Often I heard about gifted students don’t find company that easy. Well, it’s also true for their parents. Demands of a gifted child keeps them on their toes. They realize, they can not keep up with it. Even most dedicated parents struggle to give enough attention to their kids among their busy lives, other siblings, family, job, travels, etc. Teaming up with other parents solves this to some extent.
A gifted child working alone vs in a group of other gifted kids differs a lot in their growth. Healthy peer pressure encourages them to aim higher.
Sometime, they meet their match, sometime they see their competition. I always like to pair kids with complementary expertise together. I present same task or worksheet to them. I ask them each to start on a different sequence of problem. Let’s say one starts top to bottom and vice versa. This gets them by surprise and they willingly race to win. A child working alone on the same worksheet can not draw these emotions, you will see. Try it out!
In modern programming techniques Pair Programming is becoming increasingly popular. Two developers work at the same workstation taking turns to key in and review each other’s work. This is not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you are talking about a gifted kid, you will find him/her hungry for this kind of challenge. Like bird flock together, it’s true. As they grow, they start noticing their pattern on higher grades, faster grasp, excelling as their second nature.