Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Is this something I should pursue?

Sounds like my Dh...he can talk a little about anything. And if he can't, he fakes it and I always totally believe him b/c he sounds like he knows what he's talking about...until he starts laughing!

I saw a post at another board where the kid didn't do well on vocabulary on a Standardized test b/c he didn't know words such as cafeteria, referee, etc. The mother said these were "public school" words. My friend and I have discussed whether or not HSing puts DC at a disadvantage for standard tests. It sounds like that certainly isn't the case with your DS!

Lori, all the home school kids I have met have been very dynamic, calm and self-posessed. Very different from what I see in the PS population generally. Especially in the higher grades. And I'm talking about all levels of academic talent, not just HG kids.
It really makes me take pause and draws me towards HS.

Maybe they are trying to dodge all those questions people get about their kids academic abilities.

Yes, my son and husband are gifted at faking it! They are hilarious when they fake it sometimes. My son likes trivia questions and even when he knows the correct answer, if he thinks of something funnier than the correct answer, he will go with funny. When we go out somewhere, they both notice things that are funny that I didn't notice. We have interesting dinner conversations.

I think my son learned some useful vocabulary from video games and computer games. I think one of his old games from several years ago was set in a school and in the game he went to different rooms for classes and also to the cafeteria. He also played sports video games so he learned all the sports vocabulary from those. He learned a lot of economics vocabulary from playing Capitalism II and Tycoon games. He learned legal vocabulary from Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney, and from his sister's college level intro to law textbook, psychology vocabulary from his sister's college textbook, and even more medical vocabulary just from being in a family with lots of older people who have various medical conditions. Then there was studying for the spelling bee and looking up definitions to every word he didn't know the exact meaning of and doing online vocabulary games on freerice.com and sheppardsoftware.com.

Since he likes to use all of these words that he knows in his speech, he sounds so much smarter than I do, and I am sometimes embarrassed by my inability to talk like this. I try and my recall of the perfect word is just too slow. My receptive vocabulary is very good and I do well on vocabulary games but I just can't use these words in my speech as easily as he does. One of his gifted friends, four years older, admires my son's verbal ability and tries to use more "advanced" vocabulary in his speech but has the same trouble I do. And my husband and son can talk "okie" too. Both my husband and my son can turn off the professor speech and roll right into "okie farmer" speech which makes it even funnier when they tell jokes.

It's pretty mixed around here between religious and secular homeschoolers. But there are a LOT of people HSing for secular reasons. To be honest, aside from HS gym classes and that sort of thing, we almost never see religious HSers. The religious and secular HSers just seem to run in different circles. Our HS group is inclusive, but that generally translates to mostly secular HSers. I have yet to meet anyone in our group who is HSing for religious reasons, though I know there are some. Honestly, I think religious HSers would be foolish not to join the group! It is so active with such good events! You could be very conservative in terms of religion and still participate without problem in 99% of the things we do.

The group does publicize roller skating parties that play only Christian music, but that's about all that even hints at religion in any way, and they treat that opportunity the way they treat any other: here's something you can choose to do or choose not to do. It gets no special mention, beyond the note that it has a Christian bent so people know the facts. Otherwise, the assumption is always that all events are secular.

It's funny how it varies by area, isn't it?

Hi Brittany,

I'm sorry I'm late to jump on and say hello, but better late than never! I have a 2 year old son (he'll be 3 in 2 weeks)who has been reading for about 4 months. He continues to shock the heck out of me on a daily basis. Yesterday, he logged into my husband's cell phone contacts, added his name "Graham" and our telephone number by himself. Um, yeah.

Anyway, I certainly have the same concerns you do and can share how we are handling things. I found a pre-school/daycare that we love...very play based with a little academics thrown in. I've also started researching school districts since we plan on sending him to school. We have settled on a small district that has a lot of GT kids and knows how to work with them. I had a phone conference recently with their Director of Special Services and the GT Coordinator for all of Hamilton County (Cincinnati area). I can't tell you how cool it was to explain a little bit about my son, and have school people actually tell me they support early entrance, grade skipping and subject acceleration, start evaluation in K and have specialists that do GT testing in the district services so we won't have to pay out of pocket. Music to this befuddled mom's ears!

