Anonymous
01/01/2024 03:58
Subject: If you are homeschooling because your child is academically an off-the-chart outlier
I completely agree with PP 01:28.
I have an off-the-charts elementary-school child whose differences from their peers have always been noticeable and are getting more and more noticeable over time. For better or for worse, my child is highly extroverted and socially adept. They are at an independent school where most of their classmates seem bright, probably several are gifted, and many are high achieving.
As parents we deeply frustrated because the number of extracurriculars that our child is in (following the advice to "enrich") feels overwhelming from a family schedule perspective. All this stuff is at the child's insistence, even though it means that they have almost no free time. (We are very strong believers in the value of free play, and bemoan overscheduling.)
We're paying incredibly high tuition, our child is learning almost nothing at school other than SEL (which is admittedly excellent), but they don't regard their school peers as friends (just convenient playmates), and we're being run ragged by the enrichment schedule. Since school is basically providing neither academics nor beneficial socialization, we feel like surely there must be a better alternative.
I have no doubt that grade-level academics could be trivially covered in an hour of homeschooling in the morning (plus child is doing multiple AoPS classes, several grades ahead; note that this was the AoPS decision on placement, not us pushing). Then many of the enrichments could be done in a homeschooling coop or day classes. (For the cost of private school, we could probably hire a driver to take the child from class to class.) My child prefers children who are about three years older; they like their peers in their mixed-age enrichments or in above-grade-level enrichments, but the enrichments don't have enough socialization time to really get to know the other kids well.
We'd then return our child to traditional school at middle school, or maybe high school, when differentiation of academics is a real possibility. So we'd homeschool for only a few years.
Has anyone tried this approach?
I have an off-the-charts elementary-school child whose differences from their peers have always been noticeable and are getting more and more noticeable over time. For better or for worse, my child is highly extroverted and socially adept. They are at an independent school where most of their classmates seem bright, probably several are gifted, and many are high achieving.
As parents we deeply frustrated because the number of extracurriculars that our child is in (following the advice to "enrich") feels overwhelming from a family schedule perspective. All this stuff is at the child's insistence, even though it means that they have almost no free time. (We are very strong believers in the value of free play, and bemoan overscheduling.)
We're paying incredibly high tuition, our child is learning almost nothing at school other than SEL (which is admittedly excellent), but they don't regard their school peers as friends (just convenient playmates), and we're being run ragged by the enrichment schedule. Since school is basically providing neither academics nor beneficial socialization, we feel like surely there must be a better alternative.
I have no doubt that grade-level academics could be trivially covered in an hour of homeschooling in the morning (plus child is doing multiple AoPS classes, several grades ahead; note that this was the AoPS decision on placement, not us pushing). Then many of the enrichments could be done in a homeschooling coop or day classes. (For the cost of private school, we could probably hire a driver to take the child from class to class.) My child prefers children who are about three years older; they like their peers in their mixed-age enrichments or in above-grade-level enrichments, but the enrichments don't have enough socialization time to really get to know the other kids well.
We'd then return our child to traditional school at middle school, or maybe high school, when differentiation of academics is a real possibility. So we'd homeschool for only a few years.
Has anyone tried this approach?
Anonymous
10/17/2023 01:28
Subject: If you are homeschooling because your child is academically an off-the-chart outlier
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.
We didn't push ours, but they suffered socially anyway. They just don't talk about the same things as other kids. They stand out as different. There's really no way to avoid that. First time mine attended a camp for gifted kids, he finally felt "normal" because other kids were happy and excited to talk about the same things. It was like coming home from a foreign country.
Anonymous
05/21/2023 10:04
Subject: If you are homeschooling because your child is academically an off-the-chart outlier
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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?
OP wants to help her dyslexic child, who struggles with reading and language, to prepare for success in required foreign language classes. That is totally irrelevant to supplementing some other subject.
Sorry, I totally missed the dyslexia. That makes a lot more sense then, thanks.
Anonymous
05/21/2023 08:54
Subject: If you are homeschooling because your child is academically an off-the-chart outlier
Anonymous wrote: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?
OP wants to help her dyslexic child, who struggles with reading and language, to prepare for success in required foreign language classes. That is totally irrelevant to supplementing some other subject.
Anonymous
05/20/2023 19:46
Subject: If you are homeschooling because your child is academically an off-the-chart outlier
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.
Please relax. You’re giving ME anxiety through the computer. Your child will be an anxious mess if you keep this up.
Anonymous
05/20/2023 19:34
Subject: If you are homeschooling because your child is academically an off-the-chart outlier
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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?
Did the PP say that they aren't teaching their kid math, or science, or history, or science?
No. Did I say they aren't?
Anonymous
05/20/2023 19:07
Subject: If you are homeschooling because your child is academically an off-the-chart outlier
Anonymous wrote: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?
Did the PP say that they aren't teaching their kid math, or science, or history, or science?