Hi. Okay. I'm brand new.

Really I created a registration on here so that I could find out if I should start pursuing testing or just ways to be an advocate for my kids.

My daughter is 2 1/2. She is starting to read short phonetic words. She has always been ahead physically (fine and gross moter skills like: She walked at 8 months and could take a pen cap on and off at like... 9-10 months?? hard to remember). She has also been advanced in her speech and the concepts she understands. She had about 20 words she used regularly at 12 months and a whole list of other's she used at some points. Her first sentance at 14 months and now she asks totally complicated questions, has complete discussions with us about some pretty complex stuff. She wants to know how things work and whats going on in many situations. She almost ALWAYS speaks in the proper tense and ALWAYS has. She's really good at adult conversation and she prefers friends at LEAST a year older than her.

My son is only 7 months. He said his first word at 5 1/2 months(Momma), he uses it very intentionally. And, though we are trying to remain sceptical and not be expecting much we THINK he may be saying two other words (Hi and Batman). These are more recent. He is also advanced physically. Everything else is a little early to tell but he is crawling, standing, and picking up cheerios. ???

My question is: What do I do?

I'm a stay at home mom and I have time to stimulate my kids and help them meet their full potential. I want to do my best to create opportunities for them to thrive. I don't want to expect too much or be pushy though. I know my kids are not like some of the SUPER gifted kids that like.... talk at 2 weeks old or whatever. But they obviously are bright. I really don't know HOW bright though... should I look into testing for my 2 1/2 year old? Is it helpful to know where you stand? How do I do that? Can I administer anything myself that is an informal sort of thing that will help me decide where to go from here?
How helpful is pre-school? She is already beyond what they teach in pre-school... even to most 4-5 year olds in MOST aspects. But the social opportunity and the chance to work in groups and develop classroom etiquette is important to my husband and I because we intend to homeschool later down the road and we don't want her to be deprived totally of those social and classroom experiences. We want to establish them now. Most pre-schools wont let her in until she's 3 and by then I'm afraid she'll be totally bored. Any advice?
For anything we do at home to help keep their little minds growing is there a place I can find good curriculum for advanced toddler/preschoolers? Should I just use stuff that's meant for older kids early? Any advice on activities that are intellectually stimulating? This young brains are so malleable I don't want to waste these years!

Sorry this was so long. Any help would be really appreciated!

My daughter is now 3.5 and just before her September 2nd birthdate, I put her in a playschool -- 5 days a week. She thrived on the socialization but it was hard that her verbal skills were so advanced of the other kids. The teacher told us that the other kids sat around her while she talked, told stories. But I do not regret it, there were so many non-intellectual benefits at that age.

Now I have her in a really good Montessori, with 3-5 year olds. It works because the teacher is gifted, and she enjoys her classmates.

When a child gets bored, and you can see it at this age, it shows, but I think there are tremendous social advantages in preschool. Learning how to get along, sharing, taking turns, just all kinds of games that kids like to play -- duck, duck, goose.

I am working on a school plan for kindergarten, because I have do all the applications starting in September for 2009, and I am concerned about the environment and what would work. Seeing her in preschool is great for me to understand her needs better rather than projecting.

We had her tested at 2 for a gifted preschool. We knew she was smart, we didn't know how smart. So it is nice to have an idea, but you still wonder because they go through stages. We tested her again because the preschool didn't take her, she was a month too young, and we thought we look into it again but the tester told us that only go if they put her in with the 4s, she wouldn't do well as the oldest. But they wouldn't put her ahead. All the kids are gifted, so it is hard to make a case. But DD doesn't work well with younger peers. These are the things you start to understand from the social things you learn in their preschool. What is your child really like and what do they need. Doesn't mean you learn all of it, but you start to get it.

Welcome,
Ren

Hi Brittany,
Welcome! I'm so glad you found us.

