I've been toying with different hs approaches I can take with him. At first, I decided to concentrate on weak areas and "even" out the playing field a bit. There is such a huge discrepancy in his reading and writing. And he'll soon be at the point in science where he can't move forward without higher math skills. So that makes sense, right? Focus on weakness and try to rein in areas where he's galloping ahead.
Welcome Staceyshoe! So glad you are here. I think your above idea is bad, but your idea below is good.
But now I'm leaning toward not doing that. He LOVES science and learning. How can I not make that a big part of his school day? It's his gift. As long as he's not below grade level in any area, why not just move to the next level in all subjects--leaving the discrepancies there unless he makes a giant leap forward. Is that crazy? Or the right thing to do for an unusual child?
Have you read about the 'unschooling' ideas? They might be interesting to you as you ponder.
I think that 'learning how to learn' is really important, but you have years before you have to get out the whip on this one. It is possible, depending on your child's personality, that if their internal motivation isn't ever killed by adults taking over, that you won't ever be the one who has to apply the whip. On the other hand, when he gets to be 8 or so, if he still hasn't found a way to do the 'boring stuff' that you might have to do some steering. Remember that if he were in a school, it would probably be playbased until at least 1st grade.
A lot depends on personality 'every child needs someone to think about her well.' But at age 4, it's hard for me to picture that a child would need pushing.
Which is not to say that you can't be sneaky. If you are one of those mom's who hides the vegtables in the tomato sauce, then you know what I mean: Find something that he does want to learn about, and then link it to something on the 'weaker list' so that the weaker skill gets some practice. The periodic table has lots of numbers on it. You can certianly teach addition and subtraction facts with the number 8 by teaching about electrons in that outer shell. You can practice handwriting by having him copy the chemical names of common molecules. Or his Geography places. Drawing Maps will help develop those small motor muscles. Maybe could learn to spell by seeing how many words he can spell using the abbreviations of Elements - mabe have a contest and see which row makes the most words.
If those ideas don't pop into your head like popcorn at the begining, post here and we will help, ok?
Smiles and Welcome,
Grinity
