Dear Parenting the gifted child moderator....

[kindacrunchy]

any chance we can start breaking this forum up into age groups? I'm seeing a lot of stuff for under 5 on the front page. It would be nice to be able to easily access people who are parenting gifted children of the same age. Thanks!

[bbinm]

I'd second that request

[moominmamma]

I'd vote to keep it all as one big forum. I don't find that it's busy enough here that discussions fall off the front page if I haven't visited for a couple of days. in fact it seems pretty slow here as it is. I wouldn't want it to get slower still by dividing the posts over several more specialized forums. I also think it's incredibly helpful when dealing with kids who are outliers to have the wisdom, experience and perspectives of parents dealing with similar kids but at different ag and stages. And furthermore, one of the hallmarks of gifted kids is that they don't fit easily into age-levelled groups, whether of kids in general or fellow giftees.

Miranda

[Linda on the move]

I'm with Miranda. The forum moves slowly as it is.

You don't really want just the input of moms whose kids are the same age, you want all the moms who have kids their age *and older*. It's also helpful to hear the perspective from moms who are gifted even if their child is younger than yours.

[Geofizz]

Ditto Linda and Miranda. Looking down the first page, I see that most topic titles are pretty clear about the age range of the kid, either listing it explicitely or implied by subjects about spelling and achievement test scores. I appreciate the clarity of titles I see here, as it makes it quite easy to sort what I want to read.

I don't participate in threads about younger kids, not because my kids are older but because my own personal experience in raising preschool kids was more dominated by other issues (sensitivities and speech development) than giftedness. I do love seeing where some of these kids end up in high school and beyond as I sit here, mouth agape, at the last thing I heard my 10 year old or 6 year old say.

[ollyoxenfree]

I'm another who prefers a single discussion group.  I wouldn't want to split the forum into different age groups. For all of the reasons stated above, I don't think it will be helpful for members.

My favourite recurring discussions are the monthly/seasonal "What are they up to now?" because I enjoy the conversation about children at different ages and stages from toddlers to teens. 

I see some support for the OP's request, so perhaps there is some way to accommodate a little?

Perhaps encourage people to indicate the age of the children being discussed in the thread title? 

Perhaps ongoing general discussion threads for different age groups (What are the toddlers up to now?" and "What are the children 4 to 8 up to?" and "What are the 9 to 12 y.o's up to" and "What are the teens up to now?"). Actually, I don't like this idea much because it will probably result in the end of my favourite general monthly discussion, but I'm throwing it out there.  

[whatsnextmom]

I agree with those voting to keep it all together. I've seen other boards make this attempt and it always results in lower traffic for all. We're just not a big enough online community.

[Linda on the move]

I also think if you want more threads on school age stuff, just start them:o

[kindacrunchy]

i will admit i have not been on here in months! i was popping on to see posts about kids my son's age or older and saw a long page of posts for younger kids. i feel very much in need for some community as i feel very alone and lost sometimes with what to do with my child so i came here and once again felt that this doesn't apply. just a suggestion. maybe a tribe or i will just introduce myself on this forum. thanks!

[JollyGG]

I do agree that this site isn't active enough to split things out. However I do sympathize with coming on and not seeing posts about your age range of kids. However, I do think that this board has a rhythm that roughly follows the school year. In the spring you see lots of posts about grade skipping and decisions about the next school year. Around spring and fall conference time you see posts about teacher meetings, requesting testing, etc. In a few weeks we'll see a bunch of threads about how the start of the school year went.

I think all the school aged threads are a little quieter during the summer as many of our school age kids are just chilling out for the summer and doing their own thing. I find that at my kids ages (9 and 6) their range of gifts isn't new and we pretty much just coast along in life with school being the only real issue. So I don't post much in the summer.

[beanma]

I guess y'all are right. Selfishly, I wish there was a forum with MDC's NFL slant that had this much traffic, but was just for school age kids. We're long out of the toddler years and I wish I didn't have to wade through all the posts about the young kids. I don't have much input to offer to those moms (and dads) because we weren't focused on gifted issues then. In fact, we've never been super-focused on giftedness as other issues took precedence. After thinking it over, I do agree, though, that this board just doesn't have enough traffic to justify splitting it.  

[heatherdeg]

I also find that because the kids develop asynchronously, I have inadvertently found great info for my son by reading the posts of parents of older kids--but also posts of parents of younger kids who stumbled on something I never thought of... kwim?

[Tigerle]

I should not like to have the forum split up in age groups. I'll try to make sure to include age in my titles though if relevant.

[kindacrunchy]

good point. i hadn't thought of that. i'm just really looking for kids the same age and older right now.

[boston_slackermom]

Originally Posted by JollyGG 

I do agree that this site isn't active enough to split things out. However I do sympathize with coming on and not seeing posts about your age range of kids. However, I do think that this board has a rhythm that roughly follows the school year. In the spring you see lots of posts about grade skipping and decisions about the next school year. Around spring and fall conference time you see posts about teacher meetings, requesting testing, etc. In a few weeks we'll see a bunch of threads about how the start of the school year went.

I think all the school aged threads are a little quieter during the summer as many of our school age kids are just chilling out for the summer and doing their own thing. I find that at my kids ages (9 and 6) their range of gifts isn't new and we pretty much just coast along in life with school being the only real issue. So I don't post much in the summer.

This is quite true.  In fact, I am back on this board because school starts in just over 2 weeks. I am pulling my hair out over school choices for this year.  Our school system does its Terra Nova testing about a month after school starts, and this will be the first year my 8yo daughter takes it.

I like to see the age ranges all together, and I find that this board is a wonderful resource.  I don't come here frequently, but it's not quite like anything anywhere else, and I wouldn't want to change it. 

[Tigerle]

Originally Posted by ollyoxenfree 

Perhaps ongoing general discussion threads for different age groups (What are the toddlers up to now?" and "What are the children 4 to 8 up to?" and "What are the 9 to 12 y.o's up to" and "What are the teens up to now?"). Actually, I don't like this idea much because it will probably result in the end of my favourite general monthly discussion, but I'm throwing it out there. 

Yes, and what if you have a toddler, a preschooler, an elementary schooler and a middle schooler all doing stuff together in various combinations?  No, that one is so much fun precisely because it covers the whole age range I think!

[kindacrunchy]

so maybe i should just ask you what is going on in your house, Tigerle, and that will pretty much cover it! :)
 

[Tigerle]

Well next year we will have a toddler, a preschooler and an elementary schooler hopefully doing lots of fun stuff together, but the middler schooler I am afraid will have to wait a while, and I am afraid there will not be a # 4 to then cover the toddler range...but what I meant to say was that that particular monthly thread is so much fun because you get the whole age range doing interesting things and in some families you get them all! And I don't want to post three times over...