I have a gifted child

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
I have a gifted child
18
Tue, 10-27-2009 - 9:21am

I have 3 sons, but my oldest has always been special. I think God gifted me with him because I was 19 when I got pregnant and I needed a child that would pretty much take no work at all! He is a joy to everyone he ever comes in contact with and not only that, he is incredibly smart. He was accepted into an advanced learning program called L.E.A.P. (Learners with Exceptional Academic, Artistic, Altruistic Potential). He won 1st place in the 4th grade state science fair last year. He sings, plays instruments, gets the lead in plays. He's just everything a parent could hope for in a child and he loves to learn. He can't get enough. He wants to be a scientist and go to MIT. All I can say is that he is incredible and I have felt extremely unworthy of him. We've spent the last 5 years not having any money. We can't afford to do anything for him. No sports unless they are free, no music lessons unless they are free. And I've tried to do my best with what I've had, but next year he's going to be going to a middle school that has a bad reputation. We don't live in the best part of town here in our city. There's violence in this school that has been featured on the news!

Recently, I had a thought in my head that just hasn't gone away. I wondered if I could get him into a private school and with his intelligence and fantastic personality and our low income, we would qualify for financial aid. And not just any financial aid, but a LOT of financial aid! Well, I'm starting the process right now. The only problem is, I don't want to get my son's hopes up that he's going to be going to some amazing school. One of the schools I'm looking at now is called The Derryfield. It's right in my city, but it's a college prep school that costs 23,000 dollars a year! I've talked with the admissions lady and she says that they have accepted LEAP students before and that Aaron sounds like he has potential. She also said that they have given out a lot of financial aid, from 5% TO 95%! I have to at least try. And if the derryfield doesn't work out, there are many other schools in this area that aren't quite at their level, but would be better than the public school!

My husband and I make 60,000 a year and we're a family of 5. Do you think this could qualify us for 95% financial aid? Holy cow!

Here's the school...pretty cool. www.derryfield.org

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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-15-2008
Tue, 10-27-2009 - 10:49am

Abby, I hope it all works out for you!

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-20-2005
Tue, 10-27-2009 - 1:26pm

Abbie ~ with that income for 5 people, there is a strong possibility you will qualify for the maximum financial aid.

Wedding
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2005
Tue, 10-27-2009 - 1:44pm

I wish you the best I know what it can be like to meet your child's academic needs when there are special considerations.

Connor is classified as Profoundly gifted by the school district here and has been a REACH(Recognizing Exceptional Abilities in CHildren) student since we moved here eight years ago. He has been Gifted identified in the areas of verbal/linguistic, musical/rhythmic, Naturalistic, visual/spatial and intra-personal, so meeting him where he is at is not always easy.

Some things you may not be aware of:

Kid's College. It's a program through many of the southern NH colleges. They offer weekend workshops to Gifted identified students. Typically there is a fee for the workshops, but my understanding is that there are some scholarships.

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/schools.htm Hoagies is a great resource.

Greater Manchester Alliance for the Gifted (GMAG)
http://www.allianceforthegifted.org/ This is a support and advocacy group for parents/guardians & educators of gifted and talented children in and around Manchester, NH.

http://www.nhage.org/ The NH associated for Gifted education.

You may also want to look into Scholar's Academy. There should be a link on the GMAG site.

Hope some of this helps.

stacy

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Tue, 10-27-2009 - 1:57pm

I've been thinking about the expenses outside of tuition as well. Even the website mentioned that there were fees for sports and tests etc. I do know that there are fee waivers so maybe I can look in to that. I want to go over our budget and officially come up with a number that I think I can work with (including the extra fees of books, clothes etc). If the scholarship doesn't match that number, then I'll have to do something else.

I have also thought of how my other children may feel. I still have a few years before I'll know whether my kindergartner is exceptional at school, but for now we know that my oldest is destined for learning. I guess I'll have to deal with the sibling rivalry when it comes. The one good thing on my side is that my kids are so far apart that they will never be in the same school at the same time except in kindergarten!

Thanks for the info. This whole process is new to me and a little intimidating but I am going to do my best and find out as much information as I can.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Tue, 10-27-2009 - 2:01pm

This application process is a little intimidating! I know I'm going to have a million papers to fill out. I can already tell that this is going to be a long process. I know he will have to take tests and do an interview. But I really have a desire to see this out to the end. At this school you find out if you're accepted and what your financial aid package is at the same time so that will make the decision easy. I still have to come up with how much I'm willing to spend. I know that my family will help out a little if he actually does get accepted.

Thanks for the encouraging words!

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Tue, 10-27-2009 - 2:05pm
Oh wow! Great resources. Thanks! We seem to have a lot in common. We should get together! I'm going to look into the websites you gave me.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-26-2004
Tue, 10-27-2009 - 2:15pm

First of all, I congratulate your son on doing so well in school. BUT, am I the ONLY one who cannot even apply for financial aid because my husband makes too much with a family of 5?? We only make 20 thousand more than you and we don't qualify. What is SO wrong with the public schools??? I too, have a gifted and talented child and he's in public schools. Not the best school but it's what we can afford. I have a 16 year old who is starting to take her ACT/SAT testing next fall and we have to save for that not to mention the Advance Placement tests in the spring for her schedule the following fall.

What is SO WRONG with public schools?? Private schools don't mean anything.
Attack away
Kelly

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-20-2005
Tue, 10-27-2009 - 2:36pm

Kelly ~ no attacking here!

Wedding
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2005
Tue, 10-27-2009 - 2:50pm

We should get together. We only live something like 25 minutes from each other.

stacy

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Tue, 10-27-2009 - 3:25pm
I would say that I agree as well. I went to a public school and it was a really good one in a great town. I got a great education and excelled at school. My kids school district, however is currently failing. They fail in test scores, my husband saw a dad come to school high to pick up his kid the other day. There was a murder on our street a few days ago. The neighborhood is just disintigrating and although we are trying to fix it, we can't move anytime soon. It is an 'inner city' school. The elementary school has been decent up to this point. They do the best that they can with the students they have, but I feel that they focus on the bad students. The students that have trouble. So who is focusing on my kid, who is in the gifted program that they can't afford to run, gets great grades, wins science fairs and loves school? Nobody except me and I want to at least try to give him the best that I can. I don't know how much financial aid we will get, or whether he will even get in to this private school, but I'm going to try. And if the private school doesn't work out, then I'm going to request to have his middle school changed to a different public school in our area. The middle school he is supposed to go to has had problems with violence. Anyway - it's not that I have a problem with public schools. I just have a problem with my public schools.

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