I'm Still Sort Of Really Qualified to Homeschool a Gifted Child

by Valorie Delp | More from this Blogger

30 Dec 2008 05:41 AM

A big thanks to Andrea for letting me share our adventures with Alex over the past year or so. In case you're just joining us. . .Alex is our son and he is a little bit smart. This is part 2 of a series about choosing curriculum for him. I hope you find it helpful if you're just starting to navigate the road of homeschooling a gifted child.

Mom Panics

I left our story last by describing the first leg of our journey--where I panicked. Last year, Alex flew through three whole grade levels of curriculum. But it was the easy stuff. Adding, subtracting, etc. Everyone told me he'd slow down.

He's not slowing down--at least not anytime soon.

He has mastered fractions, percentages, long division, double digit multiplication (which he mostly does in his head by the way), and simple algebra. He masters topics before I introduce them. Here is literally how I taught him how to divide:

Me: Hey Alex, today we're going to learn division. It's the opposite of multiplication.

Alex: Oh, does that mean that if you have 12 things and you want to put them in groups of 4, there'd be 3 in each group?

Me: Um. . .yeah.

And that was that--he divided. And I panicked.

Mom Seeks Advice and Tries Harder Curriculums

So I did what I think most homeschooling parents do when they're stumped. . .I asked friends and others on forums what they would do. Here is a sampling of my answers:

*Your curriculum is too easy. . .try this or that which is more advanced. (I did try this and that which were actually easier than Saxon. Saxon isn't perfect but I'm able to tailor it.)

*You have to slow him down with enrichment. You don't want him doing math before he can write well. (He cannot write well--he actually has dyslexia. As you can see from the above example though. . .there's little I can do to 'keep' him from getting it. He just does.)

*You're clearly pushing him too hard. He's not developmentally ready to do the things you're asking him to do. Even if he can do it doesn't mean he's ready to. You need to spend less time on math per day. (Okay, so you don't know me, but I promise you that I'm not a pushy mom. This is a kid who simply gets it intuitively. Not only that but we were only doing 15 to 20 minutes of math per day anyways. How much less can I really do?)

Disregarding the Advice

So finding the advice unhelpful was actually very difficult. These were people who "knew" what they were talking about when it came to homeschooling, working with gifted kids and/or teaching math. So who am I to tell these experts that they were wrong?

Stay tuned for the next and final installment of I'm Sort of Really Qualified. . .

Learn more about Valorie Delp

Hello everybody! My name is Valorie and I am one busy lady! When I'm not writing or editing for families, I am busy trying to get my brood of 5 in line.

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3Js (10) 30 Dec 2008 02:58 PM

So many of the "experts" have not truly experienced the exceptionally gifted child. They are also not at home with you and are probably making some biased assumptions. Don't fault them, don't worry about how to say they weren't very helpful. They are only speaking from their own experience and studies. Have you tried reviewing anything written by Carol Ann Tomlinson or Joseph Renzulli? Might I suggest The Parallel Curriculum...it may be too soon for some of the suggestions, but it may offer some ideas for you. In any event, these authors are well published and I imagine you would find something quite helpful. Also, check out http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/

Valorie Delp (49340) 30 Dec 2008 05:53 PM

Oh my point wasn't to condescend "experts". My point was that it's different for every child. . .and that in my case the experts were wrong. I've seen hoagies gifted--love it--it's a an excellent page.

Andrea Hermitt (5512) 31 Dec 2008 11:57 PM

Great series. Your son might slow down in the middle school years... or he may not. I have learned over the years that you just have to let your kid go at their own pace. I know my two have left me panicked over the years, and I am now in a panic right now with the two of them speeding toward college, with the younger one leading the race... I am realizing that trying to slow them down could halt them indefinitely. Therefore, my plan for next year is to have the curriculum ready and let them go for it!

Valorie Delp (49340) 01 Jan 2009 05:32 AM

Thanks for your encouraging words Andrea. I hope he slows down. . .it would make my life easier! But like you my plan is to just let him go and see where we end up. I have no preconceived ideas that he has to finish Calculus before high school and yet that's certainly where we're headed. I expect he'll finish all of elementary math this year. . .maybe early next year. Anyhow, my big thing now is- what to do after Calculus?