Finding People Like Us - The PG Kids

Dexter was recently admitted to a very special group that supports profoundly gifted kids. It is very exclusive to get in and requires not just a high IQ, but also high achievement scores. It's like Mensa on steroids for 6-18 year olds. For a comparison, Mensa accepts the top 2%, but this organization only accepts the top .01%. These are the kids that are 3 and 4 standard deviations from the norm and the best part is that it is free. It creates a community for parents who feel very isolated in their experiences and kids that often have no peers like them. There is mentoring, education, consultation as well as socializing.

The local chapter, there is a fairly concentrated group of kids in the area, recently had a gathering. It was really nice to meet other parents who are dealing with the same challenges. When talking to other parents, it doesn't feel like whining or bragging because everyone is dealing with the same issues. Things like the school isn't challenging them, the teachers don't recognize this, the child doesn't have many friends, my kid is obsessed with . I can't describe how awesome that is to be able to discuss these issues at length with someone who understands. 

I discovered that most people give up on school around 8-9 and many of them homeschool at that point. One mom I talked to had much older kids, so I was able to get a glimpse of what these kinds of kids grow up like. It was a pleasure to talk to her and learn from her wisdom of how to thwart the system. Her youngest was 11 and her 2 older kids were in college. She had homeschooled them all from start to finish. Her oldest finished high school at 14 and is now, at 24, working on a PHD at Harvard. That's pretty amazing!

There were roughly 25 kids. They all played like normal kids. You'd never guess that it was anything different except when a kid casually sat down at a piano and played a symphony by memory or the off-the-cuff chess tournament of 6-8 year olds versus adults and the adults weren't winning. I found it very interesting that there were no fights or tussles. The boys didn't even wrestle! The kids just got along. If there were issues, they sorted it out themselves. They were all so very mature. I think that was what made them unusual. 

Dexter also finally met his match in energy level. He swam for 2 hours and then jumped on a trampoline for an hour. Many of the kids were high energy. I am glad they could wear each other out. Dexter seems to have endless energy, but that day he used it all up. He ended up falling asleep on the way home. We tried to wake him for dinner, but he was so tired he just stared at his plate. He ended up skipping dinner and going straight to bed a 7pm for the first time in his life!

This organization has a yearly event, but we are missing this year. I'm okay with that because Dexter is still at the very youngest age for the organization. It seems that the most common ages are 8-14. We met a few other younger members. It will be nice to try to make some family friends. This seems to be a really great opportunity for him and I am so very happy to have done the research and be a part of it.