Gifted Bulletin Board

Welcome to the Gifted Issues Discussion Forum.

We invite you to share your experiences and to post information about advocacy, research and other gifted education issues on this free public discussion forum.
CLICK HERE to Log In. Click here for the Board Rules.

Links


Learn about Davidson Academy Online - for profoundly gifted students living anywhere in the U.S. & Canada.

The Davidson Institute is a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting profoundly gifted students through the following programs:

  • Fellows Scholarship
  • Young Scholars
  • Davidson Academy
  • THINK Summer Institute

  • Subscribe to the Davidson Institute's eNews-Update Newsletter >

    Free Gifted Resources & Guides >

    Who's Online Now
    0 members (), 591 guests, and 14 robots.
    Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
    Newest Members
    streble, DeliciousPizza, prominentdigitiz, parentologyco, Smartlady60
    11,413 Registered Users
    March
    S M T W T F S
    1 2
    3 4 5 6 7 8 9
    10 11 12 13 14 15 16
    17 18 19 20 21 22 23
    24 25 26 27 28 29 30
    31
    Previous Thread
    Next Thread
    Print Thread
    Page 2 of 2 1 2
    Joined: Feb 2011
    Posts: 710
    M
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    M
    Joined: Feb 2011
    Posts: 710
    One thing I have realised about homeschooling my kids is this: I will never know all the answers. In fact I am pretty sure that by the time they are about 8 I will have outlived my academic usefulness. smile

    When planning a project with Aiden now, or when he asks me a question now, even if I know the answer - I ask him how HE thinks we can learn about it/ solve it etc. Initially he only said "let's google it!". I started suggesting other people or places to turn to for help. Now he asks grandparents, goes to the library, calls uncles etc. The point is that if we want them to be personally responsible for their own learning, we need to give them the tools to get on with it - that means helping them find other means of getting the information they may need - opening their minds that neighbours, uncles, aunts, grandparents, shop owners etc can assist.

    Now with some projects Aiden gets to plan it all, and I just smile, wave and pay! lol. Even if its not perfect, he is learning valuable life skills that will translate into him being able to learn what he needs to as he needs to.


    Mom to 3 gorgeous boys: Aiden (8), Nathan (7) and Dylan (4)
    Joined: Jul 2010
    Posts: 1,777
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Jul 2010
    Posts: 1,777
    Get this book, even if by interlibrary loan. the screenwriters workbook by syd field

    Joined: Feb 2012
    Posts: 756
    K
    KJP Offline
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    K
    Joined: Feb 2012
    Posts: 756
    Originally Posted by sydness
    We would learn all the Math we needed to buy exactly the right amount of paint, carpet and even material for curtains, pillows...etc...She could even design a desk if she wanted...Except i realized that I don't think I know how to do this stuff and boy will she be annoyed if she needs help and i have no idea...ugh...;0

    I just met a man that teaches home repair, remodeling and woodworking classes at Home Depot. They have similar classes at Lowes too. He's one of those people that really enjoys teaching. He said that he and most of the other teachers are happy to work one-on-one or even take requests for a class topic. If those stores are in your area, you might try them as a resource for the how-to on your idea.


    Joined: Jun 2011
    Posts: 259
    S
    sydness Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    S
    Joined: Jun 2011
    Posts: 259
    I love the Home Depot idea! My DH has taken classes an we used to bring the girls to their free satuday morning classes. They loved them! We used bring oldest to home depot Starting when she was just weeks old. We would let her smell the wood and touch the textures. Such a fun place to go - even without a baby to show things to. The funny thing DH and I really are not very handy! But the people there are so kind and expect you know NOTHING! Especially if you are a little mommy with a big question pushing around two little girls. When the girls were younger, and we lived half a mile away, we used to go to home depot to let the girls drive those "cars" that were shopping carts. DH would push them all crazy down the big isles yelling watch out! Crazy driver coming through! and then he would be done and the little one would get mad and start annoying her big sis who was squashed next to her, sharing the one steering wheel and, we you know... You all have kids!

    Last edited by sydness; 06/05/12 01:08 AM.
    Joined: Dec 2010
    Posts: 1,040
    A
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    A
    Joined: Dec 2010
    Posts: 1,040
    FWIW, being able to do something neatly for a creative project doesn't rule out dysgraphia.

    I'm severely dysgraphic, but I also do calligraphy - I can draw letters fine if I do it slowly, and don't have to do composition quickly and simultaneously. I just can't develop automaticity for the letter forms to write quickly for meaning and good penmanship at the same time. I end up with sloppy writing and letter reversals, uneven spacing, letters out of order, and other motor output errors if I have to take notes, or write quickly for something like a timed essay, but when I have lots of time to compose separately from writing the final product and can focus on drawing each individual letter, I have won calligraphy prizes.

    Word processors have been a godsend.

    Your child finds typing preferable to handwriting. This is a red flag that the physical process of writing really is causing her problems.


    Joined: Jun 2011
    Posts: 259
    S
    sydness Offline OP
    Member
    OP Offline
    Member
    S
    Joined: Jun 2011
    Posts: 259
    Thank you all for helping me out. We are just finishing up school and wouldn't you know, some of the kids my dd is friends with have asked me to homeschool them too! Lol. There parents dodnt go for it. At least my dd feels like her friends will still like her! I have to get to the library and look of some of the wonderful resources. Thank you so much!

