Have you ever enrolled your child in a "gifted" enrichment program, and how did it go?

[musikat]

My son is in 1st grade at a Montessori school and is doing great academically. I have no issues at all about how he is being challenged (his teacher is wonderful and has allowed him to go at his own pace, including 2nd and 3rd grade math materials). Socially he is struggling a bit and my partner and I think it is in part because he is gifted and is not connecting with the other kids in his grade. The older kids, who he is more on par with academically, call him "weird." :(

Our local community college offers a program for gifted kids that is once a week classes on a variety of subjects. I am considering signing him up for a 1-2 grade one called "Math Mania," since he loves math and math concepts. We thought he might benefit from being around other kids like him, and with similar interests. However, he also gets discouraged easily and can be resistant when pushed. Has anyone done anything like this with their kids? Did they enjoy it? Make friends?

[joensally]

We've done a variety of extracurricular enrichment activities, and they tend to be more play-based than hard-core so it may help with the resistance since it's more likely to be project based.

The kids have made friends at them, sure.  Have you considered giving your son some social skills coaching, helping him to bridge the gap between himself and others?  Just having giftedness in common may not facilitate friendship.

[whatsnextmom]

We tried it with my eldest but it wasn't particularly successful. DD was too focused and serious to do academic things with other children, even gifted ones. She found them these classes frustrating... more so because she went in with such high hopes. She has had much better luck connecting with gifted and non-gifted children in non-academic settings even now in high school.

DS is part of an afterschool GATE program at his school (they have GATE during school but this is extra and voluntary. They learn video editing and media stuff. He LOVES this. 

[spedteacher30]

Our local university runs a Saturday program each year. When DS is old enough next year, we'll probably sign him up, though I know people my age who did it as kids and hated it, so we won't force him to stay once we've done it once. If he likes it, we'll sign him up again.

I loved the classes I took as a kid.

[freestylemama]

My mom signed me up for gifted day camps when I was a kid and I loved them.  They were really fun and I loved being able to interact with interesting kids from all over the city.  Based on my experiences I would highly recommend them.  They were a great outlet.

[bec]

My DD2 went to a gifted summer camp last year and loved, loved, loved it.  I didn't bill it to her as "gifted camp" but it was pretty obvious that they were doing things that other day camps didn't usually.