After this year, our family is considering homeschooling our DD9. It seems that our school system is not right for DD. She has only one school friend that is not in her class. Yesterday she came home bruised because someone deliberately kicked her. This is a top-rated public school in the country, but they feel that DD is appropriately placed learning math material that she mastered 2 years ago and got 100% on all her pretests. We may advocate a grade skip after her Explore tests come in, but are also considering homeschooling.

Anyway I looked into the K12 material (www.k12.com), as we could do that as a virtual charter school and it would be free. It seems that she could progress as fast as she wants in each subject and they are very encouraging to GT kids. Any opinions on this material? What other materials would be good for a GT child? What have you tried or heard of that wouldn't work well? I am a bit scared to attempt homeschooling, but excited at the same time. Thanks for any suggestions you may have for us. She will start 5th grade, possibly 6th grade math.

Jen

We did K12 for DS's math--he was dual-enrolled in his bricks and mortar school and just took math through the virtual charter. He was in 4th when this started--he tested out of 4th grade math and finished 5th and pre-Algebra A while in 4th grade. In 5th he did pre-Algebra B. Now he is taking Algebra at his middle school.

The curriculum did what it needed to for us, which was get him out of Saxon math for those two years and prepare him to take Algebra this year. And, most important, give the school written proof that he had completed these courses so he could move right into Algebra. We were able to pre-test him out of the stuff he already knew and avoid endless repititions. All good stuff.

But there were problems. 5th grade math book was really good. Pre-A-A and B were pretty dry and dull, cook-book kinds of math. We found other more interesting books to supplement the Pre-A-B or else he would have gone nuts.

Quite honestly if I were full-time homeschooling, I probably would not use them. What I see as the joy of homeschooling, especially a gifted kid, is the ability to follow the child's lead and explore things of interest rather than to get locked into someone else's curriculum. You have to log into the computer and keep track of how many hours you teach on each subject and keep track of which lesson she's on and the teachers really do check on you. There is a lot of flexibility, but you are still working with their plan, not yours or your child's.

I know it sounds scary to just go out on your own, but there are plenty here and elsewhere who could help you.

That's how I feel too. It looks like we will go the hs route next year with some fun outside classes in one of the private schools. DS5 is not in a bad school situation, but it's far from perfect and I just cannot see him going from half a day school to full day. I want him to have enough time to pursue his interests whatever they are. He learns this way the best and at his age there is no need to be in school full day. Some days I feel that it's a really great option other days I cannot believe that I am even considering something like that. One year at a time.

I am interested in any hs suggestions.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I know the virtual charter is less flexible than homeschooling on my own, but I also thought it may be the bridge from school to homeschool for us. We also know 2 other families that do k12 through our state and although their kids are not GT, it would allow DD to get together for field trips and science fairs.

I am very open to other suggestions as well, if other curriculum would be better. I think DD would do well with computer based programs that also have a hands on component. This year she has done Challenge Math and has progressed nicely through pre-Algebra type problems.

Jen

Hi Jen,

Maybe you could go to the school and talk to them about the bullying. That is absolutely unacceptable.

I've been considering homeschooling for about 6 months. I was very nervous about it too. It's crazy how many resources are available and if you have a child who learns easily, you're golden.

Sometimes I think I'm crazy for not doing it yet.

If you are willing to take some time and review old posts, I'll bet you find at least 20 links here that would help you find resources. I'd be willing to copy and paste everything I've bookmarked if you want to PM me.

Incog

I tried to do a search on homeschooling, but only very recent threads came up. Not sure what I did wrong.

As far as the bullying, I have been in close contact with her school. It usually happens during recess and DD has asked for a library pass almost every day to avoid these incidents. It isn't ideal, but she actually likes library so it isn't a punishment.

Jen

I am HSing, and I don't know anyone who is HSing full-time and using K12. (That includes both GT and ND kids.)

That's not to say it can't be done or that you shouldn't do it. It's just that it's not something you *need* to do, even/especially with an HG+ child.



