<p>Heck lets plan his college, his career, his wedding, we should even choose his future children’s names!</p>
<p>durak, don’t be a durak. I wish my parents would have taken note of my inclinations. It is so much harder to cultivate them at an older age…</p>
<p>There is no substitute for reading. There have been great suggestions in this thread. I will add that it’s important to keep reading enjoyable. No reading is every wasted. Comic books are just as good as a classic if it keeps your son enthusiastic about reading.</p>
<p>For example, my son went through an entire summer of only rereading the Harry Potter books in order. He did this several times in a row over the summer. I wanted him to do a summer reading list but I kept my opinion to myself. Years later he still speaks fondly of that summer. I think the school year had made reading not so enjoyable to him and he just instinctivley knew he needed to get that joy back.</p>
<p>I will also add that, of course, children are different. My son does very well in high school but only has a few extracurricular activites that he is very passionate about. If he tried to keep up with the kids doing lots of activities, he’d be miserable. </p>
<p>It will be teachers and coaches jobs to push him, in my opinion, I think the parents need to be the ones the child can go to for comfort and to look out for their best interest. If something needs to be cut from the schedule, so be it. Colleges don’t want kids with perfect records who are stressed out and unhappy.</p>
<p>Lastly, there are hundreds of colleges that most people have never heard of them. One of them may be a perfect match for your child. It’s easy to get caught up in wanting a child to attend a famous college, but that won’t matter if your child does not do well there. </p>
<p>Best of luck to you and your son!</p>
<p>I’m sorry, I’m sort of with durak. It seems to me much too early to be thinking about college for a 10 year old. (Well, except for planning the financing part, that unfortunately is necessary.) I do like the way people have responded to the OP though, the suggestions seem on the whole thoughtful and gentle while also sending the message that parental guidance should be about listening to the child and allowing the child to be his best self. I do agree that it’s most important to encourage reading and to make it a joyful and regular part of life.</p>
<p>OP, so much changes from the age of 10 to the age of 18. You can’t imagine it now but children grow up and blossom and take on roles you’d never have imagined. My other suggestion to you is to relax. A child whose verbal score falls at the borderline for CTY classes is going to be fine. He will have lots of choices when applying to college as long as you are not set on three specific schools. </p>
<p>I apologize in advance if I come off sounding cranky. I’m sick of the college admissions system and hate to think that my 6th grader is going to be poisoned by it earlier than she needs to be.</p>
<p>hhke:</p>
<p>As others have said, reading is crucial. To help your child become a better writer, you may want to ask him to discuss what he is reading. Putting his reactions into words orally, explaining the plot to you helps him organize his thoughts. I stopped reading to my sons the minute they could do it on their own, and I balk at reading the sort of stuff 3rd or 4th grade boys read. But I got to know the plots of some of the stories they read. S2 loved math and science, so we got a lot of books on these topics, as well as science-oriented magazines. </p>
<p>I also suggest volunteering in the school on an occasional basis. You get to know the way an American school works and to know the teachers. </p>
<p>Helping your child develop interests of his own is important. It can be music, sports, community service, being a boy scout, science team, MathCounts, building things with Lego, whatever. </p>
<p>I also endorse familiarizing yourself with the financial aspects of college. It is not too early to begin saving if you have the means. </p>
<p>Finally, I recommend Hoagiesgifted.org. There are tons of good suggestions on that website.</p>
<p>OP - The CTY math courses are a good thing. And reading has been mentioned by many prior posters. Abilities in both areas will help your student with both his college classes AND with financial aid to help pay for those classes. We had “the talk” with our D’s early in 9th Grade … you know, the one that goes “We’ll pay for state university, if you want more than that you’ll need to get top grades and test scores.” At that early stage we had no idea the COAs would be north of $50K/year! By the time your student applies to college the sticker price will exceed $75K for many schools. Finances will be an important issue … for some families it’s THE most important issue.</p>
<p>Haven’t read through the thread but want to put my 2 cents in on may two favorite issues:
- read
- passion
So encourage continued reading of novels (not nonfiction, magazines or newspapers only). Novels will impress upon him the beat of language and he will incorporate writing ability from reading many novels of varied genres. At this age boys especially drift away from reading. Do whatever you can to keep him reading.
