a passion. I finally, on a whim, took him to a vision therapist. It turned out that he was both near and far sighted and at age 9, began wearing bifocals. He became a voracious reader once he was able to see straight and his math skills improved.</p>

<p>Even though you and your brother have no learning issues, your sister might. If you can get a hold of her IQ/Achievement testing and look at the sub-scores, it will give you a lot of information. My dyslexic son scores off the chart on verbal tasks but at the lowest level in tasks requiring the type of processing he has trouble with. </p>

<p>What does your sister like to do? Maybe she could have some input in to her summer and that might motivate her more.</p>

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<p>

Seconded! And again, hoagies is a good place to look online.</p>

10

<p>

</p>

<p>Well, the world will certainly fall apart if a third-grader only gets into an “average” math class. Teh Horrorz! She might as well get her sign ready for the eventual panhandling she’ll have to do to earn a living, or practice the “will you want fries with that”?</p>

<p>Gag. </p>

<p>Ever consider that it’s over the top for a second grader to even be getting A, B, C grades, and to be taking Japanese and French?</p>

<p>Or maybe … just maybe … she’s only average in math, rather than “lazy”?</p>

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<p>As I mentioned, my high school age daughter has a learning disability called a “non-verbal learning disability”. In addition to her organization issues, it also makes some kinds of math harder (geometry in particular). She also has a hard time with foreign languages (not sure if that is the disability, though). But no way could we have diagnosed this “on our own”. I really think this is an avenue that ought to be explored; but your parents might want to seek out a tester who also has experience with gifted kids, as teasing out the learning disability from some gifted traits can be difficult. Trust me that an early diagnosis (which we did not have) would make school so much easier for her. It may not be the case, but now would be a really good time to find out before she falls further behind. Again, this is really your parents’ responsibility, but you could suggest to them that this be looked at.</p>

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<p>Maybe she is just an average student. It feels like “gifted plus learning disability” is the new way to rationalize away a decent but average student.</p>

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<p>Your little sister is only 2nd grader. You need to give her a break. She could be an average student; Or she could be a late bloomer. There is nothing wrong with either.</p>

<p>If you want to help her, you or your parents can include math skills in the games. I have a 2nd grader. He started learning multiplication. I help him memorize multiplication charts. I also use poker cards to play addition, subtraction and multiplication with him.</p>

<p>To be successful in her future study, right study skills are more important than high IQ or gifted. You and your parents need to be patient and teach her, at her current level.</p>

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<p>Pizzagirl, there are legitimate learning disabilities that kids with VERY high IQs can have. It certainly can result in an “average” profile for the student gradewise, but it really isn’t the same – you wouldn’t do the same things to motivate or help that student learn as effectively as possible as you would with another kid. Not saying that the OP’s sister has this issue, but it is a legitimate avenue for her parents to check out.</p>

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<p>It really sucks though, because my parents are working extra hard to put my brother and me through school so they don’t really have much time for her aside from the time they allocate for homework.</p>

<p>If I wasn’t at boarding school, I would definitely help out more. Every time I go home for breaks, I make a point of helping her with projects and things like that, but I’m not sure if it’s enough.</p>

<p>Any suggestions on how to get her to be more diligent/care more about her schoolwork? The motivators that I get me going obviously don’t work on her. Interesting fact about this kid: she is not competitive at all. Even when we are playing Wii, she shows no desire to beat me or improve her skills. She might be a little sad after being beat a couple of times, but other than that, nothing. Does this mean anything? </p>

<p>Also, I just wanted to make sure that it is clear that I don’t think my sister will end up at a fast food job just because she doesn’t do well in the first half of elementary school. I know she’ll eventually be fine, I just don’t want her to have a hard time with school, especially at such a young age, because it only gets more difficult. I just want to make sure that if there is anything that might help make her life easier, she gets it.</p>

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<p>You can certainly tutor her over the summer. But instead of calling it tutoring, call it “we get to spend an hour a day together having fun this summer!” Then, go to the library together and pick up a few good books. Ask her what interests her and then ask the librarian to help you find books on those topics. Fiction or non-fiction. Both are fine. Ideally, you want to read to her books that are just a bit above her reading level. As long as the books interest her, then this will be fun for her and it will also be very educational as well. </p>