I agree completely with acs! Don't get locked into thinking that you must do school at home in order to teach your child. You don't. I promise you, HSing is a lot easier than you think it's going to be. The curriculum has been by far the easiest part of HSing for me, to tell you the truth. You just follow your child's interests, visit the library a lot, and get in with a good HSing group. That's all easy (and not expensive!). The hardest part for me has been getting enough time to myself, but then I'm a deeply introverted person and I have a 6.5yo and a 3.5yo, so your situation may be significantly different than mine there. But planning the curriculum? No big deal!

If you have specific fears, questions, etc., I'll be happy to share what I've learned. I'm sure Lorel would help, too--she helped me when I was where you are. But there's lots of stuff that works and that doesn't require that you to spend X amount of time on any subject.

Singapore Math, Aleks, and Saxon Math are all reasonably priced math programs that tend to be popular with HSers. EPGY is more expensive, but is well-liked, too. Though I'm not using any other packaged curriculum but math, there are also programs that come highly recommended by friends (both virtual and IRL) for other subjects.

If I may, I have two suggestions for you--the best pieces of advice I got before I began HSing:

1) Start with why you're HSing, what you want your child to learn in the broadest sense, how your child learns, how your personalities will fit, etc.--the basics! Don't start with decisions about specific curricula. You're putting the cart before the horse, and it's hard to judge a curriculum if you don't know what you want your child to know by the end of the year and why you value those things. Also, make sure you know the law for your state. What's required of you in terms of testing, reporting, etc. may affect your choices. Spend 5 minutes learning the basics of the various schools of thought of HSing: unschooling, eclectic (that's me!), Charlotte Mason, classical, school at home, etc. You'll figure out pretty fast what suits your family's style and needs and what seems totally wrong for you.

2) When it comes to purchasing/signing on to a certain curriculum, *LESS IS MORE*! You can easily commit to too much packaged curriculum and then find that it doesn't work for you and you're stuck with it. OTOH, it's pretty much impossible to have too little packaged curriculum at first, because if you find that you're lacking, you can buy/commit then.

Keep in mind that all your child really has to do is learn a year's worth of material for a year's worth of work. For these HG+ kids, that would probably happen if we locked them in a room alone with a pile of books for a year! I know you're used to having to fight for every scrap of learning your DD gets, but HSing is a totally different animal. My DS6 and I spend maybe 3 hours a day, total, on school (and that includes dawdling time and tidying up time). The rest of the day, he plays. He's finished two years of math in less than 5 months, and I've been trying to go deeper, not faster with him, so I've been slowing him down. He's reading about 3 grades higher than he was at the end of last year, and we have no packaged reading curriculum. He's using the scientific method and conducting experiments, and his public school classroom is just now reading a thermometer!

I'm telling you, it's soooooooo much easier than you think it is!

Stepping off soapbox now...

Please let me know if I can help you in any way.

Here are the links I found from the forum. Please forgive me if they're all the same ones you found...

http://giftedissues.gt-cybersource.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/8496/fpart/1

http://giftedissues.gt-cybersource.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/6635/fpart/1

http://giftedissues.gt-cybersource.org/B...h=true#Post4500

http://giftedissues.gt-cybersource.org/B...h=true#Post6441

http://giftedissues.gt-cybersource.org/B...h=true#Post6063

http://giftedissues.gt-cybersource.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/5642/fpart/1

http://giftedissues.gt-cybersource.org/B...h=true#Post3847

http://giftedissues.gt-cybersource.org/B...h=true#Post3273

http://giftedissues.gt-cybersource.org/B...h=true#Post3159

http://giftedissues.gt-cybersource.org/B...h=true#Post3007

http://giftedissues.gt-cybersource.org/B...h=true#Post2783

http://giftedissues.gt-cybersource.org/B...h=true#Post1603

http://giftedissues.gt-cybersource.org/B...h=true#Post1633

I hope it helps. There's some good stuff here!

Wow! Here I am giving competent Homeschool advice and I'm not even a homeschool mom. I must have been hanging out here too much

Sorry Jen, you probably won't find anything on a simple search because the links are peppered around people's posts in a seemingly non sensical manner. That's just the way the conversations flow here sometimes.
I've gotta run and get the girls going for school. But I'll look through my bookmarked links and try to post anything interesting later.

Incog

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

Whatever works for you works. There's no wrong answer. If K12 is what's best for you, then more power to you.

