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[Paisley Hedgehog]

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[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

I wouldn't accelerate a child who's not asking for it. There are various ways of making school interesting to a bright child. Acceleration is just one of them.

You might want to go large, deep or fast.

 

By going large, add in subjects that are not mandatory, but that could be fun for the child. You can add outside activities, volunteer work at an animal shelter if your child is not allergic. Kids can brush dogs and cats.

 

By going deep, you study each subject into its tiniest details. Add in projects that are directly related to the subject but that are time consuming. (although their goal is not to consume time, but to see in details some areas of study).

 

By going fast, you finish a school book and add in the next, and you end up with a child working at an 8th grade level when officially in 5th grade. The books are no longer adapted, they require a maturity that's not there, they are printed too small with less images, and they're just not fun. Ask me how I know this can be a problem.

 

I would suggest going large first, then deep if that's not enough, then accelerate last.

[Jenny in Florida]

I have two kiddos, both of whom are accelerated, but with different personalities and different needs.

 

My daughter has always been very focused and goal-oriented. Although, as I look back on it, we did always enrich both widely and deeply (adding in extra subjects and doing more work in each subject). However, she also needed to move more quickly than average to stay challenged and invested in schoolwork. When things got too easy, she would get bored and feel like she was "was wasting time." She also took pride in what she accomplished through hard work. Consequently, she ended up accelerating by several grades while still doing lots of extras. She started doing a full high school course load--with no accomodations even for the online classes, in which her teachers didn't even know her age--when she was 9 and still managed to rack up enough credits to graduate within three years while simultaneously carrying a full load of extra-curriculars.

 

She started college at 12, is doing very well and happier than she has been in a very long time. (Oh, and by the way, she will accumulate enough credits to earn junior standing by the middle of her sophomore year.)

 

My 10-year-old son, on the other hand, is content to fill his time with a wider variety of activities. He's still accelerated, but not to the same degree that his sister was at the same age. (For example, he's "only" doing high school algebra, while she had already moved on to geometry.) And he's not reading or writing at the same level she was at the same age. However, he's reading close to twice as much material as she did, studying two foreign languages and passionately pursuing more outside interests (dance, theatre, choir and model rocketry).

 

At this point, my guess is that he'll land in college early, too, but not as early as she did. And there is the possibility that he will be too involved in his outside activities to be willing to chuck them over and go away to school early at all. He may well, instead, choose to aim for a more selective school at a more traditional age, once he's done milking out what he can locally.

 

I would say the only thing that is "not fair" is refusing to tune into your child's personality and needs.

[Beth in Central TX]

Hi Shari, I have had the same musings as I plan for 7th grade next year and look ahead to our high school years. For now, I sense a need to slow down in our homeschool and not move forward as fast as I had planned. This may change once we get into high school, and my boys develop their own interests and passions that fuel them on to more advanced topics through self study or community college classes. I have gone back and forth on this, and I've had many discussions with my DH. We've decided to to listen to my instincts and slow down. I'll admit that it hasn't been easy though.

[nmoira]

As I prepare for middle school, I am struggling about placing my ds on an advanced track.

Tracking relative to whom? Is there someone else in your homeschool? I'm not trying to be facetious, but rather point out that we don't have the same constraints imposed upon us as classroom teachers. I try not to think in terms of acceleration or enrichment or wide or long so much as allowing my child the chance to follow her interests and to self-pace. Since she's "ahead" she has even more freedom to pursue her interests. Her current focus is Spanish, so we've cut back everything else. A classroom wouldn't provide that kind of flexibility. When choosing curricula, I try to meet her where she is, independent of any worry about grade (which is so often artificial anyway... what is so "Grade 9 about Biology?"). Consequently, she's all over the board. We use a fair amount of purchased curricula, but rather than rushing through, choose to supplement as interest dictates.

 

Since you're worried about fulfilling hs requirements, why not considering ditching all formal science curricula and allow him to pursue whatever scientific interests he has?

[threetreasurs]

You can always slow down if need be. The ability to adjust pacing is one of the beauties of homeschooling. A choice to accelerate this year does not keep you from adjusting as needed next year.

