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

Hi Mia,
We were also "carful to avoid hothousing" and it blew up in our faces in exactly the same manner. LOL! We didn't want to be responsible for his future bordom! I am glad you are able to "wake up and smell the coffee" at this early stage, and let's face it, your son is going to need to do some work at home in order to not fall behind in the "learn how to learn" catagory.

I think the popularity of full grade skips is due to the various difficulties with subject acceleration, but if your school will offer the subject acceleration after a little 'teaching to the test' when it is worth jumping through the hoops, if you can live with the uncertianty of year to year planning that comes with the greater flexibility of subject accelerations.

If it helps, I now think of hothousing as a communication issue. When one is trying to communicate a difficult concept (Ruf Level III and up kids are a difficult concept) to a person who has a differnt set of mental images, it helps to be concrete whenever possible. What's the concrete picture of a child who need an accomidation?

Well behaved, compliant, can rapidly do every skill that will be taught in that grade, and the next one. I can't really modify my son's personality, but maybe some hothousing would have helped communicate the situation in a way the school could understand. So for all those parent's of Level III kids who will need to go to school, pull out those math books and hothouse away. You have my permission.

Trinty