But if it's just coverage you're worried about, then I'd recommend that you check out the "What Your ___th Grader Needs to Know" before you make any decisions. It details the basics that all kids that grade need to know. I just went through a good chunk of the 1st grade one with my DS6 today, and I found that it was virtually all stuff he knew when he was 3! I'll cover Native Americans with him at some point because that's the norm for 1st grade and we've done none of that material yet. But almost all the other stuff he's supposed to "learn" this year, he's known for literally half his life already!

I highly recommend that you check the book/s out. It will almost certainly put your mind at ease about coverage! That way you don't just have to take our word for it.

You can also go to www.worldbook.com and look at grade level standards. Of course in the US, there isn't any national standard, but this list reflects topics covered in the "average" classroom.

Don't go too crazy Kriston! Our first grade native american coverage so far has consisted of one handout/story on Squanto at Thanksgiving. I'm sure you'll be ahead by checking one book on Native Americans out of the library.

Ugh! Good to know, kimck. Thanks! I'll dip a toe in instead of diving in whole hog.

I don't think DS6 has any interest whatsoever in Native Americans. Early humans, yes. But European settlement of the Americas is too late for his taste, I'm afraid! <shrug>

I tend to hate the Eurocentric view on that period of time anyway. And all the attention paid quite wrongly to Columbus is another annoyance to me! The Norse were here 500 years earlier! Hello!

See you all after my oral surgery! Wish me little bleeding and no swelling, will you?

Ouch, good luck. I hope it goes well. I had 3 wisdom teeth pulled at the same time and it went really well. No pain to talk about. The oral surgeon even gave me a special note for a tooth fairy (aka Dh). Apparently wisdom teeth are worth quite a lot. LOL.

Don't forget to milk it a little bit and take it easy over the weekend You know no cooking, no cleaning, no dishes, ...

Yes, thanks LMom. I plan to do zilch all weekend! DH is in charge of kids completely, and I'm planning to catch up on lots of bad TV...if I even get out of bed to watch it! I may do nothing but sleep.

And BTW Grinity: I'm not allowed to exercise for a week. After that, I'm hoping to get back to the gym on a regular routine!

Bed...See you all in two or three days!

Kriston- I hope you are recovering well. Tell us some of the "highlights" of your weekend when you get back here

It looks like for us, that next year will be our first of homeschooling. DD is now asking for it more and she keeps referring to it with more conversations. She is currently doing an extra credit project on Ammonites and she told me how she would love to study fossils to this depth every day, but her school doesn't allow it. I was concerned about the socialization (although I know it's not usually an issue) but as DD tells me how she doesn't have a friend in her classroom and there are some bullies, I'm not sure what the damage is for this type of "socialization". DD has some many wonderful friends outside the school ad that wouldn't change. She is also soooo bored in math, and is excited to do Challenge Math at home. I don't remember asking to do math growing up, but she is, LOL.

Anyway, welcome back Kriston when you get here!!!

Thanks! It's nice to be missed.

How are you feeling about next year? You have plenty of time to prepare, so you "should" be feeling confident...as if there's any "should" when it comes to feelings! But what I mean is that making the decision now will probably make for a fairly smooth transition.

It's great that your DD is so excited about HSing! Have you started making lists of the topics she wants to study? We did that on our first day of HS, and though we have deviated from it quite a bit as DS6's interests have changed, we've covered a surprising number of his areas of interest. It's good to write it down so you remember where she wants to take you.

Do you have any questions, concerns, fears, things you're looking forward to, etc. that you'd like to discuss?

Always happy to chat!

It's actually rather normalizing to read about other people feeling as nervous about HSing as I do. I think it's one of those situations in life that you just have to go through to have any true understanding of it. We are looking at Waldorf right now - still weighing options, but HS is in the lead. For now, too, we're doing Kumon, and my son really likes it...and it lowers my anxiety about his potentially falling behind.

OK, now I'm researching this, too. There is a four and a half hour introduction to homeschooling/unschooling at the library this weekend given by Patrick Farenga. Ever heard of him? It conflicts with the gifted conference and I can't decide which to go to.