For something informal (read - you get what you pay for) that you can do at home, try Losing Our Minds: Gifted Children Left Behind by Deborah L. Ruf

if you like the book, you may want to set up a visit or conference call with Dr. Ruf. Don't we deserve to build a relationship with a trusted professional who understands our gifted children?

also - browse through http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A2GIEWPMJNA3G9/ref=cm_cr_dp_auth_rev?ie=UTF8&sort%5Fby=MostRecentReview

As for preschool, there isn't much point in putting a child with agemates to learn socialization skills. A few hours a day of supervised play can be good, particularly if they don't try to teach the ABCs and if it's a mixed age situation.

Remember that your children will always have each other to learn to socialize with, and that is an advantage that seems to make a wonderful difference.

I'm glad to hear that you are planning to homeschool. I don't think you have to rush into socialization now because you are homeschooling - homeschooling just offers to many rich opportunities for peer interaction. If you want your children to have a chance to learn to function away from you and to follow rules, then I can see a purpose to preschool. But if that is your objective, you can also find plenty of experiences later that also offer some actual education as well.

Anyway those are my .02$- Welcome!
Grinity

Welcome!

At that age, you mostly just need to follow the child's lead, as you are already doing. Parenting a GT preschooler is mostly just like parenting any other child, only earlier and more of it!

Generally speaking, I don't think testing at 2.5 is going to tell you too much that's useful--a lot can happen before she hits "real" school. Unless you have a specific question that you need to have answered right now, it would probably just be an expensive confirmation of what you already know: she's smart! Well, duh! You'd probably just have to test again in a few years. And besides, you probably don't really need a test right now; a mom usually knows.

I think it's safe to say that for now, you should trust your gut: if you think she's GT, she probably is, and you should approach her accordingly. If other parents don't believe you when you talk about what your child did or said yesterday and you have to censor what you share at playgroup meetings, there's a good chance your child is GT.

The best advice I can give you is to treat her as a whole person, not a little brain on legs. (Not that you are doing that, of course! But it can be easy with these kids to forget that they're in many ways kids like any other.) Most of what kids learn at this age--and that's ALL kids, GT or not!--is through playing. I mean, if she WANTS to do workbooks and read science books aloud to you or something very school-like, then follow her lead. But if she wants to ride her trike or play soccer or dress up dolls, then that's good, too. None of that is a "waste" of her time. She has her whole life for sitting down and studying; now is the time for her to play!

With that said, a preschool that suits her needs--whatever those needs are right now--might be a good idea. Just don't assume that a highly academic preschool is the best choice. It may be, if their curriculum meets her intellectual needs. But it may not be if they're too far behind her (or ahead of her, of course, but for GT kids, that's not usually the problem).

Many (not all!) of us have had good luck with non-academic, half-day pre-K programs. The kids get the social time and the fingerpainting mess for someone else to clean up (don't underestimate the appeal of THAT! ), and they can get their intellectual needs met at home during the other half of the day. It works surprisingly well a lot of the time.

(In the interest of full disclosure, my mom is a retired pre-K teacher, so I think pre-K can be a really good thing, given the right match between child and program/teacher.)

Another tip that I wish I'd known earlier in the process: expect to reevaluate the school situation as often as once every 6-12 months. Things change fast with these kids, and what works today may not work tomorrow. Many of us have found that we no sooner have a solution in place that seems to work, but the child has outgrown it.

Until she enters pre-K, just keep doing what you're doing. Often you do have to use materials for older kids. That's fine. Just be sure that if she's emotionally sensitive (as many GT kids are) that nothing in the material will be troubling to her. Otherwise, just keep following her lead, following her interests. Answer her questions. Go to the library. Read to her about things she loves and topics she knows nothing about yet. Go to the park and the museum and the zoo. Make friends. Swing.

You know, be her mom!

There's plenty of time to be stressed out later. Trust me! For now, just have fun with her. Happily, there's nothing wasted in time spent doing that.

Hi Brittany,

I think your children sound like they would be in good company around here.
If you think DD might like a pre-school, keep looking around. I found a 3 year pre-school that would take DD8 at 2yr.5mo., but she was also already potty trained.
If your child is advanced past pre-k academically, there isn't any harm in putting her in pre-k for social reasons, especially if she likes it.
Just don't pay the whole year tuition upfront!

