The more I research, the more I feel that HS would be the best for her. I just have to convince my DH and that can be hard. Then there is the issue of cirriculum. I really don't even know where to start choosing one. Any help would be appreciated. I would love to know what some of you have used, your likes or dislikes about it, etc.
Thanks for listening.
~Gatorgirl
Honestly, curriculum is the easy part of homeschooling a GT child. They learn so fast and so happily that it's a lot easier than you think it will be. I promise!
Before you do anything else, check out the HSing laws in your state. Make sure you know what is required of you and by what deadline. Some states just require a letter to the superintendent informing them of your plans, while others require lots of hoops, perhaps even registering as a provate school. If you're even considering HSing, look into it.
Second, do some research and decide what kind of home schooling you want to practice. This is a practical matter to help you choose from the astonishing amount of material that's out there. There are LOTS of types of home schooling! Personally, I'm going with the "eclectic" approach because it pretty much means we can do whatever DS6 and I want to do in whatever form works best. But you may want to use a more structured aproach. Differnt strokes for different folks, but reading up can help you to consider what will best suit you and your DD so that you don't spin your wheels in something too structured or not structured enough for your needs.
Also, I would start considering personality issues--both hers and yours. Is your daughter going to be happier to be alone much of the day, working independently, or is she an extrovert who will need lots of social time? Either is totally do-able for HSing, but it helps to know which you're working with. And don't neglect your own needs. I am an introvert who needs time alone, and the biggest challenge we faced when starting HSing was my not getting enough time to myself. Ultimately, I needed childcare help so I didn't lose my mind. Be sure you take care of yourself, not just your child. Think of the airplane warning: put the oxygen mask on yourself before you help others! If HSing doesn't work for the WHOLE family--including you!--then it doesn't work. Find a way to make it work if you're going to do it.
And yes, LMom is totally right: aim low your first year! You want to make a year's worth of progress for a year's worth of work. That's it! Anything else is gravy. And I'm betting that if you locked your daughter in her room with a pile of books, she'd be able to manage a year's worth of progress, right? So don't stress out about it. In the absolute worst case, she makes no progress at all. She's what? 3 years ahead of grade level now? So don't worry about it. (And trust me, she WILL make progress!
) So start with making sure she loves to learn, and give yourselves time to hit your stride. Don't worry about progress for a while. As long as she isn't watching TV and playing video games all day (this is one rule that almost ALL HSers agree about: no TV or video games until schoolwork is done!), but is reading and writing and drawing and building and thnking all day, then she's doing what she should be doing.
And be sure your DD is on board with HSing before you make the decision to HS. If she doesn't want to HS, then it won't work. Period. She has to buy into it and feel responsible for her own education. She has to understand that you're in this together, you're a team, and that you will both make mistakes along the way. Heck, you've never done this either! So good communication between you two is a must. She has to recognize that you are promising the state to give her an education, and you can only do that if she cooperates. If you have that talk, then motivating her to work will get a whole lot easier.
Okay, now to the inevitable curriculum question...
Here's my answer to the same question not long ago. Pardon the re-post, but it's a long answer, and the same one I'd post now:
I like the "What Your Xth Grader Needs to Know" series by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. (I bought several years' worth, just to be sure I covered all the basics, but really, checking them out of the library would probably have been enough...) For pretty much all the other subjects besides math, we raid the library and follow DS's interests wherever they take us. (Our library even lets home schoolers get an "educator" card, so we can keep the books for a lot longer without fines.) And BTW, we don't try to do every subject every day, or even once per week. I figure we just need to hit all the major subjects by the end of the year and it will all balance out. And after all, the danger isn't that our kids will go too slowly or fall behind, really, is it? Mainly I'm having trouble keeping enough material on hand because he's going through it so fast!
(BTW, For math we started out using Singapore Math
www.singaporemath.com because math was his weakest area and I had some math fear, so I wanted to be sure he stayed on track. It was fine, a good starting point, but not a great success, I didn't think. This year we're going "off-road" even on math. I'm getting help from my engineer DH, but we're not even using a packaged curriculum for that. We're all happier. As I say, it is a learning process, and DS gave me good feedback about the math so that we could tailor our plans to better meet his needs. So far, so good!)
I've found GREAT help and reassurance in "Creative Home Schooling: A Resource Guide for Smart Families" by Lisa Rivero. That one is worth buying, in my opinion!
Otherwise, probably the two best pieces of advice anyone gave me were to find an active home schoolers association and not to buy a bunch of curriculum right away. The benefits of joining a group are probably self-evident--social connections, field trips, contacts you couldn't find alone, classes like art, P.E., foreign languages, etc. As for the curriculum, much of what you'd buy at first is going to be wrong for your child, and you can waste a lot of money! Ease into it. Use the library. Figure out what suits you both. Then plunk down the cash as necessary.
I hope this helps!
I still do!
Write back if I can help with anything.
