When I started homeschooling DS7 this year, I was advised to follow a general curriculum series.
DS had been in two private gifted schools for part of pre-k and k. At the first gifted school, it was more a traditional, structured environment. DS was 5 and he rapidly accelerated through the pre-k, k, and 1st grade curriculum within 2 1/2 months. I was told that he was possibly 2e pg and that the school couldn't accommodate or accelerate him. Last year I had DS tested but he didn't entirely cooperate (I was on the other side of a divider and overheard) and therefore didn't get the test scores required for DYS. As a result, there are many reasons why I've been following a general curriculum series (Grades 1- 6) this year - for DYS, confidence, self-esteem, 2e issues, appease school district, alleviate my anxiety, etc.
We've been using the Learn at Home series (Grades 1-6); it's a general curriculum series and has a full school year of weekly/daily lesson plans for each grade. DS7 spends maybe a hour or more each day doing the worksheets (usually math and writing) and some spelling words for each grade. Though many days, I haven't been able to get him to do anything. Until a couple of weeks ago, we also spent each day reading from a book together (DS reads a page, then I read a page); I got fed up nagging DS to do his reading each day and decided to take a temporary hiatus, mainly for my sanity.
Rest of the time, DS7 is in his room reading books, watching videos, playing, going to playground, etc. DS has been learning considerably more history on his own this year. It's self-directed and often at a college/adult level. DS is a bit of control freak and introvert so he resists me "teaching" him anything! I said that I cannot sign him off on say 5th Grade until he completes the assignments in the Learn at Home Grade 5th and this has somewhat motivated him to finish it. He loathes the boring, rote stuff and wants to get it done asap.
To be honest, I think what really separates PG kids is the rate and speed of knowledge acquisition; at some point it's like a switch with them. They just rapidly leapfrog or go through material like the old video game Pac Man. They don't need the same amount of repetition that other NT kids need; and this is one reason why I find a general curriculum series has worked for us this year. DS7 has been able to skip around and accelerate rapidly. I've made sure he's mastered math facts and spelling, for instance, so I'm confident he'll be able to progress further.
FYI - We applied to DYS earlier in the year, but DS's test scores from last year disqualified him. I'm now in the process of trying to get him re-tested asap. I know we'd have the portfolio samples for DYS now and plan to reapply once we have DS re-tested and get qualifying scores.