Also, for you HS'ers, I was wondering what a typical day would be schedule-wise. Don't waste your time responding if you've done so in the past. I do plan to go back and read those old threads. Just wondering if you try to keep a school-like schedule to keep your children ready to return to school someday.

And I also wonder about the transition back to regular school for those of you who have done it.

I don't know that speaker, but I Googled him. He looks to be one of John Holt's disciples, so he's probably going to be all about unschooling.

If it helps, I'm doubting that you'll be an unschooler, just given what I know about you and your DS...It's the least structured form of HSing and basically says that all children are natural learners, so if you just spread opportunities before them, they'll learn on their own. No teaching unless the kids ask to take the class. No taking the kids on field trips unless they first express an interest in the subject. Etc.

It's a valid method, and a lot of people love it, but it's too hands-off for me (and perhaps for you? I could be wrong, but...). Oh, and if you're unschooling, you'd have to restrict media time pretty much completely so that TV and computer are not all the child does!

Mostly I just don't want you to think that unschooling is the only way to go. His form of HSing may look nothing like what I do!

I've responded before about how we do our HSing thing, so I won't bore you. If you can't find my description of our LOOSE daily plan, let me know and I'll repost. We definitely leave room in our schedule for field trips and playdates.

The biggest thing I would warn against is the other extreme from unschooling: thinking that you have to do "school at home" in order to HS. (Not that you would do that, but just in case...) We don't try to keep to a typical school schedule at all. Not even a little. In fact we take one day off a week for skiing--that's his phys ed! Not typical!

So much of a typical school day is wasted time (waiting in line, waiting for everyone to catch up, waiting, waiting, waiting...) that if you have just one child to focus on, a whole school day's worth of material can be managed in just a couple of hours, including dawdling time. Less is more I've found, since you're probably going to FLY through curriculum even faster than you think you will. Without pushing by me, DS6's reading has improved about 2-3 grade levels in 5 months. He's done 2 years of math in that same time. Etc. in short, there's no need to spend a lot of time on traditional school. Cover the basics and give him plenty of time to play/work on his own projects.

I guess what I'm saying is that unless your DS *prefers* a typical school schedule at home, or unless your state requires that sort of time commitment, there's absolutely no need to go that route. It will wear both of you out for no good reason.

Oh, and schedule clean-up time in that day somewhere. The mess expands the more time you're home! Clean-up has to be part of your DS's day...or else!

I don't anticipate trouble returning to a regular school schedule. DS6's biggest worry for next year is that he'll be bored. I think the GT school he's going to part-time next year will prevent boredom, so I'm not worried about that. I do think he'll have to readjust, but I don't think it will be a big problem. It's not like they have no idea what school is all about, you know? I think the transition back in is less of a big deal than the transition out.

Finally, I would advise you to talk to your DS about HSing beforehand to a) be sure he's on board and understands the commitment you're BOTH making to the state, since this will make it easier on those days when he doesn't feel like working, and b) let him know that you're going to have to learn together how to do this, so he's going to have to communicate well with you about what's working and what isn't and why and be understanding if something doesn't go well. You're new to this, too, so you're going to make some mistakes. But the two of you are a team, and together you can figure it all out.

Having that conversation before we took DS6 out of school was the best thing I could have done! There are still some hard days, but he gets why we're doing this and he is definitely a member of the "educate DS6" team.

If I can help, you know where to find me...

Kriston, thank you! It did say that he had been a partner with John Holt, so now I know that I should go to the gifted conference that day. We are not unschoolers. And we're too far gone to restrict computer and tv. (well, we restrict both to educational uses for the most part, but obviously, we spend a lot of time on both)

If we seriously consider that route, I will be contacting you directly!

Here's the info on the seminar:

Teach Your Own
An unschooling seminar for beginners and elementary-school-age home-schoolers
Patrick Farenga, who has addressed audiences around the world about home-schooling and the work of his colleague, the late John Holt, will present a 4 ½ session on home-schooling. Among the topics he will explore are unschooling theory and practice, learning all the time, living with your children during school hours, working with different learning styles and multiple intelligences and how to use private schools, public and private business and more in support of home-schooling. Local home-schooling representatives will also be present.

Thanks Kriston. Whatever you said makes perfect sense to me. I am thinking along the same lines, but my thoughts are all over my head. It's nice to see it all written down.

