I think being laid back is a real asset! You wouldn't stress out about hs, you would let her show you the way and won't follow any curriculum to the t. I think flexibility is the key and it's quite obvious that your children are very independent and can take care of themselves if given chance.

Would your DH be willing to read books about gt children? Or at least a few articles.

I personally like this on a lot

http://www.stephanietolan.com/is_it_a_cheetah.htm

May be that could be enough of eye opener for him. May be you need him to realize that she would be better off if she wasn't at school.

Another idea is write down all the things she would like to learn in next few months and show it to DH. You could also make a list of things she already does on daily basis out of the school, so he can see that DD would learn new things. Signing her up for one or two online classes could also help.

Find a local hs group and see if they have any classes. DH may like to see what options there are beyond school settings.



Good luck

Given what you've said, HSing would absolutely still work for your family, Gatorgirl!

I think your DH is way off on this one. (No offense!) But your flexibility with your son and how you solved that homework problem so well says to me that you'd do amazingly WELL as a HS parent! It's a plus for you, not a minus!

Here's my thinking: Did the homework get done? Were there any ill effects from the way it got done? Was it late or poorly finished? Was your DS happy and cooperative because of how you approached the problem? Then I'd say that was a truly successful bout of problem-solving! The only thing that I can see to trouble your DH is that you thought creatively to do what worked best for your child rather than being a hard-nosed "Toe the line or else!" kind of person. Well, in HSing, working well with your kid is a plus, not a minus! There is no "one right way" in HSing, there's just the way that works for your kid.

One of the benefits of HSing is that you can work when it suits you and play when it suits you. Your DH seems to be assuming that you'd be doing the "school at home" method--sit in a chair for 7+ hours and do everything out of schoolbooks with the parent as the teacher/expert--but I know of literally *zero* HSers who use the "school at home" approach. It's boring and hard and especially for a GT child, it's just flat unnecessary to spend so much time on schoolwork. With my 7yo, we spent about 2-3 hours on schoolwork each day roughly 4 days per week. And I worked him pretty hard! In that time, we covered 2 years of math plus a good chunk of "real" geometry (because he was bored with arithmetic and not quite ready--at age 6--to memorize his times tables). We studied J.S. Bach because he got fascinated by his life. We read about tide pools and the animals who live in them. We read about Sacagawea and other Native Americans, he learned about archaeology and read lots of history and poetry and fiction. His reading improved by at least 3-5 grade levels over where he started in less than a year! (I'm not exactly sure which because I didn't find a good above-grade test for him.) All that in 8-12 hours per week of work. And I'm not including all the art classes, Spanish classes, P.E. classes, engineering, learning about the Olympics and trying out the sports (thank you, HS group!)... It was a good year! He really loved the work, too!

From late elementary school-high school, the kids tend to work 3-5 hours per day or so. That's usually plenty. The rest of the time is spent on fun extras or a child's particular interests.

If you think about it, that amount of time makes sense. Consider how much school time is spent waiting in line for the the bathroom, waiting for the rest of the class to catch up, moving in a line from here to there, dumb convocations...When you HS, you don't have any of that. And if your child likes to read before bed, well, that counts as schoolwork! If you're a morning person and you want to get school out of the way at the crack of dawn and play the rest of the day, that's great. If you are not a morning person, and you'd rather work in the afternoon when the caffeine is working for you, that's great, too.

You're flexible and your daughter is self-directed...sounds like a great HS situation to me!

Another thought... You say that both children are in a private school. Is there a public school with a serious GT curriculum or at least the desire and flexibility to work with your daughter nearby?

YEs what Kriston said! I read in a book written by a PS teacher that HSing should take about 2-3hrs/day in the elementary years. 1on1 instruction is much more effective and you don't lose time in all the transitions.

My DH is more of the "do you homework as soon as you get home." I"m that way as well but I was willing to try to let DS regulate his own time. That worked better but did take some reminders. I think the goal is to make them take ownership of their learning, be more independent...sounds like you're more than half way there!!!! That's a plus in the "Vote for HSing" category if you ask me, rather than a negative.

Gatorgirl-

Are you married to MY husband seven years ago? LOL, he was concerned about the S factor, and he was also worried that I am disorganized, undisciplined, and have a tendency to jump from thing to thing. I have actually realized in the last few years (since two of my kids were diagnosed) that I probably have undiagnosed ADD. It explains so much about me.

Nevertheless, my kids are thriving and I'm still thrilled to be homeschooling them. We tried four different traditional schools for my oldest, and none of them worked as well as home based education.

The key is to be flexible. Child led is working great for me. As the kids get older, they have more work assigned to them, but they are still permitted a great deal of choice in exactly what and how they learn. For you, it might be that when is a choice too. I find that my kids do their best academic work in the mornings, so that's our school time and afternoons are largely free for socializing and extracurriculars.

Encourage your kids to become experts in whatever excites them, while shoring up those areas that might potentially be weaknesses. Balance- life's all about balance!

My kids are 19, 11, 8, and 3. They are very different from one another, but all PG and we've adapted homeschooling for each as they've grown. I think my oldest was a more interesting college applicant for his homeschooling transcript, and he wouldn't have been able to acquire 50 college credits in high school if he attended traditional high school.

Here's a short piece on homeschooling gifted kids:
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art27311.asp

hth!