    Joined: Dec 2005
    Posts: 7,207
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    Joined: Dec 2005
    Posts: 7,207
    Sydness That's so good. I would encourage the friends to form a once a week afterschool learning club. Part of the daily curricula can be planning the meetings and you can set up challenges for your dd to earn resouces for the club...field trips or lego leauge fees or whatever. Have fun!


    Coaching available, at SchoolSuccessSolutions.com
    Joined: Feb 2010
    Posts: 6
    C
    Junior Member
    Offline
    Junior Member
    C
    Joined: Feb 2010
    Posts: 6
    Just wanted to mention two things I wish I'd known when we started homeschooling:

    (1) Children need time to "get over" school. This is called de-schooling. A month of de-schooling per year of schooling is the general recommendation. Re-doing a bedroom sounds like a great de-schooling activity!

    (2) There's a list called TAGMAX which is for folks who are homeschooling gifted children. It's a great place to ask any question regarding curricula or surviving homeschooling. Google TAGMAX to find info. The subscription process is archaic, but it is worth it.

    S
    SummitCindy
    Unregistered
    SummitCindy
    Unregistered
    S
    Our dd loves her complete grade �homeschool� DVD class that operates at a gallop. And as she gallops through her core classes, she finishes by noon, skypes her friends, leaving afternoons for her selected interest projects. As great as the mornings are, it�s hard to stay directed in the afternoons (especially since I�ve gone back to work/travel half of the school week.) I feel we homeschool moms need more daily online AP afternoon classes to keep our kids challenged and digging in the books.
    Have any of you homeschool moms found challenging advanced middle & high school online classes?

    Joined: Feb 2010
    Posts: 224
    E
    Member
    Offline
    Member
    E
    Joined: Feb 2010
    Posts: 224

    Homeschooling really isn't as scary as all that. Youngest dd's gone in and out of it, as the year seems to require, and she is currently headed back to school after a mostly homeschooled middle school. (Her brother's been dually-enrolled or homeschooled during the same time period.)
    Check your state for requirements, but as a comparison, here's our fifth grade curriculum (our state is pretty free and easy with requirements):

    Math: online, seventh grade advanced math through the state's virtual school (required me being creative about their expected graduation date, but no biggie). I'm also fond of Math Minutes workbooks, by Creative Teaching Press, if you have to have a workbook. They're very non-intimidating and user friendly.
    Social studies: nothing formal, though we spent a lot of time on civics and politics because it was a big election year. I arranged for them to be observers at our polling place, so they got to see what happens when voting is over and everything is torn down and sent back to the Supervisor of Elections. We also did a lot of field trips just to see people in their natural habitat. Just sort of...a wider worldview than is possessed by the average 9 or 10 year old. And my daughter decided to do a project wherein she studied a little about every country in the world, alphabetically, because that was her interest at the time. She still knows Burkina Faso and Myanmar better than anyone I know.
    Science: environmental science, with an emphasis on marine ecosystems because we knew some people doing cool stuff with beach reclamation and renourishment at the time. Lots of field trips. We got to see sea turtles hatch, which was fun. We did a lot of experimentiing in the kitchen, and consequently learned the scientific process backward and forward.
    Foreign language/culture: a little bit of Japanese, self-taught off the internet, because dd was interested. (Ds mostly just learned insults in Russian and Yiddish from a friend. Oh well...) We did a lot of cooking from various cultures, because it was a good way to get my picky eater to expand his palate.
    Music: private lessons. This was the biggest expense, but one we might have had even if they'd been in school.
    Language Arts: I completely made up my own curriculum based on what I perceived as my kids' deficits. One thing we did was write five paragraph papers every week. Either they picked a topic, or they drew one from a jar (random crazy things, the only ones of which I remember were William Henry Harrison, how to raise rabbits, and Gilgamesh). We also did an assigned fiction book every month, which I picked to illustrate a topic (theme, platform, setting, protagonist, etc) and then they kept a log of the books they read for fun: title, author, year published, a two sentence description, and a star rating (one-five). I will tell you they hated Johnny Tremain, and loved Alex and the Ironic Gentleman. (Though this summer's required reading for high school means that Johnny has been replaced in my son's opinion as Worst Book Ever by The Old Man and the Sea.) Also, ds learned to spell from the five-paragraph papers, because I made him type them on the computer without Spellcheck, and then edit them with it on. Spellcheck and Grammarcheck were less embarrassing to him, and he internalized the corrections more easily, than if I'd gone over them with a red pencil.
    They also took "fun" classes at homeschool coops like a Hogwarts potions class, Southern Folktales, shuffleboard, and fencing.

    Now that I type it out, it looks like a lot, but honestly, I spent less time on homeschooling than I did on homework and fighting with the IEP team. The biggest time-suck was that we're required to keep portfolios, and I decided to scrapbook ours.

    Last edited by eldertree; 08/01/12 02:26 PM.

    "I love it when you two impersonate earthlings."
    Page 2 of 2 1 2

    Moderated by  M-Moderator, Mark D. 

    Link Copied to Clipboard
    Recent Posts
    Testing with accommodations
    by aeh - 03/27/24 01:58 PM
    Quotations that resonate with gifted people
    by indigo - 03/27/24 12:38 PM
    For those interested in astronomy, eclipses...
    by indigo - 03/23/24 06:11 PM
    California Tries to Close the Gap in Math
    by thx1138 - 03/22/24 03:43 AM
    Gifted kids in Illinois. Recommendations?
    by indigo - 03/20/24 05:41 AM
    Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5