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

DD6 took the WJIII Tuesday and the recommendation we got from the tester (a gifted specialist) was that if the school did not accelerate her this year, it would be detrimental for her to remain. And even if they do agree to accelerate her (and I'm doubtful they will) I'm not sure it will be the best thing.

So, I have been reading old posts, and I have a feeling I'll be doing that for awhile! I'm going to be looking at the posts/threads about curricula, social stuff, and of course, what you tell people.

I just wanted to thank everyone on this board for being so open about everything. I'm still pretty shy about posting (I don't think I ever offer much in terms of good advice), so that leads to guilt about not properly contributing (you know, I feel like I'm such a "taker"). Maybe if I say thank you over and over it will somewhat make up for my lack of helpful contribution? Doubtful, but at least it will ease some of my guilt and let you know that I truly, truly do appreciate your help. So, thank you, thank you, thank you! You guys are, as my DD4 would say, SO AWESOME!

And now I'll gladly "take" any advice anyone wants to offer about making this transition.

I don't have advice about home-schooling, but you shouldn't worry about posting vs. contributing.

For people who like to give advice, you are "giving" them an opportunity to do so! You are not "taking" anything.

I wish you much luck on your HS journey! We started HSing over a year ago, and have never looked back. It has been such a joy to watch DS blossom at his own pace. If you are looking for HS internet sites, I would be happy to give you some links. Yahoo message boards are a REALLY to place to look for local HS groups in your area.

I have homeschooling experience, but no transition experience! But I'll wish you luck anyway And I'm always happy to babble on and on about curricula!

I think it's personalized to DD6 because she's been complaining about not learning anything new, not liking school, developing stomachaches, etc. She's pretty miserable. It wasn't a recommendation made just because of her WJ scores; they were the last piece of information, I suppose. Except for a few subtests (math fluency and spelling) her test scores are in that just shy of DYS range (ranging from 99-99.8%) Her GE's were more than two years ahead across the board (some much more than that), and that's with her having a full nine weeks of basically reviewing kindy work (acknowledged by the principal) and no real advanced instruction. Her WPPSI scores probably played a role in the recommendation too (her close-but-no-DYS-cigar 148 verbal, 146 full-scale, 144 performance). And we finally went to a gifted specialist with a wealth of experience. I think it was the total picture, not so much the scores themselves.

We had already asked the school for at least some subject acceleration; they declined. We'll see what they say when we present the WJ scores. I'm not very hopeful.

Thank you to everyone for the well wishes. And now I must get the moon sand out for DD4 before her whining calls out the dogs in the neighborhood. Yuck! I can't stand that stuff.

It's our 1st year homeschooling DS6 and things are going pretty well. It took a few things to figure out how to make it all work. You know where to push and where to relax and move on. I think we are in a good position right now.

Right now we use
- CyberEd (check homeschooling co-op) Earth and Space Science
- Singapore regular workbooks and Challenging Problems
- All About Spelling and SpellingCity.com
- Cryptomania (Greek and Latin words)
- regular 2nd grade grammar workbook from B&N
- Maps, Globes, Graphs Level C
- Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History

Enchanted Learning, Brain POP, Discovery Streaming are nice resources for all of the above. Check out Homeschool Tracker, it's really helpful.

DS6 spends 2 afternoons in a private school. They don't do any academics in the afternoons, think art, music, theater (so now he things that's what's done in every school all the time :()

He takes piano, has a French tutor, goes to gymnastics and Mad Science classes.

We love hearing appreciations. That totally takes the place of advice. Amy - you are Parenting - so by definition you are a giver, not a taker. If we can give you a little extra to spend with your family - that's perfect!

We learn as much from the kinds of help you ask for as we do from any advice. The main thing I'm here to learn is: "Does my child really have special needs? Aren't I just a bad mom to not MAKE him be satisfied with so little?"

Love and more Love,
Grinity

As to what to say to people, I suggest, "I thought it would be so much fun! Haven't you ever wanted to homeschool?"
Would that work?

LOL That would be good one, Grinity. From my own experience the very first reaction you hear from 90% of the people is, "I couldn't do it [homeschooling]"

Yup, me, too, LMom. And it's usually intended as a compliment, like "You're such a good mom, and so patient."

Ha! If they only knew! :p

If you have specific questions, ask, Amy. I'm here "giving" because I took from all the great help here so freely at first. I felt like I had to give back.

And remember, most of what most of us say here is just opinion mixed with personal experience. Maybe with a dash of education and reading.

You're certainly as qualified as I am to dispense opinion and conjecture!

Hi AmyEJ,

I started HSing this year as well. My son is 8 and in 3rd grade. Kriston has talked me off the ledge a couple of times ha ha ha. I definitely don't regret the decision at all. DS is so much happier. And we also have so many more of those moments when I give him a big hug and kiss and tell him how much I love him rather than dealing w/ a sullen child in the evenings and battling 2hrs over homework. It's a lot of work (I have a 5yr old in PS K and a 22mth old) but I think the payoff will be HUGE! If you have any questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them.

My son sounds like your DD. He was having daily stomaches which was morphing into headaches. He was developing poor work habits from not being challenged and had totally lost that spark. I see it coming back and his brain slowly turning on.

I think the best advice I was given is that no decision is permament. Sometimes you just have to try something different.

I find that the most comments are "Oh wow, I couldn't do that." and more often than any other "I hear kids learn so much better and efficiently by HSing" and this by people w/ kids in PS. IF someone asks why, i just say "Oh he has a different learning style," and usually that puzzles them enough to end the conversation.

the other advice is to add one thing a week....start slow...don't buy too much at first. I was an ASer so I already had most of what I needed.

