Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Homeschooling Approach for GT?

I'd be chicken to go complete unschooling too. But the work I "require" that keeps us at grade level really rarely takes more than an hour or two altogether. That does leave a lot of time for field trips, creative free play, and independent learning of his choice.

I heard one unschooling mom speak at an unschooling event. Her philosophy was one that didn't necessarily lead her kids down a path towards college. She really let them take the lead entirely from day 1. I cannot do that. I strongly feel my kids are definitely going to college and I feel they need to be prepared to do that successfully. One of her kids did go on to college (I got the feeling he was quite GT, because he read spontaneously early). The other one did not go to college. I do think there is a lot of middle ground between doing say a very structured classical homeschool curriculum and completely unschooling. Like right now we are doing a chemistry curriculum. But my 8 year old chose chemistry as the next science he wanted to pursue.

You are right about the definition of unschooling - it can be different for different families - there is a even a term called radical unschooling where the whole family basically lives their entire lives with the whole unschooling term or a more traditional unschooling method of the parent leaving various items around the house to peek an interest in a child to do further exploring or you can just let the child set the pace and do what they are interested in or a combo of all of the above
:-) We do most of our learning experiences out and about - growing our own garden, raising butterflies, taking old computers apart, experimenting with rocket building... when he shows an interest in something I try to find everything possible in the community to explore concerning that area and what is cool to watch is that as he is exploring a topic he is interested in, he is reading to learn more about it, he is usually doing some kind of math, history usually gets involved while reading about the subject, art comes along if he wants to make something. So instead of forcing him to sit and do reading time (which was ALWAYS a fight), he will sit and spend an hour reading about computer programming to help him complete a project he is working on. Once you start you will quickly realize which method works best for you...I do want to share that before anyone goes and spends a lot of money purchasing curriculum materials, go pick up a few workbooks at a local bookstore or make some of your own lessons and see how your child handles the whole situation first because you may find that one method works better than another and then you can go order curriculum if you want once you see how it all falls together.

I think people think unschooling means kids either playing video games all day or doing nothing but cooking and gardening. Maybe that's okay for some families, but I'm not into that. But I can actually see how unschooling could work for DD because she is so interested in learning about everything around her. And I am interested in teaching--but unschooling doesn't mean that I wouldn't be able to share my ideas and suggestions and tips with DD. It just means I wouldn't tell her what to do and force her to learn things she's not into. I do think the theory of unschooling--that kids who aren't forced or drilled love learning and teach themselves at their own pace--is pretty great.

That's not to say that we'll necessarily go that route. I go back and forth about the value of learning to do something you don't want to do and when/how/why that should be taught.

I like that we don't have to do all-or-nothing of any one approach. We're much more "unschool-y" than we were when we started, though the full-on unschoolers that I know probably wouldn't see us as unschooling. But I know a few people who call themselves unschoolers who do very much what we do: something along the lines of "Math time! What do you choose to work on today of the possibilities I have here for you? Or would you prefer to come up with a project of your own?"

With kids who crave learning and love a challenge, this really seems to me to be a good approach. It's certainly not for all kids, but if you have a child who wants to learn about everything and doesn't run away from hard work, I think it's a pretty good plan.

It's also nice because if the child *stops* wanting to lead the way, it's always possible for the parent to become more directive without it being a big deal. Something along the lines of "If you don't care, I can choose something for you."

YMMV, of course...

We also tend to unschooling, though not completely. DS7 is very self-motivated in most areas and if he has something he wants to learn, it always trumps whatever I had planned. But, I do usually have something lined up for those times that he's not working on his own thing. Usually what happens is that I'll introduce a new topic and something about it will spark his interest and he'll run with it (which is part of the reason we're still not quite done with Story of the World Vol. 1 after over a year, lol). We tend to meander through topics and get lost on tangents.

But, there are some subjects that he just doesn't choose on his own with enough regularity for me to believe that he's really challenging himself- mainly math and writing. Those subjects I will schedule things for him to learn and work on. I try to keep them palatable, I try to incorporate them in ways that make them relevant to what he's interested in, but whether he enjoys them or not, they have to be done because working on things we don't enjoy or maybe aren't very good at is just as important as doing what we love.

We do very little or no workbook or textbook work. We tend to use "living books" (I really do love the Charlotte Mason description of books) and do unit studies. DS7 is very good at trivia-type knowledge, my goal is to give him context and deep understanding of the things he already knows. I don't want to drive *what* he learns, I want to help guide him in how he thinks about it and the connections he makes using what he already knows.

