Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments What are Wolf's options?

Trust me, our brick and mortar schools are NOT where Wolf needs to be. I've cared for multiple children who have gone through the local school. I WISH we lived somewhere with a good school system set up for smart kids, but we simply don't and it's not in my ability to change that at the moment.

In his Independent Study program he is taking US History with a group of children (mostly 8th graders) as well as conversational Spanish and Study Hall. He's getting classroom face time and enrichment classes. We also work on sign language at home, he is in a good martial arts program and are looking into ways to fund music lessons.

As for depth rather than acceleration, Wolf works through the school book and we research everything he's interested in as we go along. With him is really is an issue of finding enough information to throw at him.

He can write, as in organize thoughts, create a properly structured paragraph, etc. He has done Nanowrimo now for three years and has had a college English professor tell me he writes better than students she has starting in her class. The problem is that he doesn't like to write and gives up on it. I have the same issue in that my typing doesn't come close to the speed of my thoughts. I've learned to deal with it over time, but I remember how screamingly frustrating it was as a child.

I really do appreciate all the suggestions. I'm flailing about trying to figure out what to do next. All of this is helping me think and sort it out.

I would agree with the pp to go broad. There is a world of knowledge out there - Ancient History, Latin, Chinese, music, sports, psychology. Check out your local college to see what books they have in the bookstore for these subjects. Try to avoid the subjects he will take in HS if he goes anyway... for example skip calculus, but go for code breaking or statistics.

I've been thinking about this for a few days, and the prior posts give some great advice. I have seen the math questions in a number of recent threads, and while my kids are not PG (and eldest is not even a "math type"), I have some thoughts about elementary age kids and math (feel free to comment/disagree):

- Bright kids can race through 5th to 6th grade level math, as it is mostly "mechanical", just going through the steps sort of math
- Kids, even very advanced ones, will slow down a bit when they reach math that requires more conceptual thinking
- When you reach middle/HS level math, there are math competitions that will allow the child to "go broader". For example, try MathCounts. If there is not a local school MathCounts, you can start one or just compete as an individual. If Wolf attends MathCounts at a local school, he may find some kids more on his level.
- Kids can "do" some high level math at a young age, but most don't really understand what they are doing. I had a babysitter who taught me calculus when I was in 5th grade (derivatives, not integrals). I could get the right answer, but I had no idea why I was doing it or how I could apply it to real life problems.

As others mentioned, there is often Algebra I in 7th and Geometry in 8th for accelerated students. In our district, if kids are more advanced than that, they are bussed to HS for math. HS math goes through Linear Algebra, and you can also take AP Stats. When you run through all of those courses, kids go to a local college for math (we are lucky that there are three 4 year colleges less than a mile from the HS).

Beyond the math, if it is possible for Wolf to attend a B&M school part-time, I think there could be some good resources as well as some good social interaction. If you are looking at ways to fund music lessons, the local school could help. Strings start in 4th grade and band in 5th in our district, and lessons are given in school and are free. I guess it depends upon which state you live in, but here homeschooled students can participate in the public school activities such as band, sports, clubs, etc. if they wish to do so.

Also, I don't completely understand his current situation with the history class - is it sort of like a homeschool co-op? What sort of assignments is he required to complete? Our 8th grade history is not differentiated, but all kids are expected to write a fair amount. There is a 10+ page research paper, and the kids must produce a visual to go along with the paper and do an oral presentation in front of the class. Is there work like that so he will be prepared for HS history classes?

Good luck - you'll figure out something that works.

Wolf is in an Independent Study program that has optional teacher led on campus classes. It is the equivalent of B&M 8th grade U.S. History class with the exception that the lower grade students are not expected to complete the in depth Constitution work/test. They are writing a research paper on one of the states (pretty sure it's going to end up at 10+ pages) and a book report on a historical novel.

Everyone's suggestions have been very helpful, thank you.