I really need to go through the hs posts.

I'm sure there would be good stuff at his presentation. I mean, with GT kids, we all are pretty much following the "learning all the time" model, whether we want to or not. LOL!

But if you're hoping to get daily scheduling type info or curriculum suggestions, that probably wouldn't be the HSing speaker I'd recommend.

The stuff on learning styles and multiple intelligences might be useful, though I have yet to find anyone who turns that into really applicable info. It always winds up too generic for me to apply to my own kids. But maybe that's just me...

I guess what I'm saying is that if you didn't have something else to do that day, I'd say go! But if there's stuff at the GT conference that looks more useful, I think I'd do that instead.

Tough decision! Farenga is a popular speaker and I'm sure he has a lot to say. He coauthored a book on home education; I think it was "Teach Your Own". I'd probably go to see him, unless I had a specific reason to attend the conference. The state level stuff can be a bit elementary and "plain vanilla" in tone, though there may be a session or two that caters to parents and teachers of HG plus. Big conferences may give you some perspective though, on how "out there" your own gifties are, and maybe give you a chance to connect with other parents and kids.

Looks like you'll have a good day either way! Have fun!

Yes, I suspect it's hard to go wrong either way!

Ok, ok. Maybe we'll divide and conquer. If I go Friday, DH can take DS on Saturday and I'll go the seminar. If anyone recommends specific books or resources, let me know so that I can take a look at them there if they have them for display.

I went to our state conference and learned about some interesting resources. I mostly went to the sessions geared toward teachers. Those were the sessions of interest to me. I was extremely disappointed that there was not a single session about HG/PG children. Our conference is one of the biggest in the country and not a single session or mention of HG/PG students that I could see. It was almost as if they did not exit.

Hi Questions,
I vote for the HSing lecture (although both is good too) if only to network with the other HSing families. Lots of Holt's stuff makes complete sense to me, and is at least different from the usual way of considering things.

Either way, sounds like a fun weekend!
Grinity

Texas Summer-

It's a shame that a large conference couldn't feature one session on highly to profoundly gifted. Sigh... maybe it is because the big conferences are driven by teacher attendance and those teachers might not think much about levels of giftedness? Maybe you could offer to run a session next year? I saw you mention that you do Zome workshops, so I am guessing that a parent seminar wouldn't be too tough for you to do.

I'm a Zome fan too, BTW, and have done workshops for them as well. Do you know Paul Hildebrandt? He is the President and head Zomer, and he has been very helpful in offering me training on how to do a challenge workshop with younger children.

I was thinking that, too, Lorel. I'd at least put in a request with the conference organizers for a session for next year. If I were really energetic, I'd offer to help plan it.

Our local PG group is planning more involvement in the state level gifted association. We did a parent panel at the last parent conference. Prior to the presentation we joked that we would probably only have a couple of people show up for our session and the room was packed with people standing in the back. We are also planning to do a panel at the next leadership conference.



No, I have never met Paul Hildebrandt? What age group are you referring to when you say "younger children." In our co-op we split the children into 2 groups: ages 5-7 and ages 8-15. I teach the older group. The parent that teaches the younger group has a Masters in Early Childhood Ed. I use the Zome lessons as the backbone of most of my lessons but modify them to work for our kids.

Paul is a great guy. he does workshops for PG kids at various conferences. He's taught me his workshop methods, and I have used them to present to kids aged 6-10. He has these little Zome challenge cards that are helpful in asking the kids to design things and figure things out, such as the shape of the different rod ends and sphere openings. His focus is on letting the kids make discoveries for themselves, and to gently guide them as they go along.

I find that kids younger than six may have trouble connecting the pieces, and they tend to damage them by breaking the ends.

I never heard of 'Zome' until this post. I googled them, they look great!

Homeschooling is not an option for us right now, but 'afterschooling' or 'enrichment' is; Zome will be added soon.

The other teacher brought me a set of the Zome challenge cards at our last meeting, but I haven't used them yet. "Letting kids make discoveries for themselves" is harder than it sounds. This is my second semester to teach Zome. This semester I made some significant changes to the way I teach so that the kids have more