Jen, Cece, kimck, questions, et al.,

I�m a stay-at-home dad homeschooling our two grade-school girls. I�m not quite sure if I should call our kids �gifted,� since I�m not sure I know the full meaning(s) of the term, but our kids do score years beyond grade level on standardized tests. I can�t see what they would do in traditional schools (public or private) except waste their time; they�ve been homeschooled from the get-go, and it is working well for us.

I�ve seen some comments here that starting homeschooling is kinda scary, which is unquestionably true. However, when you actually start doing it, you find that you just plug ahead day by day, and then you eventually realize that your kids are learning a huge amount and that it is actually fun being a homeschooling parent.

Jen specifically wrote:
>Since I didn't get my education in United States, I'm not sure if I would miss topics that kids here should know before college.

Well, I have some good news: since most kids in the American public schools learn almost nothing, you don�t need to worry about keeping up with them! I�m only kidding a little. More seriously, some of the states have detailed state standards that you can check out to make sure you are not missing out on some topic (e.g., counting money). My own experience has been that almost anything that you might forget comes up anyway in the course of covering other topics.

You do need to be proactive along the lines of thinking that, hey, we haven�t talked about geology or Roman history or geography or whatever recently, and maybe we should look for some books on those subjects. But that�s actually fun, digging through libraries, surfing the Net, etc. looking for good books and material.

I think it is best not to rely on a canned curriculum, simply because you can always find better books through the public library, amazon, etc. than the particular choices made in any particular curriculum.

Almost everyone I know does choose a series for math � we have been using Singapore Math and are now transitioning into Stanley Schmidt�s �Life of Fred� math series. Incidentally, the Fred series may look frivolous because Stan tried to make it fun. However, I�ve talked with Stan at some length and looked over the books fairly carefully, and they seem actually to be a good deal more rigorous (as well as a lot more fun) than all of the public-school math texts I have looked at. (I have a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Stanford, so I have very high standards in judging math books.)

There are a lot of great books out there in science, history, etc.: to name a couple we have used recently, try looking at Mahlon Hoagland�s �The Way Life Works� and Marc Aronson�s �John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, and the Land of Promise.� Generally stay away from books designed to be used in the American public schools as textbooks � they are generally written by committee and aim to serve the lowest common denominator. There are a very few exceptions � the BSCS biology �blue book� for example, is very good. Check out the Textbook League (www.textbookleague.org/ ) for textbooks to avoid (i.e., almost all of them).

I, and I�m sure many other homeschoolers here and around the Web, will be happy to share information on the books and approaches we have used.

�questions� specifically asked:
>Also, for you HS'ers, I was wondering what a typical day would be schedule-wise.

If I can elaborate on Kriston�s comments, we too have a �LOOSE daily plan.� A few things (e.g., piano practice) we try to do almost every day, and some things (e.g., dance lessons) are scheduled for us. Otherwise, each day, I try to think over the subjects we have done the last couple days and aim to fill in today on the stuff we have been negligent on the last few days. We almost never get everything done I have planned; however, the kids seem to keep learning stuff and getting further and further ahead of their official grade level.

Humans are, after all, designed to learn. Human kids are good at it � at least until the desire to learn is squeezed out of them by a dysfunctional educational system.

While the question of whether to homeschool or not to homeschool is obviously a choice each family must make for themselves, my own experience makes me feel that it is clearly a good choice, especially for families with children who perform far beyond the average.

Dave M. in Sacramento