This nirvana school district requires a house sale and an in area move for us, but we're willing to do that.

Long story short is we indulge him and his quirky GT stuff (reading phone books, playing with calculators, etc) at home and encourage him to play with friends at school. So far, so good.

I think the biggest thing for me was getting beyond the denial of it all and starting to think down the road a bit. And this board has been a great source of support!

Hi Catherine,

So great to hear you've found such a wonderful and supportive learning environment for your son. I don't think we've seen this for awhile but here goes:

DOK.............!

Love the story about your son logging into dad's cell phone. LOL!!!!

Brace yourself, sounds like he has the potential to give you a real run for your money, so to speak.

I know a child who sounds very similar to your son. Was watching mommy shopping online. Later, when mommy wasn't looking, figured out how to get to the same sites, remembered the passwords and RE-ENTERED them! And bought a bunch of stuff! Same age as your son! Mommy thought she was a victim of identity theft when the stuff came in the mail!

Wouldn't you love to get those two together!!!!

p.s. just sent you a P.M.

Neato

Well, I have always planned to homeschool. Even before my children were born I expected that I would at least keep them home some. I will probably do a combination of Homeschooling, private schooling, and some public schooling. I just always had that in my head because I had such good experiences.

I'd like to think I'm at least somewhat of a homeschooling success story. I was pulled out in the middle of 3rd grade from my public school. It was mostly for academic reasons. By the end of my third grade year, after learning mostly in the back room of my dad's sub sandwich store, I was doing 4th-6th grade work and only having to spend half my day on it! Eventually, all three of my siblings were homeschooling with me and we got the individual attention we needed. I was great at math, but terrible at spelling. My sister enjoyed reading, but didn't get math... We all eventually ended up ahead of grade level in ALL subjects. Later we participated in a Homeschool co-op that went really well. We got some socialization and were most definitely accelerated! I went back to homeschooling for a year and then did a year at a small private school in which I combined my Junior and Senior year into one and graduated a year early. I did Junior College (because of my homeschool preparation college was a breeze) and I could have done much more fancy-pants stuff like Universities and a law degree but my passion was working with kids. I didn�t want to be a teacher AT ALL so I got an AA and got right to work with paraeducation (loved it). And I knew my biggest dream ever was to raise children of my own, be a stay-at-home-mom, and homeschool my kids so that they could meet their full potential. My story sounds like I �gave up to be a mom� but it�s just the opposite. I have always wanted lots of kids and I knew I could make more of a difference in this world raising 5 or 6 great people then just living out one great life. I LOVE what I do and I have my dream job.

So, here I am just barely turned 23. I have an A.A.S degree, I�ve been married for 4 years, I have two AMAZING and gifted children, I own my own home, we OWN two cars, and I am more excited than ever to raise a family of homeschoolers. My kids are very social creatures and I really hope I can stimulate them in ALL ways: Acedemically, socially, spiritually. I�ve got my work cut out for me but I am excited. I don�t think I could face all of those challenges without the option to keep my kids home at least some to navigate their learning. Especially with gifted children.

I will admit there is a slight �religious� benefit to homeschooling that is appealing to me. I do feel that �government schools� or whatever you wanna call them� ha ha� are forcing a lot of OPPINIONS on us these days, and believe it or not, I think public education is very closed minded and narrow. I work with youth at our church� many of them seriously believed it was illegal to talk about God at school because it�s public. I don�t know when our education system STOPPED teaching the truth about our freedoms and the constitution and started discouraging freedom of speech, freedom of faith, and cultural and spiritual diversity but it is very sad. I think different views should be out in the open and in homeschooling I will teach my kids FACTS and let them sort them out. I will teach them of my faith and how it relates to the world around them and hope that they discover the same truth that I have.

I want them to be allowed to explore it ALL. I want them to have �gifted learning� options all hours of the day. I want them to discover their potential without swimming through a class of 35 students and ONE teacher.

I must say, with all that I�ve seen academically, I would homeschool even if I wasn�t some crazy right-winged, Bible-readin, Jesus lovin�, fanitic nut-job! 