Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion What's your opinion based on your experience?

Sorry for having made that generalization about PG kids and public schools. My kid is not PG and is generally unhappy at school, but that's just our school and my kid. My reading on GT and schools led me to that generalized statement. The overwhelming viewpoint I see on the forums and in text is that it takes a very special school to meet the needs of a PG child. Especially in the early years. Not that it can't be done, just that it is hard to find. I usually try to stay away from generalizations but goofed this time! Glad it opened up a discussion, though.

Debbie, No worries. I have read that same generalization many times about PG kids and public school. It took me a long time before I started to question it, myself. But I am growing somewhat suspicious of the data those statements are based on.

Ruff is one of the people who makes that claim. What is interesting, though, in her book is that the level 3,4,and 5 kids who she reports all got into the study because the families sought her out for testing etc. If the only kids you study are the ones who went to the trouble of finding and paying for a psychologist who specializes in gifted kids, then you don't necessarily have an full sample of HG+ kids to start with. There is reason to suspect that the kids who were having trouble are more likely to seek help. The ones whose schools were meeting the child's needs would be much less likely to pay out of their pockets to get outside help.

I think you can make the same argument about this board. The people who are needing the most support are probably going to use the board more on average than those whose kids are thriving in their school placement. I have no idea what the "real" numbers are for the number of PG kids doing well in PS, because no one to my knowledge has done the right study to look at that.

I would say that parents of a PG child in a PS school should always be monitoring to make sure things are OK. But I would say that about a PG kid in any schooling situation. Actually, I would say it about any kid in any schooling situation. As parents, that is part of our job, really.

He is really advanced mathematically.

Not that I am an expert in teaching, but I do know math - find a good HS math curriculum and begin at the beginning and go as fast as he wants to. I was doing algebra on my own in 3rd Grade but did not see it until 8th grade in the school system. You can slow him down by taking side-trips into numerical methods at each step - first using pencil, then calculator, then computer programs. Once he gets into calculus, then you can start side-trips into classical physics and then QM. Statistics will lead to side trips into Chemistry. The big thing is making sure he builds a notebook of things to remember from each step AND does ALL the problems in the book - including the very hard ones - he should be intrduced to the idea of doing things in his head at night or while walking.

His reading will pick up as he begins to mature in math because he will have to read in order to understand more serious concepts. The older math textbooks from the early 1900s are sometimes more accessible to kids who read because that is how math was taught back then - and there is a lot less of the ridiculous "Mary has four Oranges and Two Apples. How much fruit does she have?" filler.

At some point he will move beyond your abilities and at that point he should find a mentor. A lot of school systems tap mentors from local universities or industry. There are also HS mentors. Another approach is to just take him to a local U and talk to the head of the Math Department about him taking college classes. But make sure he can do all the problems in the Calculus book before you do.

I would not waste any more time on the school system. You would not take an F22 to a Ford Dealership.

No offense, but I think you should make sure that he will NOT do ALL problems if he understands the concept. There is no reason to do every single problem in the book. Yes, make sure that he does the most difficult ones and he understands the concept, but feel free to skip simple exercises if the child already mastered the subject. An average student needs many more repetitions than a gifted one. You don't want to end up with a child who resents math and is bored because he had to do every single problem.

This is definitely the path we will follow with DS5. Singapore Challenging Word Problems are nice, but only the challenging ones. The same goes for Zaccaro.

Sorry for being imprecise. Yes, I really meant all the hard problems. Thanks. One approach to make thing fun is to start with the hardest problems and work backwards until it becomes trivial then move on.

Right now I'm trying to figure out what the best fit is for DS. Even since the original posting he's seems to jump ahead on a few subjects and I'm at the point where I have to look things up to give him (his) age appropriate math materials... I'm considering augmenting his schoolwork with Singapore math. Someone (Dottie or Grinity I think) suggested a mandated 15 min/day "home" homework which I thought was an excellent idea.

JB

JBDad, we did the Singapore during school for DS5 about 15min a day M to F. We did not aleways do it, and many a time he did 30+. We added an incentive that if he finisshed a work book I would purchase him a large lego. It mostly worked well. 9Not sure about using incemtives) During the summer we are working at a slower pace. I somtimes wish I would have stuck with more structure, but I wanted to keep it fun. DS also seemed to prefer it if I was sitting with him. Somtimes he becomes very motavated and wants to do a lot of work, other times even 5 mnutes is to much.

We get those spurts of energy too. Some days DS5 wants to go on and on and on... and then for a week or so he won't be too interested.

I was going to have him take the 1B test because originally I was thinking that it could go either way on starting 1B or 2A. Unfortunately he's not very not interested in actually doing the test for us, so we need to think about our strategy a little more. He doesn't have a problem doing a worksheet or taking a test for other teachers or whatnot.

It might help if we get it a little more structured than our informal "here is what I remember about insert-subject-here" lessons we've been having. I took a look at the sample pages that they had online, and I think that's he'd be perfectly comfortable starting with 2A. If I don't do that, I definitely need to get some sort of textbook because he wants to do geometry and I'm afraid I'm at the limits of what I remember!

JB

JBDad:

We went through Singapore 1B-3A in about 4 months last year, and DS7 (then 6) was sick of arithmetic and needing more conceptual math so that he didn't grow to hate math. For the end of the school year, we switched gears and used _Painless Geometry_ by Lynette Long. I've sung it's praises here before. It was a great move for DS!

It's not much into the proofs, but other than that it's "real" geometry (as opposed to the "this is a triangle" stuff that kids usually get before high school). I've found it to be simple, but not simplistic, and it's conceptual rather than "drill and kill." She adds what she calls "geometry experiments" that are hands-on and good for a young GT child. If there is a workbook, we're not using it, but there are brain-bender questions in the book that I've used to check his understanding. It's been a great success for us!

I'm not sure I'd use it as a sole textbook if you want your child to test out of high school geometry or something like that, but for an HG+ 7yo who is tired of arithmetic but not quite ready for algebra, it has been a great fit.

FWIW...

Oh thanks for the suggestion! First day of camp, DS is "teaching" camp-mates polygons.

I'll definitely look up Painless Geometry. That's this month's infatuation. If nothing else, it will re-educate me so I that I don't teach him something incorrectly.

JB