IMHO I'd wait til the child is 5 to test. I believe that's the earliest to test for an accurate eval, give or take a month or two.

Welcome aboard.

Thanks! These have been really helpful so far! That part about having to censor myself TOTALLY hits home!! I think some people just pretend to believe me. My sister outright says "nuh uh!! She's not olde enough for that" I'm comfortable with her enough that I say "wanna bet?!" and then we prove it :-) But the rest of the world.... gosh... I feel like if I talk about our daily life people will thik I'm just bragging or making stuff up!

My daughter is very active. She loves to run and play and I give her lots of time to just FIND things to do on her own so she can explore and be creative. I try to remember that just letting her play and imagine is really important too. There are times in the day though where she seems to want to be acedemic.... weird.
:-)... but really... she'll ask me to remind her which letters say what sounds and she'll coach me and tell me "what's this one?....no.... look at it again... very good!" hee hee. And she really enjoys reading the short words I make for her with her magnet letters. I don't want to structure time where she HAS to do this stuff.. I don't want to burn her out. But I do want to make the most of the Xnumber of minutes a day when she wants to practice letters and numbers and stuff. I want it to be fun too. That math game that someone reccomended looked great. Thanks!
I have her on the waiting list at a pre-school that said they would concider taking her before she turned 3. She already visited for a day and did just as well as, if not better than, the 3, 4, 5 year olds that had been aclimated to it all year. I think that helped them decide it would be okay to have her. and she LOOOOOVED it. SHe wanted to go back the next day. I really want her to have that opportunity if I can. It has become really annoying trying to set up playdates! So something we can count on would be good. I donno... I guess I'll just wait it out and let God take control. If pre-school next year is best I'm sure He'll open a spot up for her. If not... next year!... Or maybe by then things will have changed enough that we decide against it... Things to change fast! Thanks for the advice on reevaluating. That's a really helpful tip! Now that you mention it I can see how important that would be with kids that learn and change sooo fast!

Any other comments and ideas and tips would be great!!!

Are puzzles a really good one? What other activities are captivating, fun, and educational?

Thanks! I'm glad you guys are confirming what I've been suspecting. I figured that ALL parents think their kids are little superstars and I didn't want to be just projecting. It feels sooooooooo good to have people to talk to that understand. I feel like most other parents think I'm just bragging, lying, or judging them. Maybe they don't really think that but I'm self-concious about it. I am SO proud of my kids but it's hard to express that without feeling like I'm "superiorizing" them compared to other "average" kids. You know what I mean? I'm sure it's all old hat to you all but this is the first place I feel like I can talk about that! Had to get it off my chest! Thanks!!
That said...
Yeah my girl has been potty-trained for over a year so other than age she qualifies for any pre-school around here. I guess I'll pursue it to a degree... maybe make sure she gets some pre-school in within the next two school years... after that I KNOW she'd be bored out of her mind socially and academically....
thanks for the advice on tuition though. I'll keep her fast changing pace in mind. Also, I think I'll wait to test... maybe I'll never need to. Homeschooling will probably advance her enough that it will fall into place later.

Good advice! Thanks!~

Well, to some kids, academics IS play, so don't feel quilty for following your child's/children't lead. I think there is this social stigma attatched to kids that LOVE to learn. That their parents are "pushing" them. That used to prevent me from providing them a lot of opportunities they would have enjoyed.
Now I just don't worry about it, I do what they want to do.
DD5 is happily completing a library reference workbook when we go to the library every week. Just one page each time. She's really enjoying herself. I saw another mom I know from the public school and she approached us and said: "Oh, you're already preparing them for next year?"
I told her, no, DD5 doesn't need to know any of this stuff for first grade. She just really thinks its fun and wants to be able to navigate the library system without my help.
She actually looked mad when she walked away.
shrug.

Signs your child is different...That's a good one, 'Neato!

