I have a problem with this being the goal of any homeschool, and of the parents selling a product promoting it. We homeschool to work at dd's pace, I don't think I am hothousing though when I help support and work with her on her weakest areas. I am doing so in order to help her become more in synch with her higher areas so that life is easier for her, mostly at her request. For DD, this has been writing. She was struggling to get the ideas out of her head and onto paper...writing on a 2nd grade level, when your thoughts are that of an upper middle schooler, is frustrating....just ask dd. Is it hot housing to help her develop this skill more? I don't think so...to me it is parenting and doing what I can to support her, same as I would if she was a normal developing child, I would do what she needed to help her succeed. Do I know if she will be ready for full time college at 12? Absolutely not. Could she be? Absolutely, that is a possibility, although I wouldn't consider her truly ready unless she had taken rigorous highschool level classes first. I would help her seek out mentors, research experiences for her first before we would consider full time college, but that truly could be where a PG child may feel most comfortable, a PG child may have the executive functions needed already at that point, or may with slight support. Who knows. I grew up around a few HG-PG kids who definitely had it all going, no 2E issues and great executive functioning....had they been hothoused there, I don't think so...to me it seemed more of their personality. Will my child be like that...who knows? But she is already definitely self motivated and while extremely reserved around her peers and even those several years older, put her with kids 9 years older to her to adults and she will blow you away with her personality, wit, and the conversations she holds. I got a chance to witness this with her over the last few days. She got to spend time with 2 medical students who are here at the clinic for a few weeks and she thrived...and blew them away. The next day she ended up making two wonderful connections to some consultants who had come onto the island for 2 days to work with Dh's job. The conversations she has, the connections she made, and the way I see her open up and blossom, shows me that I know if college at 10-12 whatever gave her those same responses, then I would go for it, because to see your child, that turned on and alive would be hard to turn my back on just because "she wouldn't have a childhood." I firmly believe she could still be a child, have a childhood, but pursue an education and social life that was appropriate for her, whatever that may be, and whether that would be ideal for anyone else of not.
Okay that was totally rambling, and I have no clue if it even makes since because I was interrupted by DD twice so that she could share something she had just read and the dog kept bring me every toy in the house so that I would play with her. LOL
Oh- And the programs like those in Washington are amazing and would definitely be a first choice option when looking at what DD needed if it was early college, but everyplace does not have something like that, and we might not be in a position to move to a place just for that, so you do the best you can with what you have.
