Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Discrepancies in abilities (& homeschooling)

This is my first post here and I'm so thankful to have this forum! I'm not sure the best place for this question, so please let me know if I'm in the wrong place. I think the question is more about how to best serve my son given his giftedness rather than "homeschool" per se.

Ds is 4 and in kindergarten this year but I'm planning to homeschool next year. Up to this point, his learning has been 100% self-led. This has been wonderful, but has also caused some huge discrepancies in his skill level across academic subjects.

Here are some examples to show what I mean:
-Reading is approx 5th grade level but spelling is several years behind. He's still working on proper letter formation (i.e., handwriting) and is not composing written sentences yet. No knowledge of grammar except what he's gleaned through his reading.
-Science is approx 6th grade level or higher (this is truly his gift and he CRAVES learning more--starting to get into basic chemistry and physics now. He "thinks" science all day long.)
-Math is 1st-2nd grade level
-Geography is great. He's been map-crazy since age 3 and knows all the states and capitals, approx 50 countries, and all continents, oceans, etc. His knowledge of history is almost non-existent.

I've been toying with different hs approaches I can take with him. At first, I decided to concentrate on weak areas and "even" out the playing field a bit. There is such a huge discrepancy in his reading and writing. And he'll soon be at the point in science where he can't move forward without higher math skills. So that makes sense, right? Focus on weakness and try to rein in areas where he's galloping ahead.

But now I'm leaning toward not doing that. He LOVES science and learning. How can I not make that a big part of his school day? It's his gift. As long as he's not below grade level in any area, why not just move to the next level in all subjects--leaving the discrepancies there unless he makes a giant leap forward. Is that crazy? Or the right thing to do for an unusual child?

Maybe it depends a bit on what exactly you mean by focus? I think your second thought, that it would be sad to deprive your son of the science he loves, is absolutely correct. OTOH, you have only a finite amount of time and energy to put into choosing material and supporting his learning - it might make sense for you to put more of *your* time and energy into his weaker areas, since those are where he may need the support more, even if he's spending the same amount of time on each subject area.

Welcome, too! I think you'll find this a useful place to be. My DS-just-6 is also very keen on science; he's in school and it's going well so far, but I do realise how lucky we are in having a school available that meets his needs.

We are homeschooling. I require both my kids (5 and 9) to do a journal entry and a page in whatever Writing without tears book they are working in at the moment every day. For my 5 year old, this is typically a 10 minute thing. Now my 5 year old does a lot more writing on her own. They have other minimum requirements too, but that's it for writing.

I guess my point is, if you can give at least a few minutes a day to the weakness (writing or whatever) you can usually make great progress over the course of a year without really sacrificing much. My kids have many open hours where they can do what they want or we dig into bigger projects, go on field trips, etc. So you can still make science the center of your school day. You can even have him keep a science journal where he might write a sentence or 2 a day about whatever he did.

Good luck!

Welcome, there are lots of great people on here and lots of ideas!

Writing is a weak area for my DS6 as well. Has nothing to do with academics, it's just that his motor skills are 6, regardless of what level his brain is working at. As a concession to this he types anything over a paragraph long.

He is also all over the map in his levels in various subjects. We work in time frames. He gets 30-45 minutes on any given subject and we work at whatever level he's at. He uses free time to dig deeper into subjects that he loves. His latest fascination is with chemistry and although "class time" is 45 minutes 3x a week, he spends a lot of time on his own working through stuff.

In the beginning I thought like you, that he needed to work on his weak areas, but it just frustrated both of us. The stuff that was weak was mostly from lack of exposure and he's made great strides in those areas now that he has the material. We also do what is referred to as going wide, which means that he does several subjects that wouldn't be on a standard curriculum. Foriegn language, greek and roman mythology, computer programming all in an attempt to slow him down. The important thing is to do wht works for you and your kiddo. There isn't any one right way to homeschool. Enjoy the ride!

This sounds a lot like my DS. He's also 4, in kindergarten, reads at at least the 5th grade level, spells around a 2nd grade level and is around a 1st or 2nd grade level in math. Each student in my son's class receives one-on-one reading instruction with the teacher each day, and since he's already a fluent reader, his teacher uses that time to work on his spelling and writing, where he's much weaker. She has told us, "I'm not doing any reading instruction with him. He knows how to read." Instead, she asks him to read some short piece written at a 4th or 5th grade level and then gives him open-ended comprehension questions, which he has to answer in writing in full sentences. As I wrote on another recent post, my son is very emotional and a perfectionist, so the writing has involved no small amount of frustration and crying, but his teacher has been great about working him through it, and he's now writing/spelling voluntarily at home and is MUCH more comfortable with making mistakes than he was before school started. So, to the extent that focusing on a weakness has made things challenging and forced my son to cope with making mistakes, we're very happy that his teacher has gone this route.

I would consider concentrating on the three R's so to speak- reading, writing (spelling, handwriting, grammar), and math in gentle way since he is still 4 When my son was 4, he hated writing. You could experiment with chalkboards, white boards, and try HWT for 10 minutes a day. If he is up to it, then you could try things orally for a while till his writing gets up to speed which may take a couple of years as it did in my ds.

I did this and am doing this with my ds who is about to turn 8. He sounds like your son in many ways and yes, he loves science. We do some science with his cyber school, but I do not place a heavy emphasis on this since he learns oodles about science in his free time on his own . Of course, in the next couple of years, I will have him focus more on science future, but right now he does fantastic with all of the reading he does in his spare time. I would just supply him with numerous science books for his spare reading and see what happens .

I think that by concentrating on the 3 R's, then it will be easier to expand his studies and activities IMHO.

At this age, you may want to consider foreign language though since kid's brains just soak up languages especially between 4-7 years of age I use Muzzy Spanish and Muzzy german. There are many great foreign language programs for young kids.

I don't have much time and will reply a little late, big IEP meeting with the school today. Welcome, glad you found it over here!

One other thing to consider is Discovery Education United Streaming from HomeschoolBuyer'sCo-op to feed his desire for science in his spare time. My son loved watching all of the science shows for fun My dh hooked the computer to the TV so that he could watch it on the TV. They do have a 30 day free trial.

A well-known authority on GT kids advised me to spend 3 minutes on my son's strengths for every 1 minute we spend on his weaker areas. "School should be fun for him," he said. "Don't hammer away at things that aren't his favorite."

I thought that was excellent advice, and I pass it on whenever it fits!

My goal in homeschooling is to try to keep DS8 at least at age level in all areas--never behind, if I can help it--but to avoid slowing him down in things that he loves. So he gallops ahead in science, math, and fiction, and his writing and knowledge of the times tables is pretty much right on par with his age.

It works for us, FWIW. Maybe that helps you think about your situation? I hope...

I think this is very wise advice. Even though I emphasize the 3 R's at the moment, I try to make it as fun as possible. I guess in my ds's situation, I believe that he has such a strong interest in science that I do not need to spend as much time on it right now in a formal fashion. His knowledge of science blows me way. I literally have to take the science books out of his hands at times to get him to do other things I do encourage his science explorations though by providing tons of science books and via science shows . He also takes a science course via the cyber school. My main goal is to get him up to speed in the 3 R's so that he will have the tools to deal with advanced courses across the curriculum. Consequently, in a formal sense I do spend more time on the 3 R's as well as foreign languages. Informally, my ds spends the rest of his free time usually on some sort of science or history in addition to little boy stuff .

P.S. When my son was 4, he would not have tolerated so much time on the 3 R's so to speak. I definitely had to be more creative back then to make it fun.