School for Especially bright kids

We have a unique opportunity becasue my husband's job is mostly interent based we can move anywhere we want. My eight year old daughter has some real educational needs. She is very very bright with an amazing memory and needs a school that can handle bright kids.

She doesn't do review well, she gets things the first time. She can becaome a major behavior problem in a classroom when she is bored.

She also tends to get picked on alot because her social skills are lacking. She does fine when dealing with adults but has a hard time relating to her peers.

If you could move anywhere or recommend any school in the US where woudl it be?

Thanks

No school ideas, but, does your dd want a penpal? My dd is also highly intelligent. She copes more-or-less in school. She has periods of epic boredom, but she gets by. It's just her personality.

DD gets by socially. She's not the most popular, but her class is, be"h, very sweet in general. She feels included most of the time.
So...do you want to send me an email?

Platinum Member Joined: Nov 01 2009 Posts: 8258

Are you looking for a Jewish school or any school?

I have a friend who has two sisters who were exceptionally bright and attended a gifted school in New York City. But they are marginally orthodox at best.
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I'm a graduate of Stuyvesant High School in NYC, which is arguably one of the top high schools for gifted students in the nation. I have had a hard time finding intellectual equals within the frum world (although as I have gotten older and my family has grown, B"H that's not not necessarily what I'm looking for in friends anymore.) However I did find that straight out of high school, the only people I felt level with who were frum happened to be graduates of Yeshiva of Flatbush and Ramaz.

Those are both left wing MO schools, though, so they may not be for you.

I have friends who went to styvanscent. Public school is not something we are willing to consider.

A penpal sounds like a great idea. How old is your dd?

My email address is Therebbetzin@gmail.com

Is a modern Orthodox school okay? Look into YCQ (Yeshiva of Central Queens) in Queens, NY. They have a great educational reputation, intellectual staff and always geared to the bright kids. But I'm not that current with what I know.

In my day many kids got accepted to Bronx H.S. of Science, and Ramaz. But most kids went to more religious yeshivas for high school.
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"Often the things you worry about don't happen but other stuff does."
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I don't know about a frum school exclusively for especially bright kids, but what you need to focus on is a school that has the RESOURCES to properly educate a child such as yours. It should be big enough to have a range of students, including "super bright" ones, but not too big that your child will get lost in the shuffle. My children attend Yeshiva of North Jersey, and there are certainly a fair number of very bright children there, as well as average, below average and everywhere in between. What really impresses me is that the school has both "resource rooms" with specially trained teachers for those students who may need extracurricular help that cannot be given in a regular classroom, as well as "enrichment" programs which serve the above- average students so that they don't get bored/understimulated in a regular classroom setting. I think if you can, you should focus on a school that has programs like this. I don't necessarily think that all "super bright" students should attend one school, for various reasons, including social (I.e, will they then attend "super bright" camps, will they be able to socialize with "average" kids outside of school, etc.) as well as the fact that no matter how bright your child is, if she is in such an exclusive setting, there will be other children who are brighter than she is, and you/she may not be able to handle that pressure.
Good luck in your search!

(This is the previous amother.) Just read over some posts I missed while I was typing and wanted to add that I myself attended Yeshiva of Flatbush, so I would say my educational standards are quite high, but the school is too far to the left of what I wanted for my own children. YNJ, to us, has the right mix of religious/educational standards, as well as middos, and that's why we chose it.

Platinum Member Joined: Nov 01 2009 Posts: 8258

The "elite" MO day schools in the New York area are Ramaz, Yeshiva of Flatbush, and to a lesser extent Yavneh. I think the education at YNJ is below that of Yavneh (from what I've heard). Frisch is supposed to be an unbelievable high school, but she is too young yet Smile

I know some real geniuses who went there and it was perfect for them. They have many graduates who attend really top colleges (like MIT).

Look into Manhattan Day School, they may have some type of program for extra enrichment for gifted children. It's orthodox, on the modern side, btw, maybe not as modern as some of the others.

Platinum Member Joined: Nov 01 2009 Posts: 8258

have you ever had her tested for aspergers?

Gold Member Joined: Jun 11 2008 Posts: 1974 Location: NJ

A few "words to the wise" re: SAR:
a) I'm pretty sure it's the most expensive day school in the country. Like, outrageous.
b) VERY modern.
c) It has "open classrooms" which is kind of controversial, for lack of a better term and definitely not for everyone.

Please be careful. I went to a school for bright kids. Bore it for one month before begging to be back to my public school. The kids were obnoxious, nothing was taught and most kids had BIG issues.
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"You will have many many children and make successful shidduchim beh", rebbetzin Esther Jungreis
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Platinum Member Joined: Nov 01 2009 Posts: 8258