Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Tomorrow is the end of week 2, homeschooling K.

And, it's going surprisingly well. Math has been a little shaky, but he's flying through spelling and getting better at handwriting. All in all, I feel good about the decision.

DS and I each have had a meltdown the other day, but neither of us were being very clear about our feelings at the time. Since he is only 4, I'm going to go ahead and take responsibility for that one.


We are getting into a groove, and it's actually pretty awesome to watch him learn. I know we are still in the honeymoon stage, and it's not going to always be this easy, but I'm going to go ahead and celebrate while I can.


Just thought I would share.

That's great news. We're in week 3 of homeschooling gr 6 for DD8 and preschool homeschooling for DD3. DH is in charge of it here and we have had a few rough patches too, but the girls are loving it and as DH gets into the groove we are having more and more good days. It is fun to see how much she gets done and how she approaches things too. (I am jealous that DH gets to see it first hand. )
We've I think it will take a few more weeks before they are all in step with each other, but we have 2 very happy and challenged girls most days, so that makes life much nicer for all.

Congrats! That's great. Be prepared to be very pliable!



Yes, finding your groove takes awhile, but that's what I treasure about being able to homeschool. You can tailor it to whatever it is they need... as long as you can figure out what that is! Plus, there are the huge growth spurts that they seem to go through in no time at all. I seem to never be able to stay in my groove for long because my ds zooms past so much so quickly.

This year I'm trying something new with planning. We've almost finished our second round of half-term (six weeks) schooling. I've found that if I plan out any further than that, I end up having to scrap most of the work that I've done in regard to scheduling. (I build my own curriculum, so a lot of time goes into this.) This has really worked well so far. We school year-round, taking off when we need to or feel like it. We have a planned week-long review week/break week every 7th week. As long as we hit our 180 days, I don't worry about it.

May I ask how you decided or came upon having your dd8 in Grade 6? Is she doing a full Grade 6 curriculum? That's my current quandary. My ds is reading and comprehending on a high school level, though his math is only about one grade level above his grade (2-3), and that's on a good day. ;-) I've recently tried to look around at samples of 4-6 grade work to see where he really falls right now. When I look at it, with math being the exception, it seems that to be really challenged we should be presenting material in the junior high range.

My experience has been that if my ds can read it, he can understand it. Yet, I've been one of those parents who holds back a bit. He does read very advanced literature that fits him well, but as far as science, I guess he's just learning things and moving on. Most of his info comes from reading, though he's a hands-on guy and does experiments and builds things, too.

Perhaps the question I should be asking is "What does *challenged* look like?" in a pg child? The idea of advancing my ds7 a couple of years is scary to me. What do you do about activities that demand she is placed based on her grade instead of age? I've kept mine in his age-appropriate grade, but it's really becoming ludicrous.

Sorry to throw so much out there. I do hope that you both have successful years!

Thanks!

[/quote]
May I ask how you decided or came upon having your dd8 in Grade 6? Is she doing a full Grade 6 curriculum? That's my current quandary. My ds is reading and comprehending on a high school level, though his math is only about one grade level above his grade (2-3), and that's on a good day. ;-) I've recently tried to look around at samples of 4-6 grade work to see where he really falls right now. When I look at it, with math being the exception, it seems that to be really challenged we should be presenting material in the junior high range.

Perhaps the question I should be asking is "What does *challenged* look like?" in a pg child? The idea of advancing my ds7 a couple of years is scary to me. What do you do about activities that demand she is placed based on her grade instead of age? I've kept mine in his age-appropriate grade, but it's really becoming ludicrous.
[/quote]

We decided on gr 6 for DD after talking to a few different people and looking at some gr 4 and 5 curriculum. (If she had stayed in school she would be in gr 4 this year) For the math, grades 4 and 5 are repeated, but in a quicker fashion in grade 6, so since DD does not need the repetition given in grades 4 and 5 on the topics, we decided to jump right to gr 6, which is written as review so it has much less repetition in it. It also starts getting into more interesting math from DD's perspective. For language arts, the middle school gifted language arts teacher at my school is acting as a mentor for her by having her go through the 6th grade curriculum at home and meeting with her once a week at a local library to go over her work, give her suggestions. For science, DH and I are both science teachers, so that is not really following a curriculum, we are using the state standards for grades 4-6 to guide the activities. Social studies is also a combination of grades 4-6 standards, not really following a set curriculum. She is also continuing her Spanish, and DH is teaching her recorder, cooking and sewing. The high school art teacher at my school has also allowed her to join her high school ceramics after school club, so she goes there for art in addition to her having art time at home almost every day. (She is incredibly artistically gifted)
So, challenged for us looks like a happy, humming daughter who can excitedly answer the question "what did you learn today?" from me when I come home from school.
Since she is so much younger than a 6th grader, we are typically sticking with her age for things outside the house that require certain, for example, she is in girl scouts according to her having been in brownies last year and bridged into juniors for this year, at church she will be in gr 4 Sunday school class.
Basically, she could function at a level higher than 6th grade, her reading comprehension is adult level, but there are a lot of skills that she needs to learn before she could successfully do higher grade level work. Most of which is taught to kids in middle school. (Like critical thinking skills and organization and independent work/decision making)

Exactly! Our DD8 is doing similarly!

For our family, the first year of HS was the hardest, and it's gotten easier as we've gone along. We're now in our 5th year of HS our oldest (who turns 9 next month) and 2nd year with our 2nd (who turns 6 in November). We have chosen to keep them officially enrolled in the grades they would be in PS, but use whatever level material is appropriate for the particular subject.

Thanks so much for sharing this. This sounds like exactly where we are headed. My dh and I talked about it last night and decided to just go for it. We homeschool so we can always tweak again if necessary.

It sounds as if you have managed to accommodate your daughter's needs very well. It all sounds very balanced.



Yes, this was what I was certain I would do with ds7, yet the problem that we run into these days is that he's so much more mature than his age-peers. He's an only child, so he's always been very happy to interact with any child of any age. He has just recently started commenting on the fact that the kids around him don't seem interested in the same things that he's interested in, and that they often want to act "younger" than he thinks they should. Because so much of what is available to us (which is very little) is based on grade, not age, I'm think we're going to have to bump him up a grade just so we can gain access to older kids in some of the groups and classes that we do occasionally have around us. He's a December baby, so moving him up one grade won't be a huge deal. If that doesn't help with this issue, I suppose we'll move.

so cool Amber! Sounds like you are both enjoying it so far

I agree completely. DD8 is such a happier more energetic kid now that she has the freedom to be herself while doing school work.
I don't really know if she will ever want to go back to school, but we'll see, maybe we'll find someplace that will work for her between now and next year, or maybe DH will love homeschooling so much that he'll want to continue doing it.