But, this is just what works for us and it has taken us some time to get here. We had a lot of mis-steps before I figured out that for the most part, DS just needs me to get out of his way and for DS to realize that if he wants me to give him space to learn what he wants, then he's going to have to appease me and learn the few things I think are important for him.

Yes, that's my issue w/ 100% unschooling. DS is not motivated enough to do things that aren't *fun*. I've read of kids not learning algebra until they decide they want to go to college, then they are motivated to learn all the math at once that they need but it may mean they don't go to college until 22, for instance.

I think if I only had one, I would do more unschooling but with a very busy 2yr old and a 5yr old, it's easier for me to open the math book (we use Rightstart which is less workbooky than others I've seen) and do the next lesson. I do use living books to go along w/ math to make it interesting as well as learning math history etc which he loves, but I don't know about totally giving up the workbooks lol.

One painful lesson I learned was DS expressed interest in lapbooking. He chose the lapbook he wanted to do. He hates cutting etc so I agreed to print it and cut it all out. Well, after it was all done, he decided he didn't want to do it. Lesson learned lol! He has since picked a new one he really wants to do but I've left it up to him to print it out, cut it out etc and it has yet to happen.

So I would definitely caution against buying a bunch of stuff...try one or two things and see if it goes over well.

I don't think I could give up my history textbook either lol. We use SOTW - we do lots of go-alongs (historical fiction, beautiful picture books (The boys still ask for Gilgamesh) but I like going chronologically. DS does to so it's something he enjoys. On his own, her pursues his interest in WWII through documentaries and books. But we do things like DS will be on a dig w/ an archaeologist all week studying Ancient Greece. We spent the day w/ the archaeologist at a museum studying ancient Greece exhibit. As part of the dig he has been playing Parthenon game and we'll buy it for home. So I like delving into these things but use textbooks like SOTW as a spine.

I do lean more toward Charlotte Mason. Get the core stuff done in the AM with the afternoons free to explore interests. DS likes to spread things out throughout the day with frequent breaks in between.

What an interesting journey it is!!!!! And it's so different for everyone!

I am also new to homeschooling; this was our first year with the older kids. I have found that no one approach and no one way works for my children, depending on the child and the subject. Makes for a lot of work for mom, but works really well for us.

I have materials from 8-10 different publishers, again child/subject dependent. I also always have my library card maxed out, we are limited to 50 books here. I do have an actual curriculum for math for all the kids, we just move forward based on each child. I have many other curriculum materials, I have found that many traditional publishers offer online versions of many of their textbooks at a much smaller cost in most cases. I use this as a great resource as well. (It can be hard to find secualr materials for homeschoolers, my choice.) I visited my state website and pulled grade level curriculum expectations for each grade to help guide my core curriculum, or use inexpensive materials like studies weekly to guide me. We just checked in with the Barrons, Making the Grade series to see where we were grade wise there as well.

My kids tend to want more than a base curriculum alone would offer, both in content and variety. They are also very interested in science, so TWTM wouldn't work so well here. My DD9 chose an online science course for high school credit to use for this coming year and decided which area of history she wants to study next. I don't think I am as unschooling as many here by any means, but I am learning. I found it very hard at first to leave the way I was taught behind and be more open to my child, still working on that. I find it easier with the littler kids because they never had "traditional school" like my oldest DD does. I do my best to be flexible, not to plan to far ahead, because things always change, they become more fluid with time.

Yes, Melmichigan...I wouldn't plan too far ahead! I had to b/c my district wants a detailed plan for the entire year but I do see how I can make it a bit more vague to give us more leeway. It's not that big a deal...if you don't meet your goals, you have to state a reason why which I did and it was OK'd as usual...I wonder if they even read the quarterly reports.

Dazey,

A good friend of mine has to submit lesson plans for the year as well. She went to the Time4Learning site, pulled up the lesson plan for the grade level her son was supposed to be in. It's very comprehensive. With a GT of course. everthing that is grade appropriate is already known material! So you are free to learn as you wish and the requirements are fulfilled!

I use their lesson plans to make sure that my kidlets are missing anything vital. Don't want to leave holes! You can access the lesson plans free on their site.

Oh that's good to know BWBShari! I'll take a look!

Thanks!
Dazey