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How does one teach work ethic to gifted children when often times most things are "not that hard"...

We're struggling to provide appropriate material, DD8 is 1 year accelerated already and we are homeschooling. We go through the material and none of the material is "hard" where she has to work at it.

We are working through 3rd Grade material, just because I don't want her to miss anything, but we are also working on reading/writing material that is ~ 4th-5th Grade. We're enjoying science discovery.

We have "extra curricular" things like musical instrument etc which require "work", but that seems to be about it. Hmm.

Do you have any thoughts or recommendations, advice, anything?

Use things that aren't part of the "gifted exceptionality" - like chores. My son never struggled with a test, even AP Calculus. But there was nothing like being expected to pick up after the dog, scrub a toilet, and pulling weeds to equalize the playing field.

Thanks ABQMom! Yes, we do chores around here too. Thanks for sharing about your son because that really puts it into perspective regarding "difficult" work... I never quite thought of it that way ... hmm.

I have read on this board that extra curricular activities tend to be the only/easiest way to get 'appropriate placement' for a gt child, since getting that just right at a school is like a miracle. I have always wondered about ds interest in dance, where it comes from... whether it is coming from a feeling that he likes a good challenge, (because he does and ballet certainly offers that). But of course I think he just finds it fun, too.

Maths problem-solving. I mean, things that are not straightforward applications of new techniques they're learning, but problems where it's hard to see what to apply or how. There are vast quantities of this stuff on the web, of arbitrary hardness - lmk if you need links, or google things like maths olympiad, mathematics challenge, etc. If you have trouble finding material that is hard enough set the child on the Goldbach conjecture :-)

Richard Rusczyk of Art of Problem Solving is good on this and there is a video somewhere of a talk he gave about how to do this... yes, here . *Highly* recommended. Chores and extracurriculars are great, but they are no substitute for being challenged in your strength area, IMO.

Pick a physical activity that takes a lot of time to finish such as building a deck or putting in a fence or a garden.

Or, an intellectual activity requiring the same level of attention and patience. A large puzzle, music lessons, computer programming classes. If they know algebra, then get a college level book on game theory or linear algebra and work through it together.

We did not have much luck with this with D15 until she linked up online with a group of gifted teens through the Cogito website a few years ago. Then all of a sudden she was crazy to "catch up" with them. She also went to THINK last summer, and has definitely been more motivated in school this year (she wants to go to college with "smart kids", and has figured out that good grades are key to that). So (if you can find "peers" ), some peer pressure can be useful.