Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Hothousing- did you, didn't you, will you?

Ah, well, been there, done that. It makes it easy to know all the right things to say!

Yes, we've liked Singapore...mostly. We flew through 2 years of math in less than 5 months, and that was with me trying everything I could to slow him down.

But Book 3A is very heavy on multiplication, and DS6 hasn't memorized his times tables yet. He has a wonderfaul grasp of the concept, but it takes FOREVER for him to work a problem. So we've ground to a halt. <shrug> We're doing some other math things and dabbling gently in the times tables while we wait for his memory to catch up to his ability.

I feel I really must stress that you may be unhappy with having a set curriculum for a 5yo. While it is possible to have more curricula than you need, it is pretty much impossible to have less than you need, given that you can always purchase something if you find you're lacking. Ease into it! No one says they need more and can't get it; HSing forums are full of people selling curricula they never used or didn't like!

Most of the traditional K topics are things like telling time to the hour, looking at the weather and knowing what to wear in it (raincoat on a rainy day, for example), beginning to learn the alphabet and how to print it, learning letter sounds, listening to folk and fairy tales, following directions, grouping objects into sets, count to 30, knowing what + and - mean, etc. Seriously, any K-based curriculum is probably going to be a waste of money for you.

I promise I won't keep arguing with you about this. I just know that this advice was the best advice anyone gave me. The curriculum is the easiest part of home schooling! For young GT kids, it's soooooo simple!

If you do buy stuff, don't be surprised if your child outgrows it in mere minutes. Without a classroom of kids to slow them down, they tend to absolutely leap through concepts.

Remember: you've been your child's teacher for YEARS and you've done just fine without a curriculum, right? 5 years old isn't so different than what you've done his whole life, I promise!

Get the Hirsch books or some other such guide and then use your library. It's free and adjusts easily to your child as he learns and skips ahead. If you have an area of weakness that makes you nervous (mine is math), buy ONE workbook from a given curriculum and try it out. Singapore and Aleks are nice for math because they're cheap. But don't commit to anything until you've gotten the lay of the land.

OK, I'll leave you alone now. I promise!