Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Portfolio question

I struggle with this. I think that sure, achievement could not be as high as it would. Certainly you can increase achievement results with direct instruction.

My DD6 was in a gifted K classroom last year. They do a lot of enrichment, but academically, they take a very slow and easy start. She had achievement test done 3 days after starting 1st grade. Her results were very good. It got me by surprise in some areas, like math. Yes, we talk about math when it comes up. For instance, a few weeks ago, she was building triangles with cheerios or some other thing she was eating. Since she was doing triangular numbers, I told her that is what they are called. She then started mentally continuing the list of triangular numbers.

Then, a few days later, for some reason she started doing 2*2, 3*3, 4*4... that day she was busy with something else, so I did not mention those were square numbers.

Achievement test will certainly not ask for triangular numbers; and that is the type of math we do. In short, we do feed her brain and we do use learning opportunities, but we do not currently do direct teaching. However, her achievement scores were still very high.

In short, I guess that many HG+ kids will still continue to learn, they seem to be able to figure things out and acquire knowledge through osmosis.

I agree though, that a very bad school experience might slow them down. Also, like PP, extreme conditions could slow/stop a PG child's ability to progress.

I agree, also. We have achievement scores for DS7 from about 4 months after we started homeschooling at 6, after a very unchallenging K experience, and then again this past Spring at 7 (we use the WJ-III annually to satisfy homeschooling laws). The only place we saw a huge difference after specific instruction was his calculation score that went up by almost 20 points, all the other subtests were pretty much the same.

The first tester told me that he solved a division word problem by drawing it out on paper- and I *know* I hadn't taught him division. He didn't know how to calculate it, but he knew that if he had had x number of something and he needed to split it up evenly into y number of groups, then he could do it with dots on the paper.

We're pretty relaxed homeschoolers, with DS7 directing most of our work and the testing shows that I'm not actually increasing the rate that he learns- he's going to pick things with or without me. For him, the difference is that he's a happier person when he has easy access to information and ideas, rather than having to fight tooth and nail to get the things he needs.

I don't think most people here are doing a lot of traditional academics outside of school.

I tend to push DS8 a bit more on his homeschooling work this year, but only for official schoolwork, and that's because I want him learning a work ethic rather than because I want him to achieve more.

I'm not unusual. I know many of us here are child-led like that and not pushing achievement. I'd guess it's the majority, in fact.

People who do more formal afterschooling usually do it because their particular kids need it, crave it, are miserable without it. Not because their kids would underachieve without it.

I could be wrong (and often am!) but that's my perception.

Ah, this brings back memories! We also went down this road - my DS could quote all of Simon and Garfunkle's lyrics in K. We also thought that if we were very good parents, and didn't step outside the lines, that we could send our DS to his regular neighborhood school and he could be a regular neighborhood kid. I really resent the extreames I went to to restrain myself from mentioning anything 'school-y' even when it came up in conversation. So preK we would talk about Infinity, but postK we only talked about topics that we were pretty sure wouldn't come up in school. And as you have found - all for nothing.

OTGMom - if you child is PG, borderline PG, or 'only HG' or 'only MG' it doesn't matter a bit - he still deserves to be taught at this readiness level. All children deserve this. It has been helpful to me to have my son score 'that way' on tests so I can 'really believe' that the reason he was bored in school wasn't some defect in his character.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

LOL my son did this too! His principal in K was Mrs. Robinson and when he met her he said "hey, just like the song!" I suspect that was the first time she'd heard that from a 4 year old