Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment I'm told this is the place to ask

LDmom, thank you. it really does help to hear from people who've "gone before us" so to speak, and to talk to people who really understand how scary and overwhelming this all is... most people say "wow, how cool" or something similar, because they really can't see all of the 'issues'.

I really like the sound of the way you're managing things, it sounds like a good mix. The idea of homeschooling both excites and scares me - I can't imagine managing without some kind of break from the intensity that is my darling son sometimes. I also worry that he'll miss out on some things if we keep him home - I'm not sure what, just "something" lol! I'd love to find some way of having part time school / home balance, but I'm not sure how or if we could find a place where school would fit him for anything. I love him so much, but he really is an oddball when you put him with other 4 y.o's.

Thank you for the welcome. We've tried three preschools now, from a traditional free play 3 year old kindergarten (I think we use the name differently to how it's used in the USA), to Montessori to a preschool with a highly recommended gifted programme. None of them fit, and none lasted for more than 6 months or so. He's never a problem there, but his behaviour at home becomes awful as he gets more and more stressed and miserable. He's happy at home now, and I'm scared to try school or another preschool in case it ruins the peace! We'd started trying a few science / nature activities with a local homeschooling group but we're a little limited in 'other' activities just now because so many things are closed / gone due to the earthquake.

Trina,

When my son was 4, I was in the same place you are. Completely unable to keep up! I spent a month or two teaching my son independent study skills. This included "google" so that I didn't have to answer 4000 questions everyday and a couple of on-line learning sights including time4learning.com and Aleks.com.

Our school district refused early admission to K so I had to do the best I could. Now DS is 8. Last year we found a prep style charter school that go 6th-12th grade that was willing to accept my son as a part time student. He went for math, science and language arts, then we homeschooled history and various other strange subjects.

It worked out so well that this year he will be a full time student with classes that run from 7-9th grade. Partial schooling is another option for you to consider.

It's good to hear you've managed to make part time work and I hope the transfer to full time goes well. I taught DS to use google too, for the same reasons. Now I get "did you know" instead of "why?" most of the time <lol!> I haven't seen time4learning (I'll check it out), he loved the free trial we did on Aleks (finished 3rd grade and most of 4th grade before it ran out). He loves Kahn Academy and he also enjoyed the trial we did of Dreambox. There seem to be lots of those sorts of things out there to explore - so many that I worry he spends too much time on the computer sometimes.

Officially here it's not possible to part time school but there is provision for a student enrolled in a school to attend an "acceptable educational alternative" for some of the time they are meant to be at school. It's meant to cover things like music lessons, tutoring and the like, but I'm wondering if we could make use of that somehow.

Do many of you have other children? Are they the same as their older siblings? We have a little girl too... is she likely to be like this too?

I don't easily relate to the test numbers as we've done no testing, but that's a measure I have a comparison point on - my DS did those courses about a year older, and not quite so fast if your trial was 48hrs. Wow. You have my deepest sympathy! Have you found Alcumus already? If not, check it out - free online maths which is problem-solving based rather than based on speeding through syllabus. Solving hard problems is really important, and the danger for mathy children is that the problems presented in ordinary places are never hard for them so they never get a chance to learn to think hard. Alcumus helps fill that gap for us, along with various maths competition past papers, Olympiad qs etc.

Statistically most siblings are within about 10 points of each other. Though they might present differently chances are that yes your daughter is most likely also gifted and highly so. If she had a FSIQ of say 145, or even 140 for that matter, that is still unusually highly gifted, but might present quite differently to your son, particularly if she has a different personality and areas of strength.

From a group of children with the same measured potential not all will necessarily have the same voracious hunger for learning.

Thanks for that, I haven't seen Alcumus, I'll check it out.

Hi Trina,
Welcome - I'd love to know 'who' pointed you in this direction - a fellow mom, a professional? A school-connected person.

Having a friend for you and for your son is going to make a huge difference. So go back to that person and ask them for ideas of how to find playmates.

I also like 2 books -
'Friends Forever' by Fred Frankel,about how to train you kids to grow close friendships,
and
'Transforming the Difficult Child Workbook' by Lisa Bravo.

Friends forever is pitched to kids in 1st through 6th grade, but since your son may well be having playdates with kids in this agegroup, I'm suggesting that you read it now and start adapting.

There is this thing called 'asynchronous development' that might bite you from time to time. I remember the joke-
'Looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...it's a duck'
That will never apply to your son - and it can be disorrienting.

So glad you are here! Pull up a chair and delve in. You can use the search key to read chronologically what Shari and LD when through right from the start. Dottie and I are Dinosaurs and did most of our work before this site opened.

Smiles,
Grinity

Google saved us, too! DD8.5 is often directed to ask 'Magic Google', so named because it seems to have all the answers as if by magic. Between google and her kids almanac, our kid is a walking Cliff Claven of interesting facts.

We tell the girls to ask the "Magic Box," also named because it *magically* has all the answers. Google is our internet home page, and HowStuffWorks is one of our first bookmarks.