Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Dr Laura blogging on homeschooling

cym, I think that is why I love my kids school so much. It is an accelerated magnet and the kids there are mostly on the same page. Lots of them like chess and going to museums and learning about great composers and artists, etc., and it is cool to be smart! You are so right, finding a great peer group is priceless.

Of course, in most schools, kids don't get to talk much to their peers during class. At least at the grade school and jr. high levels, the in-class interaction with peers is usually quite limited. Social time--20 minutes of recess and 30 at lunch--is about the only time the kids have to talk to anyone.

I'd bet money that DS7 gets a lot more time to interact with true peers in a learning environment than he got in public school. Granted, I make the effort to seek those opportunities out, but so do most homeschoolers, Christian or not. At least in the traditional school classes DS7 has been in, the kids talk to the teacher when called on (a few times a day), but they don't talk with one another much during class time. Or if they do, they get in trouble for it.

I'd suggest that the museum visit is usually a special occasion. Most classrooms aren't anywhere nearly as free-and-easy as that setting. Whereas for the homeschooler, museum visits and the like with groups of kids can be the norm.

Just my take...

Well I think it really depends on the teacher and probably the particular school's policy. My kids have had the most wonderful, laid back teachers where the kids interact with each other and the teacher all during the day. I'm sure it isn't that way everywhere but it has definitely been our experience.

It's a good policy. But it sure wasn't the policy at DS7's school. From what I saw when I volunteered in the classroom, "Sit down and shut up and write down the answer I just told you" was the rule in DS7's 1st grade class.

Even in K, with a teacher who was much better, there just wasn't a lot of interaction among the kids.

Hmmm. Maybe the school is even worse than I realized...I assumed that this approach was pretty standard, given the school's high ranking in our area. The K teacher's classroom approach didn't look a whole lot different from what I remember from my school experience. (The 1st grade one was worse, but only in the number of repetitions the teacher required of the kids and the utter lack of allowance for kids who already knew the answer. The amount of peer interaction was pretty much the same: virtually none.) As a result, I guess I assumed virtually none was the norm. Maybe not...

So, if I may hijack the thread for a minute to pursue this line of thought...

*How much peer interaction goes on in your kids' classrooms on a typical school day, especially in the lower grades?

I'm particularly interested in responses from parents of kids in non-GT schools, public or private, as I would hope that there would be more peer interaction in a GT school. (Though I guess my assumptions could be wrong about that, too...)

EandC, sounds like your kids have a wonderful situation. Hopefully it's not too unique and others experience that as well!

Kriston,
I saw what you saw in K and first for both girls. Second was much better for DD8. There is one first grade teacher that provides a pretty good classroom environment, let's hope DD5 lucks out.

There is a HG magnet that I suspect would be more of an environment like EandC mom describes. It starts in 4th grade.

If you are talking intellectual peers......our district's dual level GT program attracts a lot of highly intelligent families, so there is probably more than our share of peers. The problem is that in the past, they have split them up in different classrooms. This was the first year that I observed them together in the same class for DD8's grade. If the administators are very concerned with social and emotional issues like they present themselves to be, they really should be letting these kids stay together.

Well, 'Neato, rightly or wrongly, I just assume that with these HG+ kids in the public school, then true intellectual peers are not in the classroom. I wasn't really dealing with that.

My question is just about interactions with agemates/classmates, regardless of anything else.

At DS7's school, talking to other kids was discouraged pretty much at every turn. There were no opportunities for interaction in the classroom that I saw during the times I volunteered. Even when I helped in the library, a time when kids are milling around looking at books and interaction seems natural for them, I was instructed to keep them from talking to one another, even at a whisper.

I suppose I could have just always been there at the wrong time and for the wrong activities, but that seems unlikely.

No, I'm in the school a lot, I think you got it right. In public school a lot of the teacher's responsibility is managing the classroom, behaviorally. I think a lot of good quality learning time is lost to that.

Maybe it's just a little more difficult in the lower grades, when the kids are in the same class with the same teacher all day.

Thanks, 'Neato. I appreciate your input.

If so, then I have to think that interacting in homeschool discussions regularly--even if only with a tired mom and a cranky little brother ( )--isn't any worse and might be a far sight better than being in a room with people and yet not being allowed to interact with them at all.

I know that end of things was hard on my social but introverted boy! It was hard for him not to talk to the other kids when he was bored and they were right there with him, but by the end of the day he was worn out by all the time spent with people. It was all very unsatisfying for him.

He's much happier now that we can choose when to be with people--and really be with them completely!--and when to be alone.

I guess I find that argument against homeschooling to ring false to me. I think homeschooling lends itself to *more* opportunities for discussions with peers, at least when kids are young, than does a traditional (non-GT) school setting.

I'm still willing to be talked out of my position though.

We overlapped, Dottie.

What kind of group work? I'm intrigued.