Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Right on the verge of HSing

Just be careful with this. My mom was VERY vague about why DS7 was homeschooled in her holiday newsletter last year (despite my warnings), and people thought DS7 was a troublemaking behavior problem on the road to early prison! Not accurate or fair to the poor kid! And it could have put a serious damper on playdates for us if I had made that mistake...

FWIW, I have better luck with the (brief) truth: DS7 was a good bit ahead of the school's curriculum, and we didn't want to grade-skip him at the time. Some people pursue the issue, some don't, but we've had no bad reactions...and a surprising number of extremely positive and supportive ones!

This is basically what I had come up with, too. And really it's true! We're not sure we want to grade-skip her right now (maybe in the fall?), partly because of the 4-day testing thing and partly because she just doesn't seem that excited about it. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Always HTH!

A funny thing happened, in the four years of dealing with our school no one has been willing to work with us and our daughter. We had testing done the end of last school year and when they said they wouldn't do anything at the time I pulled all three out of school and began homeschooling. They finally got around to doing there own testing and want to have an IEP meeting next week and want to know what I would consider if I put them back in school. They mentioned grade skipping, at least one year, pull out for the written expression that she is actually behind in or even half day attendance. Gee, all it took was pulling her out of school for them to finally see the light. I'm not sure what we will do, we will definately have to see what they offer and what long term plan they will put in place, I can't see this being a one time thing. My husband really would like them in school, he doesn't like the relaxed learning day we have here with five kids at different levels. He thinks we could continue to supplement like we did when they were in school, and I'm sure she isn't going to suddenly decide she wants to leave Chemistry and just do "school" science. My only real push towards public is that I see the need for her to have more help with social skills; she has Gifted Aspergers. I'm stuck on that wall because for her there are definate pros and cons both ways....Right there with you...

Well, if it were me, I'd ask for the part-time school. That would be soooo perfect for us!!!!

WOW you have lots to consider but it's great to have a choice!

We love homeschooling. We've been doing it for almost five years and our son always has the option of going back, but never wants to. I am a retired teacher and none of the teachers I worked with had any training with gifted children--not required.

We use many websites (doing AP courses right now and others), software and books. prufrock is a good place to look for materials and there are many others. Every year will be an adventure. I have a long list of websites that we use, have used or may use. So many of them are interactive, visual and often have auditory means. We even enjoy dictionary.com for new words and a thesaurus!


Check your colleges. Lots of events to see there! You may be surprised that learning takes place everywhere. When you go to a pond and catch, examine and release frogs--that's biology. When you visit a nearby college, they will have "cool" things to see -- a"Butterfly Garden" and a "Bug House"-- entomology; a planetarium--astronomy. Once you get started, learning will just appear. Gifted children given the chance are just exploding with the desire to learn and investigate. Enjoy! They may wear you out, but as long as they are inspired and stimulated, a textbook for every subject isn't always needed--lists and outlines of what needs to be covered are online if wanted.

We love it, just adapt as we go and learn to change as he matures (he needs to, too!).

Karen