Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Supplementing verses Hot-Housing?

This is such a hot button for me. I say teach your kid math at their own natural pace and compel the school to provide appropriate learning environment.
That's what I'm trying to do, I'll let you know how it works out.

I really hate this. I'm sorry you were fed this line of you-know-what. As if you can stop these kids from learning! And really, why would you want to? Why should the kids have to slow down for the convenience of the schools? To me, that's madness! Backwards, wrongheaded thinking! Are the schools there to serve the kids or the kids there to serve the schools?!? :p


Oh, I'm SOOOOOO with you! But you're right. Reality beckons, and the sooner you get past the grief phase of the GT denial pattern--which is where you are now, I think, ebeth--the mourning for the easy education that is not to be for your child, the sooner you can start taking action. You're on the right path!



You're perfectly normal. But FWIW, I say let him learn, follow his interests, and tell the people giving you bad advice to buzz off. Your in-laws included. You know what's best for your child. Denying his gifts isn't going to help him, and it very probably will put out that fire in his eyes and stomp all over his feelings of self-worth. GT kids need to learn like they need to breathe. It IS a hunger, as real as the one they have for food. Feed it, and they thrive. Starve them, and you kill something important inside them.

Sorry. I don't mean to preach to the choir. Sometimes I just get wound up! Hope it helped a little, at least!

Thanks, Kriston!!

It does help a tremendous amount to know that I am not either stark raving mad (for thinking that DS should be challenged) or a glutton for punishment (for when he complains that school is boring and we start to hit that wall again at school). That is why I hang out here.. it is comforting to hear from like-minded souls who give great advice!

Now if I can just bottle your passion, Kriston, and sneak it into some coffee mugs at the next school board meeting... <evil smile>

Well, it is "normal" for these kids to learn extremely fast and need little or no repetition. So if you ignore that and subject them to a regular classroom, what we are telling these kids over and over:

You are not normal and that is unacceptable.

I don't find this very productive or healthy for the given child that does not fit into the traditonal classroom or gifted program at school.

I don't know if it helps, but my DS6 is the same way. I did start afterschooling him at home right after I realized he was teaching himself 1st/2nd grade math. We're homeschoolers now, but still have problems with him making these huge conceptual leaps and then refusing to do the calculations to actually apply the knowledge. I also refuse to skip him through Singapore, even though he knows the concepts all the way through 2a/b (maybe further, I haven't really looked). I'm making him do it because understanding why we do math is completely different than knowing how to actually do it. They're both equally important and I think one without the other makes math useless.

YES! That's my son totally!! We have about 20 or lessons left in RS Level C. then the first part of level D is review but with some little twists, which will be shear torture for him. I'll probably never catch up to him.

I'm seriously considering HSing this FAll. I have another month to decide.

ebeth - the psych that administered the WISCIV to DS said that he missed the easy questions but he perked up when the questions got harder and got those right. I think this is a result of him being unchallenged in school for 3yrs. Unfortunately, for 6months of those 3 years I was on bedrest and then had a newborn and didn't come out of the fog for about 6months so that equates to about a year that he wasn't challenged much at home either. He had books and tons of science books etc but I wasn't actively doing science experiments and such with him. Fortunately though that was his best year in school (1st grade - teacher did lots of projects and actually played the Everyday Math games so even though he wasn't challenged in math, he enjoyed playing the games).

Oddly enough, in March of that 1st grade year, Teacher told me the class had met the standards for that year so she was already winding down .... that's when DS started not wanting to go to school. I don't think most people can understand that. They think DS is just whining about school or ask "if he's gifted, why can't he find creative ways to entertain himself? Gifted kids don't get bored." "Gifted kids teach themselves and don't need to be taught." So I'm left wondering "what is really wrong with this kid?"

I gave him the questionnaire in "Reforming Gifted Education" he scored "school as a place to learn" very low. 8-(

Some GT kids can entertain themselves, but that's more of a personality issue than anything. Some GT kids just cannot. Or worse, they find disruptive ways to keep busy, and then get labeled as being "one of THOSE kids."

It's so frustrating, isn't it?

Yes.

eBeth - your post brought back some bad memories of when I was teaching Kindergarten in a special Magnet School....your whole comment of "(I wanted to yell "Step on those toes! Step, step, step!)" is SOOOOOO true. I LOVED teaching my kids and I didn't hold back anything - if they wanted to learn something that was "outside" of the curriculum I had NO issue pushing on - I had someone I knew that for some bizarre reason had bleached out cow bones - I begged her for them (which she gladly passed on) and I planned a whole Dinosaur 2 week unit around a massive paleontology dig site I set up in our large sand playground area complete with gridded off dig sites and parents spent all morning burying the bones (w/o the kids knowing) and then I let them re-enact a dig site. They had the best time and wow - they were learning all at the same time -what a concept and boy oh boy you should have seen the "dinosaur" rebuilding finished item with all the bones!

Then one year, I had a group of K kids that were fascinated with the planets and space and Space was not on the K curriculum guide - it was in First Grade- I went to my principal for permission to do an introductory unit on Space and she allowed me and I set up a special star watching night for the whole K-1 grade levels and had over 25 people from a local astronomy society set up telescopes for the kids to all look through in the back play fields of the school- everyone had a blast but I later that week found out, that 2 of the First Grade Teachers were furious with me because I "stepped on their toes"...they were honestly mad because "now what would they teach". I was totally blown away - so what, I am supposed to ignore my kids questions? I was supposed to tell them, sorry, your only 5, you can't learn about space until you are 6? I only did an introductory unit and there is NO possible way you can cover the Solar System in 2 weeks much less than several years!!! I then found out that several of them were really mad that I kept going above and beyond on my units and said that I made the "other teachers look bad because they didn't have time to plan such large units". I just got so sick of hearing all the complaining that I left...I am sad to say, that this mentality is VERY strong and doing well in many, many schools!