Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy schooling after school for gifted?

I would like to hear more about schooling after school for gifted.

When my DS9 comes home after school I wish he had no homework in some ways. I do appreciate the Homework for the way it helps me understand how school is for him. He does 30 mins. of Homework it's not hard for him but checking his work is stressful for him still. I think he just wants to be done.I imagine he uses all his patience during the day stuffing his feelings about the school day. He has said it feels like a lot of work this year and not really challenging. I think he doesn't care for all the worksheets they do and feels bored. He is the first one getting folder work done and has time to read (above level & his choice)or do his mindware math books.

After homework he goes out to play with the neighbors. I feel like he needs this social and exercise time. 3 days a week he goes to sports after dinner. One day a week we go to the library for Homework, computer play and to get books.

My DS goes to bed at 8:30 and usually read til 10:30. I have the Math olympiads book and thought at bed time we could try one question to encourage creative Math thinking he is passionate about. But we have not done this yet.

So how do you people fit in schooling after school? What makes this work?
Do the kids feel like ugh more school work or are they excited about it? Are the kids that do this into sports too? I do watch out he doesn't get over scheduled, so he has time to do some of his projects. (He has been making trading cards, similar to Pokemon.)
I feel like it might be good to do something more because he doesn't feel challenge enough at school. Last year when my DS got an independent study at school he started it at home and was so excited about it. I've been wondering about science fair projects. He loves science. He also did an Northwestern online writing course in the summer but that was a lot of maintenace on my part. He needs more maturity with teacher communication. When he was done writing he didn't want to email the teacher about what he was doing. We also just got a drop in chess club open to him on saturdays when it fits into his sport schedule.

I am usually busy with Homework and Dinner until 6:00. I also spend 1/2 hr with my DD6 before bed. So if we don't have sports there is a max of 2 hrs before his bed time. This space is helping me think this thru. Thanks for anyone having the patience to read all of this. Any suggestions?

Our DS6 is still a bit on the young side and is *not* the type of GT kid that sleeps little. On the contrary, I think he needs more sleep than normal. So for us we don't do a lot of unschooling during the week. We have one night for sports (swimming), one night for academics (chess club), and the other nights we just try to hold things together We try to have everyone in bed no later than 7:30 (8:00 - 8:20 on chess club night).

Sometimes we have a little time in the morning for about 15 minutes of computer time. Like you, the other days after homework is done he might go play outside with the neighbors.

Any real unschooling occurs during the weekend. That's when he might have extended computer time to play Evolver and whatnot.

JB

Outdoor time is important here. GS10 makes the rounds of checking water tanks for the cattle. He takes his dog and works on obedience training during that time. He has flute practice for 15 minutes every day. He also spends up to an hour outside in garden work, or fantasy play. That will be cut short beginning this week and use that time to prep cattle for a show in November.
He reads for an hour or more each day. Once he meets his AR goals for this quarter we will use up to an hour of that time to do Life of Fred, and Elementary Greek. And next quarter I'll make sure he has no more than 25 point goal so he can read something of substance(quality) without feeling pressured to just read for quantity.

eta: GS10 needs sleep! His bedtime is between 8:30 & 9:00, he gets up at 7:30. We may stretch it to 9-9:30 this year, that would still be 10 hours. He gets home from school at 4:30 and the TV does not come on until 7:30. That gives him 3 hours to play, work, read, eat, with 1-2 hours of TV or computer time. During the week, unless he needs to look up something, computer time comes out of TV time, since it's for recreational use.

With my children, they have an extended school day (8:00 - 3:30) and then get home by 4. By the time they are done with homework, I feel like they need to relax. I will help with whatever things they personally want to explore, but I won't push them in any particular direction. On weekends, I try to find fun outdoor things to do, and also museums and such. This way they feel like they are not getting educated while they still are.:)

A couple more things:
Like Artana, we do museums, zoos, & other things on weekends. Those things will influence the choice of books to read. I pick some of his books to guide him.
GS10 is in the 5th grade and rarely has homework to bring home. I guess he does it while he's waiting on other kids to finish class work. I think it's great that he is motivated to do that, but he's not getting a habit of studying outside the classroom. He's also not self-motivated to dig deeper in maths & science, which I'd like him to do.

Yes, us too. We just got back from a long weekend in NYC and did a museum tour de force. We also try to visit downtown (old city) Philly once a quarter.

Glad to see other GT kids that need their sleep. Starting to think we were the only ones!

JB

If there's no after school activity, DD7 and DD5 play on the playground for about an hour. After school activities include Girl Scouts, dance, chorus and choir. I ask if they had any challenging math at school and if the answer is no, that is included as part of their homework.

We aim to have them in bed between 7:30-8pm. DD5 usually falls asleep right away and DD7 stays up reading another 30 minutes to an hour. They wake up around 7:15 for school and around 7:30 or 8 on the weekends.

On weekends, we travel/play as a family (camping, kayaking, flying) or give them a chance to catch up on unstructured play time. TV is last on our agenda and is rarely on when the kids are awake.

This year they have more structured after school activities than last year and it feels a little over scheduled with not enough time for unstructured play. see cartoon:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SJpQvXL0I...0-h/DAvidHorsey_cartoonbox_slate_com.gif

We are busy at home. We have very energetic kids (who sleep very little) who are enthusiastic learners so we are always doing something. DS9 feels that all his learning happens at home. DS enjoys school because he has lots of friends, but the work that he does at school is largely meaningless to him. What's good is that he doesn't refuse to do the meaningless work and he normally finishes those super fast and without mistakes--same with homework. So DS has a lot of free time during and after school. He reads a lot during and after school. At home he watches Jeopardy and lots of good movies, does his own (science or other) projects, does extra math with me, and practises his musical instruments. We also go to museums, parks, concerts, fairs, what not. And we still have time for sports and play dates. At first I was very frustrated that school is not what we hoped it to be for DS, but now I like our style. True, DS is very relaxed at school but works hard at home, which is the opposite of what most kids do. But at least DS and I now take his education into our own hands and we are not worried about school anymore.

TV is limited in our house too. *Maybe* once a week (rarely twice) we'll let the children watch an episode of CyberChase during the school week. The younger one might be allowed to watch an episode when DS6 is at school.

During the weekends we will allow a little more TV time. Right now we have DVR'ed the new Planet Earths. Or it might be Sci Q, CyberChase, Between the Lions (not so much these days). For fun we'll let them watch an episode of Dr. Who (can be a little on the scary side, so it depends). All that being said, though, we might allow an hour of TV watching on a weekend day.

JB

My kids are good sleepers and always have been. DS8 slept through the night (6+ hours) at 6 weeks. DS5 slept at 8 weeks. Both were BIG babies, so I think that probably has something to do with it. Both need a good amount of sleep or they are cranky and unpleasant and fall asleep early the next night.

They take after me. I can't function without my sleep. I always say that their early sleeping as infants was a survival technique so their mother would let them live...