Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Another question for homeschoolers

This was our first year homeschooling and because I had to file as a non public school for my DD to be tested and an IEP written I had to document and follow some guidelines. Now I'm thinking ahead because all that has been done and I don't need to file with the state next year now that my DD has a partial enrollment, or at least not as a non public school = no state say next year.

I am so tired of everyone commenting if she says something about doing chemistry or something else out of "the norm". Typically I get the "but what about the gaps for this year" or some similar comment about what we are skipping over and missing by going ahead to chemistry, biology and physics. Am I wrong in believing that studying these will cover whatever gaps? She was completely bored to death with the science GLCE's for this year, that being why we added Real Science4Kids Chemistry in and some other things as well. I don't want to miss major concepts but lets be real here, she doesn't want to learn about a basic definition of matter and that it changes when she already thinks Real Science4Kids Chemistry Level 1 is "so easy". What have you done to make sure you are challenging them and covering whatever they need to know?

When I was h/s my DD14, I made her take the WA state standards test every year just so that I would know that she was progressing more than anything.

In order to understand higher levels of science, you have to know the basics. If your DD is doing fine at the higher levels, she's got to have the basics down. We all have stories about things our kids know that we didn't teach. Maybe your DD just naturally "gets it". If so, I say power on!

We're always child-led, except for a couple of weeks around this time of year when I check his progress on the grade-level requirements for his age. (This happened right before I gave him at-grade-level testing both years, too, BTW.)

Reviewing his grade-level material has taken no more than a couple of easy, casual weeks either year we did this. Mostly it's just a day or two of my going down my checklists and saying "Do you know this?" and "Can you do that?" In response to probably 98% of the questions I ask, he snorts at me because they're so easy. Anything he doesn't know, I try to teach right then. For those few things he doesn't know that require reading something (usually history or social studies, subjects that we just did something else for because DS7 was into something else during the year), I check out an easy, at-grade-level book or two for him and we crank it out quickly. No one said they ALWAYS have to read the hard stuff; if he were interested in the topic, we'd have already read the hard stuff! This is just about coverage. Easy is fine.

It's quick, it's painless, and I make sure my teaching him isn't allowing him to fall behind on anything.

As an aside, I'll bet the "If she's taking chem she must be missing something else" comes from people who don't get that HG+ kids don't take as long to learn. The only way most kids could take chem early is if they skipped something else important. Not necessarily so for HG+ kids. So this is really just a variation on the "Don't push her!" theme, I suspect. Don't let it worry you unnecessarily.

Also, I think it's b/c most people think HSing takes 6hrs like public school does. That is just not so, even with ND kids. It takes less time b/c you remove all the transitions, all the waiting around, all the moving from point A to point B. I would just say "Oh thank you for your concern. Since I only have 1 student and not 25-30 and we don't have all the transitions of public school, we can get more done in a day. We have time to both cover the basics and explore other areas of interest." You're not saying anything bad about public school. It's a fact it takes time to go to music, or to art or to PE, time to wait in line for lunch, time to get back to class etc.

How old is your DD Melmichigan?

Also, I would challenge anyone to tell you absolutely what your DD needs to know and in what year? My philosophy is it's more about learning how to learn, stoking those fires of passion for learning, exploring the world through hands-on, trips, books, media.

if you move from one city to another, there will be gaps. Sometimes if you change teachers w/ in a school you'd have gaps. There is no national curriculum. Every child has gaps. there is so much to learn out there!

My oldest DD is nine. My younger DD's are six. My oldest DD's love has always been science related, then add in her aspergers and this is a kid who can tell you oodles about dinosaurs, then it was bugs, then birds and animals. She has more science related encyclopdia's in her rooom than regular books. I bought an Apologia text to look at (decided I didn't want to teach science with a religious conotation, personal preferrance) she reads it anyway. She just started reading fiction in the last six months, before everything had to be factual. If we go to the library I need to limit the number of DK Encyclopedia type books because that is what she will bring home.

Is there a way to test her science knowledge to tell where she is?

The WJIII has a science portion but I think it's lumped w/ SOcial Studies? Also, I think I recall seeing a science portion of the EXPLORE test.

My 10 year old son loved all the DK Encyclopedia type books too. He has always loved science and technology and this is one of the reasons he sometimes sounded like a little professor when he was younger, before he learned that it wasn't socially acceptable in our sports obsessed culture to talk about the things he was interested in. He used a science encyclopedia for reading practice instead of a reading curriculum at age 5 and 6 because this was what he wanted to read and he was much more willing to read for me if he was interested in the material. But I had people telling me that he needed to read more fiction and I used to let it bother me because I didn't have much confidence in my ability to homeschool my son. His friends tried to talk him into reading the books they were reading, but he refused. He wouldn't even read Harry Potter. He read three or four pages of his friend's Harry Potter book when he was about seven, but he just didn't want to read any more of it, although he did watch the movies. He thought the book he was reading at the time, Johnny Tremaine, was better and he has just never found the time for books he wasn't interested in. He did like historical fiction, especially if it included plenty of historical facts, and a few years later he told me he really liked books like Animal Farm and books that make him think. I am very happy that my son loves science and technology and prefers reading about that instead of some of the books I see his friends reading. His favorite magazine now is Popular Science and he talked me into ordering Wired.

My state does not require testing for homeschoolers and I am curious about what grade level he is at for science and history and even general knowledge. My special ed teacher friend keeps telling me I should enroll him in school just long enough to have them test him but I promised him that I would not make him go back to that school, even for just a few days.

My son uses Google to find online science trivia games and science quizzes on his own and I think some of these have recommended grade levels. If he doesn't get the correct answer on anything he looks up the info, so I think he is filling in some holes that way.

Don't worry about gaps. Every child, no matter what their educational environment is, has gaps in their education. Most often when I get this comment, it is from people who are "box checkers" - they want to go down a neat list and check things off as "done" so that they can move on. Just smile and say "I'm sure she'll pick that up when she needs it." If people get truly obnoxious, you can be more direct and day "She's above grade level, why would I want to move her down?"

Lots of people are uncomfortable with something that is outside the norm and you have hit two here with giftedness and homeschooling. I wouldn't worry about it. The more experience you have with homeschooling, the easier answering questions will be.

Learn on!

I understand about people making comments with concern about gaps in learning and just the whole homeschool process. We started homeschooling for K this year and he still goes to the local school to get Speech and OT (DS6 has had an IEP for 3 years). I am SO tired of hearing from his speech and OT teachers about their concerns with me homeschooling him and that he really should be in their kindergarten (they do not offer any gifted services for K right now). We are unschoolers so we let him pretty much set the pace - he HATES any and all workbooks and will spend the day exploring all kinds of things. I know this year is easy for us because I used to teach K in my county and he is way past what is required of the typical K and First Grader that I am not so much worried about the gaps right now...but I know that my concern will grow next year. I finally got his Speech teacher to get off my back....the school has a reading specialist and I asked her last week to help me determine what reading level my little guy was at. He is not an avid reader, but will read for information. After some reading assessments, she let me know that he is reading at a 6th grade level. When the speech teacher cornered me before his speech session she brought up that she knew I had spoken with the specialist....I informed her of the results and asked her again if she thought regular Kindergarten was the best placement for him right now....she of course said some comment along the lines of - gee, I am not so sure that the regular K class would be the best fit for him.

I'm glad she has gotten off your back Belle. They should state their opinion if they feel they must and then move on. AARRGGHH.