Hi,
I wanted to ask some of you who homeschool. Of course, you want your child to get to stay a child and have fun too before growing up too fast ...
I wanted to ask some of you, how fast do you go? If your child is capable and enjoys the work, do you let them move ahead in a few subjects? All subjects? Are you expecting your child to be working on High School material early? And College material early?
The reason I ask is we're thinking of homeschooling. We have a child that is across the board gifted and very capable. We actually want child to be challenged as we see that child hasn't been this past year and has made child have a sense that things are most often easy. As both Carolyn K's articles and our psych-ed tester told us, the most important thing (1 of) would be to make sure child knows how to work/study hard at something, persevere, etc etc.
So, if we were to go at a good pace, we're thinking that there is no way we can keep child at elementary school. We may have to continue with homeschool and distance learning for high school material as child wouldn't actually be of high school age yet, etc etc.
I also think the model of distance learning via computers/home schooling is going to take off. It allows children/families that can to move forward. Wouldn't it be nice for your 16 year old to finish a certain amount of schooling and run a business and do this/that for a few years? I'm thinking it would be great to fail at a few businesses, work, try this and that between 16-20 before heading into college material -- or perhaps do it at the same time.
What do you guys think? Do you try to slow down the pace a lot so your child stays approx. the same grade as his/her age peers? If you have an older child, are they working on High School material while in elementary?
