Does anyone homeschool their gifted child/ren? - Page 2

[MomofSev]

Awesome! Thank you! I will look into it :)

[AnnesMoM]

I'm in the boat with the age cut-off for K as well.  The cut off here is Oct 1, and my ds' birthday is Oct 22.  I began homeschooling my dd 2 years ago when she was 5 and my ds was 3.  We did the "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 easy Lessons" (which I LOVE!) .  DD caught right on, but to my amazement so did my son.  I'd let him set in on her lessons because it made him feel like a "big boy", but when he started reading right along with her, I decided begin working seriously with him on math as well. 

Now at 4.5, he reads on a 2-3rd grade level and is nearly done with 1st grade math.  Has anyone noticed that many home-school kids love math?  I was raised in public school and I remember hating math with a passion at an early age, but my son begs for more math sheets at all hours of the day and my dd doesn't mind it either.

We do school through the summer (not everyday and pretty relaxed), mainly math with a little bit of whatever strikes our fancy that day, and it's put my son so far ahead of where he would be in public school I just can't see him fitting in in elementary.   I classify him as "1st grade", but since his b-day falls late, he wouldn't be in K until next year and our school district will not test children out of their age/grade level.  He has the personality that thrives on being challenged and I can't imagine what would happen if he was to be put back 2 grades next year.

[MissAnthrope]

One of the biggest reasons we're homeschooling is that DH and I were both gifted children, so it's likely that one or more of our kids will be gifted--- and we know first-hand what a disservice the public education system can do to gifted children.  So far, our late daughter was incredibly verbally gifted (taught herself to read at age 3), and our ODS seems to be both verbally and spatially advanced, although he's still quite young.

The best thing you can do for a gifted child is to promote self-directed learning.  Teaching a preschooler how to use a dictionary, encyclopedia, and thesaurus is a great and simple start--- that way, whenever they're curious about something, they have the tools they need to learn more about it.

I also think it's very important to emphasize the importance of hard work instead of telling children that they're "smart".  My usual praise is "Good job!  You really worked hard on that!", because I want them to understand that the effort is the part they have conscious control over...they can't always rely on innate ability.  You have to be extra careful to reassure gifted children that yes, even if something is difficult for them or they make mistakes, they are still doing valuable learning.

So we don't use worksheets or workbooks and we don't do graded work.  A learner finishes a course only when he or she has completed the work satisfactorily, and the instructor/facilitator records the learner's particular skills and notes the style of their work in a prose evaluation rather than assigning the learner a "grade".  We emphasize acquiring skills over performing tasks, and we really try to use a non-pedagogical approach in which we all learn collaboratively, adults included!

[dessismama]

I am homeschooling my 12 year old. He is learning a lot and I am thrilled with the progress he has made in 3 short weeks... I chose to do a pre-designed curriculum and supplement with college level Spanish he is taking at the university where I teach. Things are going well! Glad we took the plunge, since he has more time to play cello and chess than when he was in public school.

[heatherdeg]

We are homeschooling my would-be-entering-2nd-grade 7yo ds.  We pulled him going into pre-k and we've learned a lot.  He is an INTENSELY science/math guy.

We have finally found our stride with a Charlotte Mason approach, although I don't use a curriculum (like Sonlight) to assign him reading.  I just make books available to him that have an educational purpose.  At the moment, we're waiting for Life of Fred to fill the gap in their math curriculum because ds doesn't know the long division necessary for the Fractions book yet.  I might break down and open some formal math curriculum to teach him so he can move ahead, but I like that LoF is teaching him addition facts because he suffers trying to cognitively figure out higher level math for lack of stupid math facts.  :/

Oh, and he doesn't write well.  And that's after several years of OT and them discharging him as "at or above grade level" at the end of what would be Kindy.  In fact, I had multiple arguments with one of his 2 therapists because she was pushing him well beyond grade level for writing.  And it still looks childish--so don't panic.  The schools inflict it on us early for testing purposes.  But realistically, it's not exactly developmentally appropriate.  If you need to work on spelling, get a set of letter stamps.