What should I know as the parent of a GT Student?

• He is a child first and gifted second. A five-year-old may be able to solve mathematical problems worth bragging to the grandparents, but he has only lived five years. Only behavior appropriate for a five-year-old should be expected of him.
• Don't compare your gifted child to other children. That places a burden on the gifted child to live up to that image all the time, and it is not fun for whoever comes off second best. All children are unique and special in their own way.
• Children don't have to be intensely busy every waking minute. There should be time to daydream, to be silly, to do things, and to lie in an unmade bed and study the ceiling. Gifted children are usually creative children, and it is hard to be creative on schedule.
• It's okay for your gifted child to have friends outside the conventional age range. Trusted adults are desirable role models and heroes who can help your child make decisions about appropriate career choices. Younger friends help sharpen leadership skills.
• Don't expect your gifted child to be gifted all the time. That kind of halo makes for bad headaches.
• Discipline is necessary for harmonious family life, and dinner-time comes at the same time for all brothers and sisters - whether gifted, curly headed or slowpokes. Giftedness is no excuse for unacceptable behavior.
• Let your child specialize early if he/she wants. There are fringe benefits to living with dinosaurs from morning to night; he/she may be keeping notes and records, learning to do research, and discovering the Dewey Decimal System as well as Tyrannosaurus Rex.
• It is a great big wonderful world. Show it to your gifted child in the form of trips, books, interesting people, symphonies, digs, museums, fire stations, wiggly things, theater, daisy chains, and the magical chemistry that makes a cake rise.
  
  Taken from "Coming Together", Parent/Educator Handbook, Publishing by The Nebraska Association for the Gifted