Homeschooling my son who would be in 4th grade by age is easy. All I have to do is let him watch shows like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire while he eats lunch. If he doesn't know the answer to something, he has this need to know that causes him to look it up. Today, for example, he wanted to look up T. S. Eliot's The Wasteland after hearing it mentioned on the show. After he read it, I asked him what he thought about it and he said he thought it was a good example of circumlocution. He says he prefers Japanese Haiku. I let him spend lots of time learning about what he wants to learn. He is interested in things that most kids his age are not and at home nobody tells him that he is weird for being interested in these things.
He was reading the dictionary for fun this morning. He loves learning new words and is still thinking about trying out for the spelling bee next year so he spends more time on that than math and I know I should make him do more math but I don't. He has no trouble working from an 8th grade math book but he does not have the passion for math that he does for other things.
He loves history and watches a lot of History Channel shows and also likes historical fiction, but he says science is really is favorite subject.
I am curious about what an experienced educator of gifted children would do differently. I am always looking for better ways to facilitate my son's learning.