Feed the passion. It may change, and probably will, but feed it anyway.<br>
My third point of advice is perhaps more controversial, but I will throw it out there anyway: Do not try to force him into being well-rounded. Encourage him and guide him to explore varied interests, but he may be a “pointed” kid and that is terrific too.
I would not bother paying for CTY or TIPs courses. Many colleges have open courseware (MIT is most notable). Save your money now, you will need it for tutition. :)</p>
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<p>I would, and do. My son has benefitted a great deal from CTY, both from taking the distance learning math courses to attending the summer programs.</p>
<p>I agree with Owlice. Besides the actual learning that goes on in academic camps, the feeling of being among one’s peers is wonderful.</p>
<p>While I think 5th grade is too early to focus on college, it is not too early to instill good study habits and strengthen skills. In fact, I think it is absolutely the right time. Middle school is when American students begin trailing their foreign counterparts. In many countries, sixth grade is when the pace of learning is accelerated; in the US, on the contrary, learning slows down and greater focus is put on “social development.” I don’t recall having difficulty transitioning into 9th grade for the good reason that in my days, high school began in 6th grade. This is when good work habits became important. </p>
<p>As for what to read, I never tried to dictate what my kids read, whether it was literary classics, sci-fi, current events, math and science. I refused to subject my kids to the “it’s good for you” mentality, as if reading was akin to cod’s liver oil.</p>
<p>Marite, my reaction is based on the OP’s statement that she understands that the college application essay is important–what I’m taking from that is the sense that she wants to start prepping her kid NOW to write a good essay.</p>
<p>Of course this is the right time to start instilling good work habits. In my experience though, the emphasis on study skills in our U.S. middle school was so excessive that it drowned out any actual learning. Maybe it works for some but for at least one of mine, the emphasis on collecting checks and plusses on assignments coupled with dumbed down academics led to a complete tune out. She stopped handing in assignments and did the absolute minimum on the basic, basic reading, research, and writing asked of her. It wasn’t until high school that my kid (and many of her peers) had the chance to enjoy study again. I’d take middle school with a huge grain of salt and encourage the outside self-directed learning. I stand by what I’ve said–it’s just too early to start planning for college. It’s the right time to encourage a child’s growth in child-led interests without worrying how it will look on an application.</p>
<p>Those CTY camps were a godsend to my child by the way. She flourished in that setting and it probably got her through middle school.</p>
<p>Make sure that a kdi has fun, enough time with friends and outside school activities. These make them social enough to have support group around them and easier adjust living outside of home, which is extremely important. Academically, making sure that homework is all done, including math homework having correct answers should be enough to insure very high GPA. That strategy worked for my D. all the way thru graduating from HS (at the top of her class). Just loving and spending time with kid is most that is needed.</p>
<p>I agree with Owlice and Marite. My son has loved his CTD programs (and interestingly, he’s evolved over the years, moving from writing courses to history / politics / international affairs). Whether it “gets him into college or not” isn’t the point – it’s exposed him to higher-level thinking, IMO.</p>
<p>Good study skills without appropriate content is just make-work. In my experience, kids acquire good study skills by being given challenging work that forces them to think, to organize (both time and thought) and is not mindlessly repetitive. </p>
<p>I cut the OP slack on the college essay issue because the OP is a recent immigrant and does not quite know how to evaluate scores. In my French school, getting 12/20 was fine. A 60/100 in this country would be disastrous. It seems the student is doing fine by most standards. But essay-writing is very different from filling out bubbles on a standardized test. Reading is the best preparation for writing.</p>
<p>"Reading is the best preparation for writing. " - I would agree with it logically. However, I cannot after having 2 kids who did not care much for reading (and actually tested very low in Reading - D’s Reading score on ACT was wooping 7 points below her highest score), both of whom were very good writers (actually D’s highest ACT score was English - 35 with very high score for Writing, and she did not spend 5 minute preparing for English section, she looked at the format and commented that English section was just using Common Sense.). I agree that it makes no sense, D at least have read some, S. never read anything but manuals for automobile repairs. He commented that talking to people who were known to read was enough for him to write a good paper with higher grades than the people who gave him information.</p>
<p>Forgot to mention about my S. that he got into selective program of his first choice from waiting list based on his essay that he needed to write if he still wanted to get into the program after being put on waiting list. His essay was short, powerful, emotional and to the point.</p>
<p>At any age, totally aside from the idea of how to get the kid into college (he’s in 5th grade, for Pete’s sake), we do the things that make sure our children are getting the best educations they can. In and out of school. Reading, conversation, love of learning, passion, friends, activities, making sure he/she is in the right class, the right program, being his/her advocate. These are the things you should be doing for your fifth grader. Not to get him into college, but just to be a good parent, which it sounds like you are. So do those things, let him be a kid, and let the college process unfold in its proper time, which is, IMO, not now!</p>
<p>Testing very low in reading is not an indication of ability to write.
