Raising Profoundly Gifted Grandchildren

Well, it pretty much sucks.  There you have it folks. Do not ever wish your child was anything more than a delightful normal child. Average is a wonderful thing.

I have two of them. Profoundly Gifted. Guess what? It's not what it is cracked up to be.

11 year old who will graduate SEVENTH grade at age 11. She goes to school and is an A/B student in all Advanced Placement classes. She started school a year early, and then was accelerated a grade. Because she was intellectually bored.  As in a VOID. As in straight A's and starting to act out in class because of boredom.

So did accelerating solve the boredom issue. Yes. It did. But she is now going to school with girls that are 13-15 years old. One is pregnant. My child is not even really into puberty yet.

The other kids make fun of her because she is smaller. They make fun of her because she is less developed. They make fun of her because they can. She is quite pretty, thin, funny and a wonderful child. They make fun of her because she is smarter than they are, and because they get away with it.

Should I have kept her in her grade? Well, I did her mother, and look how THAT turned out! So we decided to let these two go at whatever pace they chose. They both chose to accelerate, with the blessings of the school.

My little tiny 8 year old will graduate FOURTH grade. The other 8 year olds are in 2nd, in some cases 3rd grade. Mine is a straight A student. She will start FIFTH grade the DAY AFTER SHE TURNS 9 years old. Yep, ONE DAY after she turns 9.

They will both graduate high school at or before age 16.

Is this fair to anyone? No. Is there an easy solution? No.

You either keep them in grade, and have issues, or you accelerate them and have issues.

Oh, and you lose all your friends over it too. See, you cannot talk about your children at all to your friends, because their children are normal, everyday, average kids.  And if you try to talk about anything your kids do, they view it as bragging. But, they are allowed to talk about the accomplishment of their children.

We all think that our kids are great, because they ARE great!!