Is My Child Gifted?
Parents often sense differences in their child first. And while all parents are proud of their children, there’s often a gradual realization that their child is different, and that difference might play out in particular ways.
Sometimes this difference is wonderful: an early facility with complex concepts, for example. It can also be more concerning: perhaps growing perfectionism or a gradual loss of passion and excitement for school.
How Giftedness Manifests Itself
Giftedness manifests itself in many ways. In our experience, most gifted children exhibit several of the following qualities:
- Learn and process complex information rapidly
- Exhibit sensitivity (emotional/physical)
- Experience intensity and depth of feeling
- Need extreme mental stimulation
- Make and follow own plans, internally motivated
- Have a strong sense of justice
- Are able to focus intently for long periods of time
- Are able to pull away from a focused study and make new connections
- Prefer novelty over repetition
- Aware of social and moral issues
- Interested in death and origins of life
- Able to think abstractly
- Exhibit large vocabulary, love of big words and wordplay
- Learn independently, and non-sequentially
- Think symbolically, early ability to think in metaphors
- Concerned with world affairs
- Have a keen sense of humor
Our Admissions Approach
Our admissions process is designed to help the school and families discover whether there is an alignment between your family and our school, creating a strong partnership. We are by design a small K-8 school, with one campus, focusing intensely on the children we have in our care. Therefore, ensuring strong mission alignment is crucial to us. We seek parents who not only recognize characteristics from the list above in their child, but who also appreciate our focus on the whole child, rather than academic achievement alone.