And yes, thanks for clarifying. I certainly didn't mean to suggest that workbooks are bad. Learning *is* playing for these kids! But there are different ways to learn, and workbooks are not required for learning to take place. Sometimes helpful, sometimes hurtful, depending on the kid. If the child enjoys a workbook, then it's helpful.

I could have been clearer there!

Brittany, is your daughter my younger son? LOL I swear they have the same milestones. He started reading at similar age, he said his first sentence the day he turned 14 months, he had lots of words by 1st birthday. Ok, he started walking at 9 months

He is turning 4 next month and he is gifted, most likely HG. I have no doubt that your daughter is gifted as well. She is for sure too young to be tested. Yes, you could have her tested now, but the results would be off at this point. It'a hard to get a reasonable sample when you are talking about 2-3 year olds. Most of the kids cannot pay enough attention, are shy, don't care to answer, would prefer to play instead and quite likely know much more than they show. All that messes up the testing sample on which the IQ values are based on. It's better to wait till she is older. I believe even my almost 4 year old is too young to be tested, we will most likely wait another year or so.

I think PreK is nice if you find a place she likes. I am all for play school. Just go in and have fun, forget the academics. Wrong academics is worse than no academics and in most places you get wrong one. I did play school with my older one (DYS) and it worked great. I put my younger one in Montessori for a year and it wasn't a good match to say the least. They had him do academics and much more academics that he would do in a regular preschool, but it was too easy, too boring. He will go to a play based preschool next year and get all the academics his heart desires at home.

As far as what you can do, follow her lead. She will tell you what she is interested in and what she wants to learn. Take her to places, show her different books and subjects and if she shows interest go for it. Educational computer games (Reader Rabbit and such) worked great for us.

I haven't read everything up to this point, but if you are definitely looking at homeschooling down the road (which will probably be a really great fit for your kids), I would definitely look at a very low academic, high play social skills style preschool. I have a daughter who just turned 4 who academically could do kindergarten or beyond without a problem. She is about to attend her 2nd year of a neighborhood 3 morning a week play based, open ended preschool. Her teachers really "get" her and if kids are reading or writing and want to work on that in class, it's no problem. The teachers accommodate for kids in all places but really push positive social interactions. It's been quite ideal for her.

And just because your kids weren't speaking at 2 weeks doesn't mean they can't be very gifted. I didn't even suspect my son as being more than a "little gifted" until he got to kindergarten. He is likely going to be home schooled for 2nd grade in the fall. You're way ahead of the game and you're following your kids lead. That's great! Keep up the good work!

I can only speak from my own experience, but DD enjoyed preschool at 2 1/2. Not so much for academics since she knew her colors, shapes etc. but she enjoyed the social aspect since she was an only child.

Since you are a SAHM, you can pursue her interests as home. If she has a particular interest in a topic, go to the library and pick up books about that topic. DD loved animals and around 3 she only wanted books about snakes and spiders (yuck!!!) that I read to her. Animals and nature is still her passion and it was obvious from early on.

You can also explain math concepts and see how she responds and picks them up. I usually didn't initiate much of this, just waited until DD asked a question and explained it to her. Following a child's lead will avoid the pushiness and she is likely to ask more questions.

Get ready for an interesting ride, you children sound very bright.

Jen

I went out of town and came back to some great answers! Thanks guys!

My DS4 is going to do a second year of play-based half-day, 2-day-a-week preschool in the fall. His preschool teacher really gets him and his giftedness (she was the first outside person who told us that he would need acceleration some day). An additional benefit to this preschool was the fact that I get a break! (Sometimes it's a brain drain to have a kid who is constantly on.)

