Wow, you have some wonderful responses here. I don't have much to add, except to say that the lure of the comprehensive "canned" curriculum is how easy it will be, yet for HG plus kids, a program like this often needs MAJOR tweaking. The majority of gifted homeschoolers I know use an eclectic approach that is open to change.

BTW, if anyone is looking for a resource for ancient history, my kids have enjoyed online courses at the Lukeion Project. These are primarily about ancient Greece and Rome, and there are 4 week mini courses as well as semester courses. The instructors are a husband and wife with backgrounds in archeology, and they are decidedly Christian, so that influence does come through somewhat. We've only done the minis so far. Dd7 took The Archeology of Destroyed Cities last summer and ds took The Greeks Before the Greeks: The Mycenaeans at age 10.

For what it's worth, I spoke to a parent at the NAGC conference this fall who was using K12 curriculum for homeschooling with a PG child. They were HS on the fly (crisis public school pull out), and sounded very happy with it as far as support and flexibility.

We are seriously looking at HS for next year, and looked into it, but it just seemed too rigid for us. It is free, right? So if you were nervous about curriculum, you could try it for a couple months and see where that leads you? I'm thinking we are going to try Kriston's approach and see where that leads us after a few months. I shouldn't talk so confidently about HS. DH still wants to go tour/talk to some schools, but I don't see anything that is going to work well without a lot of jumping through hoops. And we have the ability to try HS without a lot of risk right now - I'm home anyway and DS could sit on his hands for a year or 2 and still be ahead.

Kriston - DS just came home with a paper thermometer yesterday! And then after school we had a deep discussion on the difference between 2D, 3D, 4D, and nD objects.

Thanks for all those links!

Same here It kind of takes the pressure of. Not to mention that they will learn new things no matter what They may not be really part of school curriculum, but they will learn. 4D and nD sounds really interesting!

I joined a local hs mailing list to see what our options are. I highly recommend it. It made me feel better to see a list of activities we may want to join in. I also checked the state requirements, saw a few sample documents and exchanged a few e-mails with somebody from the same school district. Even though I don't live in hs friendly state, it looks like the elementary years requirements are very easy to follow.

Yes, especially with a natural-born learner! Keeping up with a kid in the upper elementary levels could be harder, I suppose. My DS is only 6.5, not 9. But there are plenty of classes out there, both online and at HSing co-ops. Find a willing math major at your local college and you've got a private tutor. We're trying that with foreign language if I can ever get my act together to make the arrangements.

You don't have to teach it all, you just have to provide the opportunities for learning! However those opportunities come about.

Hi there,
I'm brand new, too, and I feel like I've struck gold finding this forum. My son is 5, and is having a horrible time in K, where his teacher issues him daily "yellow cards" for talking too loud and not staying on task. In his math lab he was playing computer games that took him through subtraction, then into multiplication. She reprimanded us both, and told us he is no longer allowed to "sneak ahead". I am desperate to get him in the right environment before he ends up resenting school and feeling bad about himself. The teacher already scheduled an SST because of his "hyperactivity". I am so sure he is bored, but so afraid to branch out on my own and do the HS. He is an intense little boy who can be verrry frustrating.

I'm going to check out all the links you listed. Thank you for the support and words of wisdom. It's lessened my anxiety already.

C

Hi Cece, I am glad you found us. This is a wonderful and very supporting forum. I too have 5 year old in K.



Oh my. Imagine that he could learn something new Why don't some teachers understand that kids are supposed to learn in school. Is his K half day or full day?



I think the idea takes a while to get used to. Some days I am really scared and some days I think it will be great. It will be just fine, we will have good days and bad days and if it doesn't work then he can always go back to school.

Good luck with your decision and welcome here

Welcome C! We've had the exact same experience with my son's time in the computer lab at school. You'd think this would be a place where teachers could easily allow kids to move at their own speed.

If anyone would have told me a year ago that we would seriously be considering homeschooling, I would have laughed at them! If you have the ability to do it, it's worth researching. I feel much less overwhelmed with the thought now that I've found some resources and even done a little "after schooling" with DS.

If you are interested in advocating for your son at school, there are also people on this board who've accomplished amazing things in their school systems. Good luck!

Kimck-

I would have laughed too, if you asked me ten years ago! It wasn't until we felt cornered into it that we considered home education. We did a trial run over the summer when ds 2 was 4, and we still enrolled him in private kindy while we mulled things over. Three months into kindy, we knew it wasn't going to work out, even in the short term, and our homeschooling adventure began.

Thanks for all these threads. I figured out that the search feature on the left limits the search to recent threads. I was able to retrieve more through the advanced search. There is a wealth of information here, I just wasn't working the search right, I think

Jen

Thanks everyone for the wonderful advice and encouragement. Yes, the K12 curriculum would be free for us through a state charter school. According to them and other parents I have asked the curriculum is very flexible and a child can work at their pace. They also do a placement assessment, and they were open to look at our Explore test results if anything shows up there. So those are the pros of this curriculum.

The one aspect of homeschooling I am nervous about is making sure I provide a well rounded education for DD. Since I didn't get my education in United States, I'm not sure if I would miss topics that kids here should know before college. That is why an eclectic approach would worry me. Our friend's child does about 3-4 hrs of school work every day and if this is the case with DD, she would have plenty of time pursuing her interests. Maybe as I read and learn more, I would have a better grasp on the larger picture of homeschooling and a comprehensive curriculum.

Jen