If you are homeschooling because your child is academically an off-the-chart outlier

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How are all these kids off the charts of there are 25 replies in a few hours on a regional message board? I say this as the parent of a child who read at 2 and can derive advanced calculus formulas at 10 in his spare time. Clearly still on some chart, though, just s bit above average.

Huhh? Advanced calculus at 10 is definitely off the charts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. Please don’t push these kids ahead. If they’re not suffering socially now they will be. Of course there are outliers, but in general people let their egos get the best of them and these kids are stuck taking awful math classes they hate in high school. It’s easy to push kids ahead when they’re young and people mistake this fun party trick for doing what’s “best” for their kid. My daughter is at a better college than many of her peers who were pushed ahead. Being well-rounded makes for a much better long-term outcome.

Is it really "pushing ahead" if the parent is just removing artificial roadblocks in the way? The longitudinal research on gifted children has shown that subject and grade acceleration leads to positive outcomes for gifted kids. I don't know if those peers of her who were pushed ahead were gifted and burned out, or if they just didn't have the time to have a highschool career that stood out to college adcoms like your daughter did.

[Anonymous]

The most critical piece of advice has been mentioned but is worth repeating: find areas where they do *not* excel and create conditions for lots of work and frustration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The most critical piece of advice has been mentioned but is worth repeating: find areas where they do *not* excel and create conditions for lots of work and frustration.

With the caveat being that the work is meaningful. Anyone can drown the in worksheets and make them hate school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The most critical piece of advice has been mentioned but is worth repeating: find areas where they do *not* excel and create conditions for lots of work and frustration.

I think this is why most do music. Do you have other suggestions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most critical piece of advice has been mentioned but is worth repeating: find areas where they do *not* excel and create conditions for lots of work and frustration.

I think this is why most do music. Do you have other suggestions?

?? A lot of high IQ kids tend do really well in music. There have been studies showing that high scores in working memory are strongly correlated with musical talent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most critical piece of advice has been mentioned but is worth repeating: find areas where they do *not* excel and create conditions for lots of work and frustration.

I think this is why most do music. Do you have other suggestions?

?? A lot of high IQ kids tend do really well in music. There have been studies showing that high scores in working memory are strongly correlated with musical talent.

High scores in working memory is likely strongly correlated with lots of other talents, like Chess, math, or anything that taxes working memory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most critical piece of advice has been mentioned but is worth repeating: find areas where they do *not* excel and create conditions for lots of work and frustration.

I think this is why most do music. Do you have other suggestions?

?? A lot of high IQ kids tend do really well in music. There have been studies showing that high scores in working memory are strongly correlated with musical talent.

High scores in working memory is likely strongly correlated with lots of other talents, like Chess, math, or anything that taxes working memory.

Physically playing an instrument can be difficult though. Like violin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most critical piece of advice has been mentioned but is worth repeating: find areas where they do *not* excel and create conditions for lots of work and frustration.

I think this is why most do music. Do you have other suggestions?

?? A lot of high IQ kids tend do really well in music. There have been studies showing that high scores in working memory are strongly correlated with musical talent.

High scores in working memory is likely strongly correlated with lots of other talents, like Chess, math, or anything that taxes working memory.

Physically playing an instrument can be difficult though. Like violin.

That's also true for martial arts, especially for kids with poor kinesthetic intelligence who therefore need to consciously process their entire body's position and movement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most critical piece of advice has been mentioned but is worth repeating: find areas where they do *not* excel and create conditions for lots of work and frustration.

I think this is why most do music. Do you have other suggestions?

I would involve them in/help them take responsibility for many of the daily tasks you currently do. Meal planning, taking care of younger siblings, home repairs, daily errands, etc. All of these are non-academic but require lots of other types of intelligence— particularly caring for younger siblings. There’s so much that will stretch a kid in these tasks, and will help them to adjust socially.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most critical piece of advice has been mentioned but is worth repeating: find areas where they do *not* excel and create conditions for lots of work and frustration.

I think this is why most do music. Do you have other suggestions?

Music is certainly a good one - having to learn a new type of language and translate that into a physical skill. Any foreign language is useful in this way, so my kids study Latin as well as the modern foreign language of their choice. And we use AoPS for math, which involves a lot of discovery and (at least potential for) frustration. But my kids are also not super sporty, so I think of sports as a way to push them outside of their comfort zone, to learn something that doesn't come easily and to experience not being the best at something.

[Anonymous]

We pulled our 2E kid last year to homeschool. Public wasn't working and we can't afford Sienna or Oakwood. We knew DD was gifted, but we didn't realize the extent until we made some amazing progress with the dyslexia. She's well above grade level on math (which she LOVES) and science but behind on reading and LA. It's an interesting dichotomy, and what public didn't work.

She still does Girl Scouts, is on a rec soccer team and will join the swim team this summer. She has many friendships and socially is very age appropriate. She does tend to do "better" with adults and older kids, but she's fine with kids her own age.

During the "school week" we start later than public and end around the time the bus drops off. She plays with neighbor friends. She needs far less time to learn math/science, but far more on LA & reading. She does have an online OG tutor (25min/day, M-F), but I do everything else. We did a lot of research before pulling her, and she's doing so well at this point. The first 4-8 weeks were a lot of "trial and error" to see what she actually knew, and how she learned best.

We're going to start her in Spanish in the fall. She's only going to be 10 this summer, but she wants to be an engineer and with her struggles with Dyslexia we both think her getting a head start on a second language will be important (the college she currently wants to attend requires 3 years of a language).

Her working memory isn't great and while she enjoys listening to music (and can remember a song verbatim after listening to it once or twice), that's definitely not an interest for her. Instead she's working on stop-motion videos and a children's book about Dyslexia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're going to start her in Spanish in the fall. She's only going to be 10 this summer, but she wants to be an engineer and with her struggles with Dyslexia we both think her getting a head start on a second language will be important (the college she currently wants to attend requires 3 years of a language).

Wouldn't extra math (AoPS!) be more useful than an extra language? Most language requirements are for 3/4 years of language *in high school*, so having previous language experience wouldn't save time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're going to start her in Spanish in the fall. She's only going to be 10 this summer, but she wants to be an engineer and with her struggles with Dyslexia we both think her getting a head start on a second language will be important (the college she currently wants to attend requires 3 years of a language).

Wouldn't extra math (AoPS!) be more useful than an extra language? Most language requirements are for 3/4 years of language *in high school*, so having previous language experience wouldn't save time.

You really don’t think that already knowing a language would make “learning” a language easier in high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're going to start her in Spanish in the fall. She's only going to be 10 this summer, but she wants to be an engineer and with her struggles with Dyslexia we both think her getting a head start on a second language will be important (the college she currently wants to attend requires 3 years of a language).

Wouldn't extra math (AoPS!) be more useful than an extra language? Most language requirements are for 3/4 years of language *in high school*, so having previous language experience wouldn't save time.

You really don’t think that already knowing a language would make “learning” a language easier in high school?

That argument can be made for any subject. Learning highschool science would make "learning" science easier highschool. Learning highschool math would make "learning" math easier highschool. Learning highschool history would make "learning" science easier highschool. What's special to you about language?