Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Considering homeschooling

The private school is on the pricey side and it would be tight.

I'm now exploring homeschool options. Those who don't homeschool through the district (where they provide the material/curriculum) how do you plan the lessons or instruction?

Have you visited the accelerated learners board at the well trained mind forums?

How old is your kid? My kid is 6, and except for math I'm not using any curricula or lesson plans at all. We do a certain amount of math and her reading aloud to me each day (she's still not a fluent reader, at least not of books at her level of interest). Other than that, our agenda is to Learn Stuff. I limit her screen time and I've enrolled her in a lot of enrichment classes, and I read to her a ton and we talk about lots of things. At this age I don't think it much matters what they're learning, as long as they're learning a broad range of stuff about the world.

If I could "like" MegMeg's post I would. For younger kids, homeschooling can be quite unstructured. If you look back through some of my old posts, you will see a list of some of the things we did. I can recapitulate some of them here. My goal was to have it be interest-led. We raised butterflies, mummified a chicken, grew crystals, did science experiments, fermented mead, baked hardtack, read myths and fairy tales, watched documentaries, went to museums, went fossil hunting, attended plays and ballets, and read, read, read. We always had an audiobook going in the car. I miss those days!

For hardcore academics, I used dreambox.com or EPGY for math, and Reading Eggs, for my dyslexic kiddo (which eventually didn't work, but got me to the point where I figured out he was probably dyslexic.) That is the short version.

Now DYS 12 takes online classes -- Latin, Dystopian Lit, Pre-Algebra, and writing -- at such places as OnlineG3, CTY, and Lone Pine Latin. And both kids do a lot of extracurriculars like choir, chess, and instrumental ensemble.

Here are some links to blog posts that I wrote:

http://talkingsticklearningcenter.org/homeschooling-in-philly-the-pleasure-of-learning/

http://talkingsticklearningcenter.org/i-homeschool-but-i-dont-teach-my-kids/

You've received great advice above. I'll just add that this is a relatively frequent topic so there are other threads with resources which may be interest, including If we homeschool, what's the 1st step

I haven't, thank you for letting me know about it.

My daughter is 8 and in 3rd grade. She's currently in a self-contained gifted class but is unhappy, in particular with the math. We recently looked at a very small independent school and she did a two day shadow where she felt like she actually learned something. Dh and I are still in discussion as to what we should do. Part of me thinks that she's 8 and how much can it matter what she's learning. The other part thinks this is just a downward spiral that will set her back and teach her that you learn nothing in school.

Financially the private school would be tight but I learned that she could re-enter the gifted program, granted there is space (which I don't see being a huge issue because it's not full now). The other option is to homeschool which I don't know how good of a job I could do without an actual curriculum to follow and tell me what to do. lol

She is very strong in math despite receiving little to no actual instruction in school. They are expected to be independent and 'figure things out' on their own. She enjoys math when it's presented in a way she likes. At home she is more driven to writing and planning plays, she has been working on her current play for the past 4 weeks.

I wanted to add that the small independent school we are considering uses Core Knowledge and it seems her current school is moving more towards Common Core every year.

My 8yo is in second grade, and we have been after-schooling since he was six with homeschool materials. There are SO many curriculum options for gifted children. It's a smorgasbord out there. It does take some time to research and figure it all out, and I second the recommendation of the WTM boards, but yeah. The stuff available for homeschool instruction blows the stuff for in-school learning out of the water IMO, especially when it comes to materials that are designed to match the pacing and depth that gifted kiddos thrive on.

I know of two, my friend who is homeschooling her PG child in Lousiana.

IEW http://iew.com/

and
http://www.kolbe.org/

I too want to take the plunge but stop short as I like the interactions with other kids and teachers my DS has, some of it good some of it a learning experience!

All the Best!

I’ve found that the hardest part is sorting through all of the possible resources (since there are so many of them) to find the best fit for you and your child. In my experience, once you’ve found a good fit, the lesson/instruction tends to plan itself.

Be sure to check out the books by Michael Clay Thompson for Language Arts and the books by Beast Academy / Art of Problem Solving for math. We have found both series amazing for DS8. I don’t plan a specific lesson in these subjects for each day. We just start where we left off and continue until we reach a natural break in the material.

We use K12 for science (middle school Physical Sciences) and history. The K12 curriculum is divided into lessons, so we do one lesson a day, three days a week. Sometimes we complete a lesson in 20 minutes; other times we may spend an hour or more depending on how interested he is in the topic and how long we spend experimenting or looking at additional resources such as BrainPop, YouTube Channels (e.g., Crash Course and Veritasium), and Khan Academy.

There are homeschoolers with less structure, including those that use no formal curriculum, and those with a lot of structure that use a single online school or program with a formal curriculum for everything. You need to find what works best for your family and run with it, but knowing that a few weeks or months down the road you may try something else completely different!

I second this- actually all areas of that forum are very helpful. The book The Well-Trained Mind is a classic- we don't follow it but have still incorporated a lot of the recommendations into our homeschool.

I think we live in the same school district- if you want more info on homeschooling here, ask me whatever you like.