Yeah, the not-buying thing was by FAR the best piece of advice anyone gave me! We used Singapore Math (cheap!), and bought virtually nothing else the whole first year. We used the public library. It worked well, was easy to adapt and FREE, FREE, FREE!

I'm spending a lot more this year, but I also feel like I know what I want to spend on, so that's okay. Last year, I'd have wasted a lot of money. This year, I feel pretty good about my purchases.

Oh, and LOL about the ledge-talking-down, Dazey! Friends had to do the same for me. Heck, Lorel had to do it for me this summer, even! We all go through it. Luckily, like GT denial, it comes and goes, but it gets less intense with each bout.

We just began homeschooling this year with our DS5 for Kindergarten...there is no acceleration choice for K in our county and they don't offer any services for Gifted K either so we had no choice. It was a little bumpy to start but we are SOOOOO glad we made this choice. Someone's comment of, "And we also have so many more of those moments when I give him a big hug and kiss and tell him how much I love him rather than dealing w/ a sullen child in the evenings and battling 2hrs over homework"....IS SO TRUE for us too....when he used to come home from his preschool Montessori he was a miserable, bored child and the evenings were spent trying to boost him back up again...it has taken several months and we have our happy go lucky child back again! Best choice we ever made

Does your library have Lisa Rivero's "Creative Homeschooling: A Resource Guide for Smart Families"? The book includes several sections that a new homeschooler might well find useful, as I did (and still do, actually, even in year 3 of our great adventure): she has a lot of good information about learning styles, gifted education research, and homeschooling approaches, as well as annotated lists of books, games, curricula, etc., with addresses of suppliers. She also has a chapter about making the transition from school to homeschool, which might interest you.

Glad that things seem to be nearing some kind of resolution for you, Amy; I myself always feel so much better after a big decision has been made!

peace
minnie

Well, I want to thank you AmyEJ for starting this thread. I've found it helpful as a few things have really jumped out at me. I've recently been considering homeschooling DD6 because the school is just not doing anything for her and she's getting more frustrated. And then I read two posters mentioning 'stomach ache' and a light bulb just went on! My daughter was fine all afternoon and evening, but complained of a stomach ache before bed (this isn't the first time it has spontaneously occurred). I told her that if tomorrow it is still bothering her, I will take her to the doctor's after school (it's a half day tomorrow). And she seemed surprised and said, "You mean I have to go to school tomorrow?" Makes me wonder if there is more to it.

It wasn't until I started homeschooling that I discovered the joy of inter-library loan. (play angelic choir) It's the best thing since sliced bread! You may have access to much more than what you find on your local library shelves...

For those just considering homeschool, I suggest a trial period over the summer, or if you're REALLY close to pulling your child now, you might want to try it over the holiday break. My family did a trial period with our two oldest kids and by the time number three was school age, it was just assumed that she would be a homeschooler too. But the summer trial was very helpful to assess how well the kids could learn at home. When we started for real, I had more confidence and DH was satisfied that I wasn't going to "ruin" our kids.

Here's my standard gifted homeschooling rant:

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art27311.asp

There are many homeschoolers and afterschoolers on this board, and we're always happy to discuss resources and curriculum...

Maybe so, Kriston, but I swear it never sounds as good as what you say. Thanks, though.

And thanks, everyone, for the advice. LMom, I really appreciate all of the links. I'd heard of a few of those and will need to check out the rest. And my husband appreciates the good advice of not buying too much right away. That's advice that I need. How did you know?

We did hear back from the school after submitting her scores to them yesterday and they immediately offered to pull her out for at least reading and possibly math. The principal checked with the district and they will only place her in 2nd grade fully if she takes and passes the CBE, which is a 4-part test given over 4 days. Each part has 50 questions and she has to get a 90% on each part (LA, math, social studies, and science). I've heard it's pretty hard to do because of lack of exposure in social studies and science. I just don't think she's up for that testing right now, and I don't think she's that excited about going to 2nd grade. She told me this morning that her friend from carpool told her there were "a lot of fights" in 2nd grade. She says it sounds scary.

So I'm going to continue researching homeschooling and see where that takes us. Thanks again for all of the support. And congratulations to you for what you are giving to your children. It's so exciting to hear how well your kids are doing.

Ruby, pay attention to those stomachaches! They happen in our home for a variety of reasons (doesn't want to go to bed, school, clean room, etc.) but they certainly increased this year.

We use a curriculum called Movingbeyondthepage.com It's geared toward gifted children. DS and I both love it, and will continue using it as long as we can. And the good thing is you can buy one unit at a time to try it out

Well, it's not specific to homeschool, but when someone asks why DS6 goes to private school rather than public, I just say that he has "special educational needs." I think some people have thought that he is at the opposite end of the spectrum, but they're far less likely to delve into the reason!

The 90% test ... is science and social studies, that's ridiculous. In first and second grade, those subjects are typically such a patchwork of whatever the teacher wants to emphasize. Quite honestly, I'd get the end-of-year standards for second grade and hot-house her! Hot-housing *does* have a place when you've got your nose to the grindstone, and it won't hurt her if you do it in a fun way.

Would they differentiate in the classroom? Or maybe pull-outs for math and/or reading, so she could stay in the first-grade classroom?

I agree here w/ Mia. If you know the child needs to know all the continents by the end of 2nd grade, that's something that will take the child 10min and a fun world puzzle to know! Why not! Social studies and science are difficult b/c it's factual info that you either know or don't know. Now if it's reading social studies content or scientific content and drawing conclusions, that's different b/c the required information is presented in the passage. I would take a look at What Your Xth grader needs to know for social studies and science content. It's really very basic.

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