<p>For math, just play some math games. Monopoly is very good for this purpose (lots of adding and subtracting). Google math games for kids and you’ll find many. Some use a deck of cards and you add/subtract/multiply the face values. There are many math games out there. </p>

<p>So, just have fun together and in the process she will learn. No need for anything specialized at this point. And it does not need to be longer than an hour a day unless you both want it to last longer.</p>

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<p>Instead of making it about schoolwork, just try to get her interested in learning new things. Take her to the planetarium or aquarium, show her some fun logic games, that type of thing.</p>

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<p>Mmkay, I’m going to try some of these things and see if the situation gets better. Thanks for all of your help, parents!!!</p>

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<p>First of all, you are a wonderful sister! How lucky is she?</p>

<p>I am spacing this on purpose:</p>

<p>My very verbal son, who was light years ahead of his age early on suddenly could not learn to read by the end of first grade. Shock waves, and I went on high alert after the last teachers conference. The internet in 1996 was very user friendly by then and I became an “expert” on learning disabilities- Clearly he had one. Had him tested in a clinic- (not school) and he was diagnosed as dyslexic. The problem here is this manifests in many way- for him reading- phonemic awareness was the issue- He spent 6 weeks in second grade going to a reading clinic-(at this time the schools were still saying wait until 4th grade before we test-he will catch up) But I knew because I didn’t learn to read until third grade, and only after phonetic tutoring- very lucky in those days.</p>

<p>Result? after 6 weeks he was reading the 98%- and never scored below that on any of the state administered tests. </p>

<p>Time: Could not grasp it- cute clocks, clocks that talk, games- nothing worked- and today at 21 still needs a analog watch, because digital somehow just does not register the same for him.</p>

<p>He also needed writing instruction outside school in 5th grade, because he was a wonderful writer but could not organize an essay. Excellent results- He is now an English major in the Department Honors program, a English fellow and was selected to write a thesis. He plans on being a screenwriter.</p>

<p>Dyslexia is a hard one because there is not a set program to deal with it- kids have different struggles. The only thing that is known to be true for all, is with early, focused intervention and the brain can actually be rewired. From 4th grade on the success level goes down significantly. </p>

<p>Now, back then, a parent had to be an advocate for the kid because schools still thought it was seeing letter backwards- but now MRI research of the brain shows the Dyslexic uses a different part of the brain to read. There is no dispute- this is now fact.</p>

<p>So, please have your Mom read this thread, and I hope she really considers having your sister tested- A good place for your mom to start her education is schwablearning.org and sparktop.org. Charles Schwab is dyslexic and funds this non-bias, not for profit website to help parents get the proper information and help if needed.</p>

<p>Good News? Google and read all the famous, brilliant, successful people who deal with dyslexia. There is a flip side to dyslexia- there seems to be a correlation to highly successful and creative people. Gifted athletes are overwhelming dyslexic when tested and this is attributed to their dyslexia and how it manifests itself in their brains. </p>

<p>If the tests show no learning difference, then that settles it, and you can start working on her laziness. :)</p>

<p>You are such an amazing sister- try to get your mom involved so she can decide on the proper course of action. Time really matters here.</p>

<p>I just can’t say enough about how lucky your family is to have you in it- so caring and proactive.</p>

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<p>I have never posted but I felt compelled to reply. This really sounds like a Learning Disability such as dyslexia in a very smart girl. They can “cover” for a long time but her resistance in the setting of high ability suggests something is going on here. Please consider having her tested privately which is expensive but well worth the cost. The school usually won’t test unless the child is behind grade level. They may not even offer help for a privately diagnosed LD until the child slips below grade level which could take years. In the meantime, her self-esteem degenerates and a love of learning will never develop. I speak from experience of a child with similiar “symptoms” as you have outlined in your original post. Every year you wait is time lost. </p>

<p>Good Luck and it is wonderful that you care so much about your sister.</p>