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Make your kid do hard things after school or at home. Don't try to get him to skip grades, that usually has bad psychological effects on the kid (smaller, feel

Make your kid do hard things after school or at home. Don't try to get him to skip grades, that usually has bad psychological effects on the kid (smaller, feel out of place, friends gone, sure did fuck alot of the people I know who skipped up later in life), and make sure to keep his work ethic in check- he will be breezing through the school work but you still want to instill lessons in him OUTSIDE of school that teach him not rely on his natural gifted talent and to always work hard. Get him into a sport or something, martial arts, coding in minecraft or roblox, teach him advanced math with a tutor, anything really that pushes him and makes him struggle. There are way too many gifted kids that breezed through school and upon entering college, end up having 0 work ethic and doing poorly because school never challenged them and their natural ability carried them through their entire childhood life. (I am one of them.)

pschuegr 5y ago
Seconding. Learning to put in the work is harder as you get older.
Jugurtha 5y ago
I agree. On the martial arts thing: make sure it's at a reputable place and an actual martial art (Judo, for example), not some kung-chu-aikido bullshit type of thing, unless the goal is only to burn calories and move around. You need competition and fights with a resisting opponent, not a dance session with someone who falls on queue. Not an exhibition "martial art". You need something where two people go at it and there's a definite victor and a vanquished. I'd avoid any place where parents have too much of a say into how things are done or can complain that their child isn't "climbing the belt system" fast enough. I'd also avoid any place where instructors have a mindset of this being a place to play where there's no winner or loser and give away belts to please parents because of financial reasons. The lessons one learns: consistency, diligence, grace, humility are long lasting. One benefit is that it makes people feel at ease around people and act from a place of calm as opposed to feeling threatened by situations or people who do not really represent a threat turning them into reactionary creatures startled by anything. It also makes people keep their cool in situations where others would lose their temper. It also raises the threshold of physical escalation because you get an outlet for physical escalation every day: it's the people who never fight who talk about fighting all the time, are bellicose, feel threatened all the time, get triggered too often, and lose their cool at the slightest tension. These are generalizations of course, but still.

pschuegr 5y ago

Seconding. Learning to put in the work is harder as you get older.

Jugurtha 5y ago

I agree. On the martial arts thing: make sure it's at a reputable place and an actual martial art (Judo, for example), not some kung-chu-aikido bullshit type of thing, unless the goal is only to burn calories and move around. You need competition and fights with a resisting opponent, not a dance session with someone who falls on queue. Not an exhibition "martial art". You need something where two people go at it and there's a definite victor and a vanquished. I'd avoid any place where parents have too much of a say into how things are done or can complain that their child isn't "climbing the belt system" fast enough. I'd also avoid any place where instructors have a mindset of this being a place to play where there's no winner or loser and give away belts to please parents because of financial reasons. The lessons one learns: consistency, diligence, grace, humility are long lasting. One benefit is that it makes people feel at ease around people and act from a place of calm as opposed to feeling threatened by situations or people who do not really represent a threat turning them into reactionary creatures startled by anything. It also makes people keep their cool in situations where others would lose their temper. It also raises the threshold of physical escalation because you get an outlet for physical escalation every day: it's the people who never fight who talk about fighting all the time, are bellicose, feel threatened all the time, get triggered too often, and lose their cool at the slightest tension. These are generalizations of course, but still.