Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Gifted in High School

Emh,
I'm so glad that you found a way for your son to get what he needs! Was it difficult to get the highschool to allow him the 3 classes/day at the high school and the extra curriculars? Is it difficult to get the schedual to fit? How lucky that in your Rural area, there is a community college within driving distance! Did you, or the school know other students who had taken this path? Was it difficult to get your friends and relatives "on board?" What kind of college experience are you hoping for for your son?

Smiles,
Trinity

Hi Trinity,
Our school district has been very good in supporting homeschoolers. The homeschoolers have the option of doing what is called dual-enrollment here with the public High School. The school system, probably more because they need extra students than because they love homeschoolers, allows the homeschoolers to take 2 academic classes and one elective class at the high school. If they take advantage of this option then they are also allowed to do extra-curriculars as well. The truth is though, they should be allowing the students to take up to 5 classes a day, but they have stubbornly held it to 3. So far we haven't had a problem with getting classes to work with his CC schedule. He takes his High School classes in the morning and his CC classes in the afternoon at the college annex in town. Eventually he will run out of classes here in town and then will have to travel about 20 minutes to the CC campus. He can also take classes on line from the CC. These have been great for classes that are required for his degree program but are not something that he needs to spend a lot of time on in a classroom. For example he is taking a basic computer course this term that is a prereq. for other computer courses he wants to take. It's also helpful if there is a class he wants to take but won't fit in his schedule. Such as a physics course he took last term.

I did know other homeschoolers who had taken classes at the CC but they were all high school seniors. When my son talked me into calling the CC to ask if he could take a course I thought they would laugh at me. He was only 11. But the Dean took me seriously and said she would like to meet him in person. So we went to the college for what I thought would be just a discussion on possible future classes. Well, she must have done some homework because when we got to the meeting she knew alot about him and had an entire orientation package waiting for him and welcomed him with open arms. She said they had never had a student that young but had confidence he would do well. After all the stone walling we got from our elementary and middle school, she was a wonderful breath of fresh air and has been great in helping him get the classes he needs.

As far as friends and relatives go, they saw his giftedness way before I did, so they thought it was only natural that he should be doing this. I think I'm usually more surprised that they don't think its odd that I have a 13yr old kid with a degree program. I don't know what his future college will be. He wants to go to MIT but I don't know how that is going to work yet. We're just taking it one year at a time.
Eileen

Eileen, it sounds like things are going well for your son. For anyone else who reads this and is also from a small town, perhaps without a community college (it's 200 miles to the nearest college from my town) I would like to suggest, in addition to the homeschooling, that some retired folks make great tutors. Retired teachers are a particularly good choice, and you may be pleased to find that they'll teach for free. The best teachers, when they retire, often miss teaching. What a gift for them to have the opportunity to work with your bright young person!

Golly Rabbit -
How did you get the nerve to ask some of the retired folks to tutor? I know that there are retired folks here in this town that would be wonderful tutors for my DS10, but I just can't get myself to take the first step.

Hi Eileen -
I'm so glad your son's education is working out. My DS10 just asked me yesterday, isn't there anyway we can homeschool? With my 7-6pm schedual, I don't see how, but I'm keeping my eye on the local cc for the future.

Trinity

Hi, I am new to all this but have enjoyed reading this. I am looking for resources and guidance to help my 15 year old son who wasn't challenged in elementary, or now two separate private schools. He shows no interest in school, doesn't socialize - prefering to noodle on his guitar or design on his computer at home with us. He is in honors courses and the teachers tell us he is to be tracked for AP course work, but there is a serious breakdown here! Our rural high school doesn't have anything in technology or math and science. Maybe humanities, History is an interest as well as graphic design and technology. I don't have any thunderolts to cause schools to want to do anything special for him, where it sounds like your son's abilities preceeded him to CC. Were his test results from the public schools off the chart? Were you doing any specific homeschool curricula, and are these cooperative schools in Connecticut? Love to hear from you. Thanks

Hi Cmom,
Well my first though is that summertime is comming - is a summer sleepaway program a possibility? The talent searches do them, and there is davidson's Think Summer Institute. Has he taken the SAT or ACT?

Is there a Community College around you?

There are plenty of self teaching AP prep courses and materials on the WEB - would he do an self study in AP computer-something and take the test at your local test center?

Is he willing to attend his current school? Does he like it? Maybe all that is needed is getting him a Mentor - Internet or in-real-life, and getting him in direction to meet some like minded friends? Is Early College or Boarding school an option?

In CT we have a Sudbury school which is an unusual but potentially interesting option. The kids basically assume all responsibility for what they want to learn and contract the talent. If we were closer geographically, I would have pushed for this option.

My son is at a private school, prep-type with a grade skip. Since he came over after 4th grade, his school grades were pretty much all As even with Serious Underachievment. We had IQ and achievement tests, twice, which didn't help (much) at the public school, but by the time we got to the private school, the gradeskip occured within 10 days of the request. Very strange after slogging it out in the public school for a whole year.

Check if your rural high school offers online or distance classes - many do.
Whats going on for DS "as a person?"

Love and More Love,
Trinity

Trinity-

To answer your question:

I found a notice posted by a retired English teacher at our library. He was offering help with SAT prep. I called him up and said "Hey...".
He LOVES working with my kids because they are interested in what he has to teach.

I found a math tutor through a friend - when I was introduced I said "Oh, you're a teacher??? Well, I've been looking for someone..."


I would encourage you just to approach the people you mention. Really, good teachers often miss teaching when they retire! If you think your son would be at all attentive, I'd go ahead and do it - you are offering to do the retired teacher a favor!

I teach at an arts magnet school. Kids choose to specialize in one of 6 areas: math/science, dance, creative writing, music, theatre arts, or visual arts. It's a public school, so kids still get the state mandated curriculum. We do offer a lot of AP courses, too. The teachers here are very creative. We have to be creative because we've got a lot of gifted and high-achieving kids. It's a great program.

The IB schools in our area have a great reputation and are not really known for giving an unmanageable amount of work. I would check out this program. Take a list of questions with you!

Pinkpanther:
I posted a link to an interesting article in another thread.
Here it is:
http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/AoPS_R_A_Calculus.php
I would be very interested in your thoughts, as a math educator.
Ania

We definitely buy into this at my school. Our math/science curriculum features AP courses, but we go well beyond the scope of the AP topics, digging deeper for further understanding. Problem solving is a huge aspect of our curriculum. I teach discrete math, and I focus my course on proof and problem solving. My goal is to get the students to think creatively about math and to communicate effectively using mathematical symbols and terminology. In fact, we use the AOPS series with our math team students. I think the term 'calculus trap' is an unfortunate label, though.