Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Academic "red shirting" - are they really gifted?

We like Starfall here, too. It's helped both DS and DD learned to read.

I agree with your entire last paragraph. I hope I didn't come off as not liking to hear about the new things other kids do. I only meant my post in the "I wish I could share more and not have it '[come] across wrong'" sense.

Just recently, I was discussing reading with another homeschool mom whose child is having "trouble" reading. (I put trouble in quotes because the child is 5.5 years old and IMO she has plenty of time to become a fast and fluent reader.) Yet the mother was concerned; so together we brainstormed some ideas to help the mom feel more at ease and confident in her ability to help her daughter read (and homeschool, in general), and ideas for ways to approach (teach) the subject with her DD without her DD automatically balking and shutting down.

Then she asked me, "How did you come up with all of these ideas? Is this how you taught Boo to read? How old is she, again?" So I had to do the "side-step, wriggle" move, (which, by the way, I still don't have completely down). I answered, "Oh, I'm sure I read about most of them somewhere" and without ever answering the questions about my DD, I quickly re-routed the conversation back to the other mom and ways to help her out. I felt that I couldn't give an open (full-disclosure) answer without making the other mom feel (even more)worried about her child or come across as insulting, etc. I left out the part that while I thought most of the ideas sounded good, I never used (most of them) because Boo had pretty much taught herself to read years prior rending most of the ideas obsolete for her (and, now, her brother).

And when she commented, "Doesn't that seem a bit much for a 5.5 year old? Maybe in a couple of years we could add that to our curriculum," and I replied, "Oh, I figured you would just take what you needed and adjust it all to fit your needs." All the while, wondering in my head "Really? It is? I had no idea this was for older kids."

It can be a terribly fine line!

Oh, and to be clear, my last post was geared toward the comparison of "red-shirting" and "hot-housing". I do enjoy hearing about other children's accomplishments and I will always offer a helping hand and act as a sounding board how ever I am able. I dislike hearing a parent go on about how smart their child is because the parent drilled them on reading so the child could read, early. Frankly, I feel badly for the child; I also get irritated, because it's parents like that that give the parents on *this* boards and others like it a bad rap.