This is my first post here and I'm so thankful to have this forum! I'm not sure the best place for this question, so please let me know if I'm in the wrong place. I think the question is more about how to best serve my son given his giftedness rather than "homeschool" per se.

Ds is 4 and in kindergarten this year but I'm planning to homeschool next year. Up to this point, his learning has been 100% self-led. This has been wonderful, but has also caused some huge discrepancies in his skill level across academic subjects.

Here are some examples to show what I mean:
-Reading is approx 5th grade level but spelling is several years behind. He's still working on proper letter formation (i.e., handwriting) and is not composing written sentences yet. No knowledge of grammar except what he's gleaned through his reading.
-Science is approx 6th grade level or higher (this is truly his gift and he CRAVES learning more--starting to get into basic chemistry and physics now. He "thinks" science all day long.)
-Math is 1st-2nd grade level
-Geography is great. He's been map-crazy since age 3 and knows all the states and capitals, approx 50 countries, and all continents, oceans, etc. His knowledge of history is almost non-existent.

I've been toying with different hs approaches I can take with him. At first, I decided to concentrate on weak areas and "even" out the playing field a bit. There is such a huge discrepancy in his reading and writing. And he'll soon be at the point in science where he can't move forward without higher math skills. So that makes sense, right? Focus on weakness and try to rein in areas where he's galloping ahead.

But now I'm leaning toward not doing that. He LOVES science and learning. How can I not make that a big part of his school day? It's his gift. As long as he's not below grade level in any area, why not just move to the next level in all subjects--leaving the discrepancies there unless he makes a giant leap forward. Is that crazy? Or the right thing to do for an unusual child?

Maybe it depends a bit on what exactly you mean by focus? I think your second thought, that it would be sad to deprive your son of the science he loves, is absolutely correct. OTOH, you have only a finite amount of time and energy to put into choosing material and supporting his learning - it might make sense for you to put more of *your* time and energy into his weaker areas, since those are where he may need the support more, even if he's spending the same amount of time on each subject area.

Welcome, too! I think you'll find this a useful place to be. My DS-just-6 is also very keen on science; he's in school and it's going well so far, but I do realise how lucky we are in having a school available that meets his needs.

We are homeschooling. I require both my kids (5 and 9) to do a journal entry and a page in whatever Writing without tears book they are working in at the moment every day. For my 5 year old, this is typically a 10 minute thing. Now my 5 year old does a lot more writing on her own. They have other minimum requirements too, but that's it for writing.

I guess my point is, if you can give at least a few minutes a day to the weakness (writing or whatever) you can usually make great progress over the course of a year without really sacrificing much. My kids have many open hours where they can do what they want or we dig into bigger projects, go on field trips, etc. So you can still make science the center of your school day. You can even have him keep a science journal where he might write a sentence or 2 a day about whatever he did.

Good luck!

Welcome, there are lots of great people on here and lots of ideas!

Writing is a weak area for my DS6 as well. Has nothing to do with academics, it's just that his motor skills are 6, regardless of what level his brain is working at. As a concession to this he types anything over a paragraph long.

He is also all over the map in his levels in various subjects. We work in time frames. He gets 30-45 minutes on any given subject and we work at whatever level he's at. He uses free time to dig deeper into subjects that he loves. His latest fascination is with chemistry and although "class time" is 45 minutes 3x a week, he spends a lot of time on his own working through stuff.

In the beginning I thought like you, that he needed to work on his weak areas, but it just frustrated both of us. The stuff that was weak was mostly from lack of exposure and he's made great strides in those areas now that he has the material. We also do what is referred to as going wide, which means that he does several subjects that wouldn't be on a standard curriculum. Foriegn language, greek and roman mythology, computer programming all in an attempt to slow him down. The important thing is to do wht works for you and your kiddo. There isn't any one right way to homeschool. Enjoy the ride!

This sounds a lot like my DS. He's also 4, in kindergarten, reads at at least the 5th grade level, spells around a 2nd grade level and is around a 1st or 2nd grade level in math. Each student in my son's class receives one-on-one reading instruction with the teacher each day, and since he's already a fluent reader, his teacher uses that time to work on his spelling and writing, where he's much weaker. She has told us, "I'm not doing any reading instruction with him. He knows how to read." Instead, she asks him to read some short piece written at a 4th or 5th grade level and then gives him open-ended comprehension questions, which he has to answer in writing in full sentences. As I wrote on another recent post, my son is very emotional and a perfectionist, so the writing has involved no small amount of frustration and crying, but his teacher has been great about working him through it, and he's now writing/spelling voluntarily at home and is MUCH more comfortable with making mistakes than he was before school started. So, to the extent that focusing on a weakness has made things challenging and forced my son to cope with making mistakes, we're very happy that his teacher has gone this route.

