Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments homeschooling but going in for gifted program

I was very curious how many parents on here have children that are homeschooled but who also go into public schools for their gifted program. I have run into so many people lately that have shared that they homeschool their children but that their county allows them to "drive in" their children for the local public school's one day a week gifted class. We currently "drive in" for speech services.

There are several counties here in Florida that do allow gifted children to do that and of course our county does not. I was looking at possibly putting some information together to address the new superintendent of our county in hopes that maybe he would look at changing that rule.

After all the "yuck" DS6 has gone through between last year and then his fiasco this year we finally had our gifted IEP meeting today. They stated that he more than meets the qualifications for the gifted program and everyone agreed and signed the paperwork putting him in the gifted program (which is one day a week for 1/2 a day) but then stated that since the county doesn't allow homeschoolers to attend, his paperwork will stay in place for 3 years in that maybe he goes back to public school or the rules change and then he would could take part in the class.

Would just love to hear if anyone else on here is homeschooled and is allowed to attend their public school's gifted program. Thanks!

How Frustrating!
Can you 'drive in' t a neighboring district?
I would certainly keep asking the Principle and then the School Board, if you win an ally they may bend the rules for you, or change them.

Of course the 1/2 day program may not actually be challenging enough, and not worth your time. Will they let you observe before you invest the energy?

Smiles,
Grinity

Thanks Grinity - I hadn't thought about going into a neighboring county. The frustrating thing to us is that we pretty much begged them to look at our testing and information at the end of the 08-09 school year so that we could get everything in place for the beginning of the school year this year. They would not....and we both feel like if they had taken the time and energy and listened to the testing psychologist and gotten all this in place before school started and he started out in the gifted program than maybe, just maybe, his first month of school might not have been a total disaster for him.

Our biggest thing with him being in the gifted program was for him to possibly, finally get a chance to be around other children "that understand" him....even if it was for 3 hours once a week. He keeps telling us that he really wished that he could meet other kids that liked the same things he did and he is tired of hearing other children tell him he is "weird" because he likes to talk about stars or plate techtonics. I think just seeing that there are other children that are similair in the way they think like him that it would help him feel better about himself.

Belle, I finally saw your PM to me this morning and sent you a reply, though I was concerned that it was too late.

One more thing - I'm generally a big fan of getting people to show me where exactly the rules say that something can or cannot happen. More times that I care to count, what they tell you the rule or policy says is not really what it says and you can't know that until you see it in writing. Usually, if it's not in writing, it's not really true. I'd be asking them to show me where it says that homeschoolers can't use the gifted services and then I'd probably be having a casual conversation with the state Dept of Education to find out why. I don't know much about the homeschooling rules, but I've heard homeschoolers can participate in extracurriculars like sports, why not academics?

Unfortunately, that still means you have to decide exactly how far to push the issue if they give you a hard time (whether you want to resort to some sort of due process or legal action) in order to get them to follow their own rules. Since you are homeschooling you may not be as concerned about the fallout that may come from challenging the powers that be, but you also have to balance how much time you spend on an issue that you can solve on your own.

Belle, as far as finding peers, keep digging. The gifted class at school isn't the only option.

I don't know where in Brevard you are, but we've been impressed with the Hatterdays program at Stetson (in DeLand-Volusia County), which meets once a month on Saturday mornings for 3 hours. They are open to K-9 and usually have a science topic for the K-3rd grade group - often tied to a particular Magic Treehouse or Magic Schoolbus theme - Sept. they did MSB space/planets, Oct is MSB-Haunted Mansion, etc. In the older groups (4-6 and 6-9)they have a mix of science and more creative activities. Several families travel from Brevard County, one family even comes from Tallahassee because they value the program. They also have summer camps.

They often have valuable presentations for the parents to attend while the students are in class - and discussions with other parents can be very helpful as well - they know who to call, who is helpful and not, etc. It has helped us build a network, not only for the children, but for the families as well.

I keep forgetting things. There is also a pretty active Young Mensa group in central Florida. You might check them out as well.

THANKS Prissy for the info on Hatterdays...we had found the info about MASA in the Orlando area and their Saturday morning programs and DS6 seemed very interested...the Hatterdays program looks so cool and is about 1.5 hour drive which isn't any different then some of the hikes we have been making to get to some homeschool activities and what is cool is that there are several state parks nearby that we can go camp at for the weekend and then we can wake up and attend the Saturday program :-) The one in Dec. looks so neat- the Polar Express! My husband and I will be gone that weekend celebrating our 10 year anniversary and the grandparents were coming down to watch him so we are going to see if we can talk them into taking him
:-) Do you have any experience with the Central Florida Mensa? I have tried emailing 2 different people listed on their site and we have never gotten any information back. I wrote Mensa and they will accept his RIAS scores but we don't want to pay the money if there are no activities...I found the central florida website but have not gotten any responses back from anyone concerning what kind of activities they do. Thanks so much for the info - this is just what we have been looking for!

Prissy, I've had that same experience of being told by the school and the district that things are a certain way when in fact it is not written down anywhere. They tend to interpret the laws in ways that are most convenient. So I would definitely run this up the flagpole and contact the gifted coordinator at FL DOE: Donnajo.Smith@fldoe.org. She is very good at replying to email.

Another idea for you Belle is having your son participate in the school's Odyssey of the Mind team. They're putting the teams together now.

DeLeon Springs state park is about 10-20 minutes away and they have a great pancake breakfast at the old sugar mill!

We had checked into MASA as well, but hadn't tried it yet - my DD didn't meet the age/grade requirements last year and it's a little farther travel for us, so I didn't want to recommend something that I wasn't familiar with.

You might also check into the floridagiftednet yahoo group - I think you can access it from the FGN website. The list isn't always active, but I saw a post there from the end of Sept. about homeschool science classes through the Daytona Museum of Arts and Sciences, the Orlando Science Center and MOSI in Tampa, as well as the Volusia County ECHO ranger program and a comment about the US Geological Society Open House in St. Pete on 11/7. I think there may be several Brevard/Volusia families you could get in touch with through that list.

For the MENSA group, try Young MENSA - they have their own website. From there, I think you can contact the Gifted Children's Coordinator to get more info on their activities, and you can also get on the discussion list - brightkids.

Good luck!

Hey Prissy - thanks for the info - we are on the floridagifted group - I might have made the post because we are signed up for all the classes in Daytona, MOSI, and Orlando Science center and are doing the ECHO ranger program and I did make a post about the St. Pete Open house :-) We spend a lot of time in the car but DS doesn't seem to mind :-)

Jen