We went to Charleston WV for the CTY awards, as DD9 got high honors in verbal. I found it interesting there are so many home schoolers there which was great, but again there seems to be something lacking in the public education that there wern't more kids from a ps. Just doesn't seem like WV has placed an importance in education. What a shame.

We did get to meet some kids there who did soooo well on their tests, one of the boys placed 1st in math for SAT in the country, and under age 13! Very inspiring to see that.

DD9 also got her first ever D on a report she did. She just got skipped to 5th a month ago, so this is her first report since that skip, and she wrote it without any of us proof reading it. Also having some trouble with remembering to bring home her folders, having us sign her papers, ect. We will just have to keep a closer eye on her stuff and try to help her be more responsible.

We had her rewrite the paper, making corrections and adding things here and there. She was actually very happy to do it, a little bit of the perfectionist in her.

I don't think that the high percentage of homeschoolers implies that Public Schools are bad at helping kids learn, only that they are bad at helping kids who happen to have special educational needs because they are advanced (gifted) and that lots of parents of this sort of kid recognize this and homeschool in response.

Association v. Causation - always a trickly thing to look at!

Glad to hear that your DD was willing to make her paper a learning experience. Good luck with tightening up the organizational safety net holes. A wonderful opportunity!
Grinity

CTY is grade-leveled, rather than being age leveled, which might have an impact. A homeschooled kid can be working far above typical-for-age grade level, but still be appropriately classified in an age-appropriate grade. Whereas a publicly-schooled kid might have to skip grades in order to get the same material.

What is CTY? I think I need to go back to school, because I thought texting was a pain to learn to decipher, but sometimes I try to read posts on forums and just give up trying to figure out what all the letters squished together are supposed to mean... ;/

Congrats on the successes; sounds like a great experience for all of you! And I have to say there was always a little part of me that was happy to see my child get a poor grade, because it doesn't happen very often. It's a great learning opportunity for how to handle disappointment and having to push harder to meet expectations. Not that I liked to see him sad, but it's just an important life skill and one that didn't afford too many opportunities to acquire with a high IQ.

As to the public school / home school, I think it's a bit of a mixed bag. I think some kids are so poorly served by the public school setting that homeschooling is the perfect solution. But there is a family here that my kids interact with in a sport that are homeschool, and it has to border on shameful that these kids are missing such massive pockets of knowledge because of being home schooled.

My son is in public education and has opportunities I could not have arranged, because I don't have the alliances or funds the school has. He worked in a robotics lab last year and will work in a different university program this year - something that was open to him as a public school student.

I don't think it's either/or - just what is best for your kiddo, and it looks like you've found the perfect match for yours.

I think this is true. I actually think kids should be compared by age or DOB rather than by grade, which becomes meaningless for these HG+ kids. I'm still calling my homeschooled kid a 4th grader. My output and work hours expectations are at that 4th grade level. The input is at his working level - algebra for math, jr. high for LA, all over the board for what he chooses reads, etc.

There are certainly homeschoolers that make this kind of testing a priority and take a lot of time prepping and understanding the format. Which is totally fine. But I think those kids are clearly going to be at a huge advantage!

ABQmom

We are all in agreement that "whatever works". There are kids on here in every imaginable stuation, unschooled, homeschooled, H/S co-op school, part time school, private, public, parochial. Doesn't matter what you call it...... Whatever Works!

Sorry it took me so long to write back, today my mind is in the clouds.

I didn't mean to come across as hs working that much better than ps as the reason there are so many hs children taking the tests. I'm just thinking its a shame families arn't finding out about these types of programs.