I would consider concentrating on the three R's so to speak- reading, writing (spelling, handwriting, grammar), and math in gentle way since he is still 4 When my son was 4, he hated writing. You could experiment with chalkboards, white boards, and try HWT for 10 minutes a day. If he is up to it, then you could try things orally for a while till his writing gets up to speed which may take a couple of years as it did in my ds.

I did this and am doing this with my ds who is about to turn 8. He sounds like your son in many ways and yes, he loves science. We do some science with his cyber school, but I do not place a heavy emphasis on this since he learns oodles about science in his free time on his own . Of course, in the next couple of years, I will have him focus more on science future, but right now he does fantastic with all of the reading he does in his spare time. I would just supply him with numerous science books for his spare reading and see what happens .

I think that by concentrating on the 3 R's, then it will be easier to expand his studies and activities IMHO.

At this age, you may want to consider foreign language though since kid's brains just soak up languages especially between 4-7 years of age I use Muzzy Spanish and Muzzy german. There are many great foreign language programs for young kids.

I don't have much time and will reply a little late, big IEP meeting with the school today. Welcome, glad you found it over here!

One other thing to consider is Discovery Education United Streaming from HomeschoolBuyer'sCo-op to feed his desire for science in his spare time. My son loved watching all of the science shows for fun My dh hooked the computer to the TV so that he could watch it on the TV. They do have a 30 day free trial.

A well-known authority on GT kids advised me to spend 3 minutes on my son's strengths for every 1 minute we spend on his weaker areas. "School should be fun for him," he said. "Don't hammer away at things that aren't his favorite."

I thought that was excellent advice, and I pass it on whenever it fits!

My goal in homeschooling is to try to keep DS8 at least at age level in all areas--never behind, if I can help it--but to avoid slowing him down in things that he loves. So he gallops ahead in science, math, and fiction, and his writing and knowledge of the times tables is pretty much right on par with his age.

It works for us, FWIW. Maybe that helps you think about your situation? I hope...

I think this is very wise advice. Even though I emphasize the 3 R's at the moment, I try to make it as fun as possible. I guess in my ds's situation, I believe that he has such a strong interest in science that I do not need to spend as much time on it right now in a formal fashion. His knowledge of science blows me way. I literally have to take the science books out of his hands at times to get him to do other things I do encourage his science explorations though by providing tons of science books and via science shows . He also takes a science course via the cyber school. My main goal is to get him up to speed in the 3 R's so that he will have the tools to deal with advanced courses across the curriculum. Consequently, in a formal sense I do spend more time on the 3 R's as well as foreign languages. Informally, my ds spends the rest of his free time usually on some sort of science or history in addition to little boy stuff .

P.S. When my son was 4, he would not have tolerated so much time on the 3 R's so to speak. I definitely had to be more creative back then to make it fun.

Has anyone else used this? Any idea how much it costs?

Haven't used Muzzy. We use Rosetta Stone. If you sign up for the homeschool co-op and purchase the homeschool version it runs about $200.

Welcome Staceyshoe! So glad you are here. I think your above idea is bad, but your idea below is good.


Have you read about the 'unschooling' ideas? They might be interesting to you as you ponder.

I think that 'learning how to learn' is really important, but you have years before you have to get out the whip on this one. It is possible, depending on your child's personality, that if their internal motivation isn't ever killed by adults taking over, that you won't ever be the one who has to apply the whip. On the other hand, when he gets to be 8 or so, if he still hasn't found a way to do the 'boring stuff' that you might have to do some steering. Remember that if he were in a school, it would probably be playbased until at least 1st grade.

A lot depends on personality 'every child needs someone to think about her well.' But at age 4, it's hard for me to picture that a child would need pushing.

Which is not to say that you can't be sneaky. If you are one of those mom's who hides the vegtables in the tomato sauce, then you know what I mean: Find something that he does want to learn about, and then link it to something on the 'weaker list' so that the weaker skill gets some practice. The periodic table has lots of numbers on it. You can certianly teach addition and subtraction facts with the number 8 by teaching about electrons in that outer shell. You can practice handwriting by having him copy the chemical names of common molecules. Or his Geography places. Drawing Maps will help develop those small motor muscles. Maybe could learn to spell by seeing how many words he can spell using the abbreviations of Elements - mabe have a contest and see which row makes the most words.

If those ideas don't pop into your head like popcorn at the begining, post here and we will help, ok?

Smiles and Welcome,
Grinity

Wow! There are so many great ideas here! It's such a relief to be able to "talk" with other parents who "get" what my kid is like!! Your stories of your children sound so familiar. You make very good points about not squelching his love of learning. He is so thrilled. I started get a few homeschool materials together, and ds was literally jumping up and down with joy today.