We started wondering that maybe DS was more than a little smart when he seemed to teach himself to read around 3. We did have him tested with SB-V when he turned 4, because we wondered about early kindergarten and we had to prove IQ>130 and get the ball rolling in the spring if he was going to go 2008. Because DS turned out to be very HG, we're glad we got testing before school started. He will always require some sort of accommodations at school (subject or grade acceleration, etc), so we took the evaluator's advice to let him play another year instead of early k. We probably will end up doing some homeschooling at some point, but that was not even on the radar until we got his evaluation. In fact, I had pretty negative views about homeschoolers (sorry - i thought they were all just on the religious extremes). But as for you, if you expect to homeschool anyway, maybe you won't need to spend the money for testing unless you need it for some particular program or reason.

For now, we encourage whatever DS4 is into at home, and it seems he just learns stuff through osmosis. I concur with the others about following your child's lead, and do other fun stuff like zoos and science museums, etc.

If that's a general apology, then I'll just say no offense taken. Actually, I bought into those same sort of stereotyping of HSers as fringe/wacko types...until two of my sane, normal friends--both with GT kids--started homeschooling. I saw how well their kids did, and I changed my tune FAST!

Live and learn!

I didn't mean to cause any offense - i was just trying to show how uneducated I was about homeschooling. Actually, it was reading posts from you Kriston that really showed me that homeschoolers are people too. I had no personal experience with homeschoolers, just a closed mind and negative media influences, i guess. i'm sorry.

Of course. Like I say, I certainly didn't take offense.

The media portrays HSers as mostly all weirdos who abuse their kids. And when we were growing up, homeschooling just wasn't done by, well, much of anyone at all! If you don't know any HSers, then you have no way to know that you can homeschool and still be normal (well, relatively, anyway! ).

Really, you didn't bother me one iota!

I know dozens and dozens of homeschooling families. The vast majority of these are homeschooling for reasons other than religious convictions. I was actually taken aback when a fellow homeschooling parent told me that they did so for religious reasons. I think that's the only time I've heard that from an actual homeschooler.

I've heard undertones that a lot of families around here say they are HS for religous reasons but are really doing so for academic reasons. Not sure why. Perhaps it's more acceptable to reject PS on religous grounds vs. quality of learning issues.

Most of the homeschoolers I know in my small town are homeschooling for religious reasons, and I didn't realize this until I started talking to them about wishing that part time public school was available in our state. Several of the members of our homeschool group made it clear that this would be a terrible thing, in their opinion. They thought children needed to be kept away from the influence of "government school" and they have not been friendly to me ever since. Several of them also told me that they would never have had only one child, as if they think all good homeschoolers should have a half dozen or so kids like they do.

So we are on our own here, with only our online friends during the school year. In the summer though, we could have kids over here all the time if we wanted. My son's public schooled friends and cousins call all the time asking to come over.

I recently talked to an adult who had been homeschooled. She is the mother of a teenaged girl in my son's acting class. She said her mother pulled her out of public school in 9th grade because although she was very bright, her grades started falling and the teachers didn't seem to care if she did well in school or not. Her mother cared enough to take her out of a bad public school, and she finished high school a year early. She was smart and didn't fit in. Homeschooling worked well for her.

I graduated from the same public school her mother pulled her out of, although years earlier. There was a lot of fighting at this school when I went to it. I remember worrying about getting to my next class safely instead of learning. I knew that I learned more outside of school and this was one reason I knew homeschooling could work, even if I was not a good teacher.

Every now and then I ask my son if he wants to go back to school and the answer is always no. He likes homeschooling. But he recently asked me if we were more like the unschoolers, because he spends about 75% of the time learning what he wants to learn. He likes being able to learn more than his public schooled friends, who only get the one hour a week gifted pull out and are expected to do grade level work the rest of the time and then have to do homework which further limits their time to pursue their own interests. I have noticed that compared to these kids, my son sounds more like a well-read adult and I think this is one of the reasons he is so good at making small talk--something I am not that good at. It isn't just that he reads a lot, he knows a lot about movies, music, and even sports even though he can't play sports, because he listens to the news and although he doesn't watch a lot of television, he watches enough to know a little something about it. He seems to know a little something about everything, just like his dad, who has this same gift of gab.

I think another benefit of homeschooling was that it made it easier for my son to have the older friends who were closer to his mental age.

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! 