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<p>That is not a bad strategy, actually. This is why I insisted on Ss telling me what they read. Being able to summarize, to identify what was important, to organize the information so that I could make sense of the story–or the point of whatever scientific article was being read–all this I considered important.</p>
<p>My S is a 5th grader. Voracious reader - will read all day long if left alone. Too often, we need to take the book(s) away from him - to try and get him to do the rest of his work. His vocabulary is very advanced for his age and he uses the words appropriately - sometimes, it is annoying for my D (5 yrs older) to see him get a word on her vocabulary list that she didn’t know! He writes very well too - and I attribute a lot of that to his reading - you can clearly see that in his descriptive writing.</p>
<p>He did take the CTY tests a while ago and qualified for both math and english courses. We haven’t decided as yet if he’s going to enroll in the summer courses. I could use some anecdotal help on this -</p>
<p>He is advanced in math in his class already. Gets utterly bored with the stuff that they are doing in class - sometimes, causes trouble because he is bored. CTY classes will undoubtedly push him higher on the advanced list - will this only cause more trouble at school? We dealt with this with my D - the school would not do anything advanced with her, despite her high scores. The best they do is a honors algebra course in 7th grade. She didn’t do any CTY courses in summer (too busy doing <em>fun</em> stuff) - but my son seems interested in taking some.</p>
<p>FYI - my friends’ kids took these courses, seemingly loved them. Their school was more understanding - let the kids take higher advanced courses, take courses at the high school while still in junior high etc. Unfortunately, our school doesn’t do any of this.</p>
<p>Mathson took three courses at CTY, but not until he was a 7th grader. The first two were more enrichment or sideways learning than acceleration of the regular curriculum. He took Game Theory and Probability - it was a lot more than math. They talked about pricing structures and watched a movie about the Cuban Missile Crisis among other things. I think that’s a course he learned matrix algebra in - which he didn’t see again until he took a college level course in quantum mechanics. The second course was cryptography. The third course was fast paced High school chemistry which he took to make up for some scheduling issues in high school. He thought the first two courses were more fun than the Chemistry one, but he loved CTY and being around so many kids like him for the first time in his life.</p>
<p>We were able to persuade our middle school to advance our son in math by having him take the final exam for the 7th grade course in the fall of 6th grade. It was pretty hard for them to argue he should take 6th grade math when he had demonstrated mastery of 7th grade math. He took high school math and had to be driven from one school to the other. The school I think is finally getting used to the idea that there are at least a handful of students ready for advanced math every year.</p>
<p>My point on CTY and Duke’s program is that there are free options. These programs are costly and I believe in using our money for college. Today there are many sources of academic acceleration on the web. Again I will mention MIT’s opencourseware. They have lectures, notes and tests (with answers). It is amazing. Now if you want your child to accelerate in a specific area, most likely Math, and gain the school’s permission to move ahead, you will need some sort of certified course. There are many options for this on the internet also.
OP was interested in college preparation and success in the application process. For the elite colleges, taking CTY or TIPs courses will not enhance the child’s application. These colleges look at what the kid did with the “resources available”, so the benefit of having enough money to take one of these $3,000 courses is minimal, if any at all. IMO.</p>