This is probably something I'll need to feel my way on. You're right that just a few minutes consistently every day can make a huge difference after a few months. I guess I really need to just relax about the whole thing. I have such a tendency toward over-organizing everything that I feel like I need to have my entire plan perfectly in place before I begin anything. Maybe someday I will learn to go with the flow a little better.

If you have more ideas about incorporating what he loves into his daily routine, I'm all ears!

I strongly recommend at least trying to go with the flow for homeschooling, for a couple of reasons:

Really just about the only mistake you can make with homeschooling a young child is to be too rigid. If something doesn't work well, you need to be able to shift gears. If you spend too much on curriculum and planning, you won't be as willing to dump it and do something different, even if that's the right thing to do. And that happens a lot the first year. Most people don't know what will actually work until they try a few things.

Plus if your child makes a big cognitive leap in a subject, he can skip past all the materials you have so carefully prepared. That's pretty frustrating!

Everyone is different, and you have to figure out what works for you. But "perfect plan" is definitely a phrase I'd suggest striking from your vocabulary!

Keep talking if it helps...

I ordered Muzzy Chinese last summer. It is a good introduction to the language, but it is not for serious study. There was a 30 day satisfaction guarantee, so I returned it after 30 days.

I found Muzzy Spanish at the library. I do think it is good for kids. On Discovery Education United Streaming they have thousands of all sorts of educational videos including comprehensive, fun spanish courses for k-12 They also have lessons plans with these videos and worksheets. I simply love DE United Streaming. They have a 30 free trial. I found videos on science, history, language arts, math, foreign languages, music, art, etc. appropriate for all grade levels from K-12.

Another option is Powerspeak through K12 for foreign language. We use it for German, but we get it for free from our cyber school. DE United Streaming has some on German, but not full, comprehensive courses like it does in Spanish which I find to to be great. So IMO if you are thinking of Spanish, then I would consider getting Discovery Education United Streaming.

The Spanish program on Discovery Education is also on DishTV if you get it:) I still love Discovery Education United Streaming though
https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/index.php?option=com_hsbc_epp_order&Itemid=1036

They also have the basic package which is $139.00/year and also has the spanish videos.

My husband has our computer hooked to our HDTV 32" tube TV via a video cable to stream the videos onto the TV. Now some of the videos are older and a little bit grainy, but IMO still very enjoyable. Many are new and come out great on the TV IMO. If you have a super-size TV, then I am not sure what the quality will be My son has loved every single one of the videos.

I wasn't too enamored of the Muzzy Spanish that we bought a few years ago. I don't think that the kids liked it that much either. They didn't find the stories or the animation particularly engaging.

As a free place to start with a foreign language, you could take a look at the BBC languages site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

I did also buy Rosetta Stone and liked it better than Muzzy for serious language learning.

I agree Muzzy is only a good introduction for young kids. If you can sample it for free at your library even better.

I have used Rosetta Stone with ds, but it was hard to keep his interest. I may try again though since it does seem comprehensive. Another thing to try for free that is very similar to Rosetta Stone is Livemocha.com. However, you need to sit there with your child to supervise since occasionally pop messages will occur from other users asking you if you want to converse. I just close the pop boxes. I have never seen anything objectionable though on the site:)

Another possibly is Mangolanguages which I have not used but I have heard good reviews.

We used Muzzy Spanish and German, and it was great for the toddler/pre-school years. We checked out Rosetta Stone but my DD12 didn't like it much, so now we are doing LiveMocha. I really like this program- even preschoolers can use it (though they might not be ready for the writing portion, which is okay). One of my favorite things about LiveMocha is that its free.

DD12 is learning Japanese this year, and we have found some other resources for that language. One of her favorites is Genki Japan- they have lots of cute and engaging videos on YouTube.

Some other great ways to introduce foreign language is with music- we listen to a lot of popular German music as well as Disney songs in German. We have done this with Spanish also.

I would guess that it would only take 10-15 minutes per day in each of the subjects that he doesn't love to make sure he keeps up and makes decent progress compared to a PS (my DS is in PS and I am amazed how little they actually learn each day).

This seems to me one of the beautiful things about HS, you can dedicate substantial time to the things your child loves, and still make sure they get enough of the other things - without it being so much they get frustrated or unhappy.

Cat

Yeah, what they said! Most of my points have been made by others, probably because I got their advice first! LOL Seriously, before you run out and buy, buy, buy (curriculum junkie is a serious affliction! Take some time to figure out how your kiddo learns. It will save you tons of money and even more in headaches! I think that most of these kids require flexibility first and foremost.

Grins ideas about incorporating the bad stuff into the good stuff is something we do a lot. If you need ideas how to "sugarcoat" a particular subject there are some experts on here.

Most of all, remember to enjoy the ride!