[mooooom]

she will graduate at 16 and start college at 17 - unless she decides to take a break year - if so she will be required to do something really good. I never really asked her what she wanted - although she made it plain early on - and haven't asked her if she is still happy on this track - although the type of child she is, I'm sure she'd complain a lot more loudly than she does.

 

I would just go ahead - he'll most likely tell you if he's got too much.

[nmoira]

With Science another thing you can do is the occasional unit of applied study. Two I've got planned are:

 

Engineering the City: How Infrastructure Works

The Art of Construction: Projects and Principles for Beginning Engineers and Architects

 

Both are geared to about 6th grade.

[Donna]

As a homeschooler, why can't you give him credit for high school level work in 8th grade? You can go deeper into subjects or allow him to take more subjects because he has an "extra year" in high school, unless you plan to send him to college early.

 

I would think it would be more "unfair" to hold a child back rather than teaching them where they are. My oldest son is 12yo and has taken high school Algebra and is nearly finished a high school level Geometry. He reads and does literature review on works that would be considered highschool level, studies history from a highschool level text, and has done high school level biology with dissection.

 

Anything less would bore him to tears and kill his love of learning. Because we don't have to rush to finish certain subjects for highschool credit, he can take as much time as he wants on certain topics, go off on tangents, or explore topics I hadn't planned to cover and has more than a year to do it if he pleases.

 

He doesn't need credit for his work on any official transcript or anything because we homeschool. Next year he will take college algebra at community college...but he wants to actually go to high school for sports reasons so it won't really matter overall except that they will allow him to continue with the college level classes once in high school.

 

The knowledge and study habits he has gained will be with him through his life. He will be able to follow his interests once he does go to school and will have plenty of credits there to graduate.

[islandmama]

I have two advanced learners... My dd13, wants to to do advanced work now, graduate early from highschool and pursue her interests. She knows what she wants to do and wants to get to it! She can handle it... I'm allowing her to work at her own pace, and by choice, she is working through her summers.

 

My ds11, is content to stay in his "grade level" but I allow him to work at his level, and provide "more" work for him... Sometimes he balks at this, but understands he needs more than the other child to be challenged. We just dig deeper. He is content to be in the appropriate grade because he desires to play football in high school and college. He believes it is to his advantage to allow time for physical growth to benefit him in football.

 

So I guess there are so many things to consider, and each child is different. As far as giving HS credit, I would give credit for math and foreigh language taken in middle school.

 

Hope you find what works best!

[Nan in Mass]

Are you talking about what you tell the town school board or whoever oversees your homeschooling? Or what you choose to do for school next year? Or what you tell the child himself? Do you really need to declare him accelerated now or can you just keep doing the next logical (or fun and interesting GRIN) thing and decide later?

 

And is your child accelerated because you homeschool and he gets plenty of personal attention and doesn't have to wait for a whole class of students to get it before moving on, or is he accelerated because he is one of those children who are innately more intelligent about academics than most of the rest of the world and thus able to go more quickly? If you can figure that out, then it will make a difference to your decision now. If the child is accelerated because he is homeschooling, then he might not be interested in finishing the normal science/math sequence a few years early and having to choose between taking more science and math to fill out those four years or going off to college early or risking not having a standard transcript for college application. On the other hand, if he is accelerated because he is more intelligent than the rest of us, then continuing on in the science/math sequence or having an unusual transcript with a whole lot extra of something else won't be a problem.

 

Mine are only brightish. They look accelerated to the outside world. The older one is taking community college classes as a junior in high school. When the younger one (13yo) was little and needed a challenge, I opted to add in another foreign language and more music and art instead of more academics. He is doing science and literature with the older one and will almost certainly be taking community college classes when he's 15. But if you look at what they are really doing, the community college classes are about on the level of the classes at our very good (academically anyway) public high school, and the younger one's output looks like most other 13yo boy's output. They are both doing some extraordinary things, but they aren't in the realm of academics, and I tell the school system they are at their age-grade level. It gives us more time to do those non-academic things. I don't have a rocket by the tail like Jenny in Florida and some of the others here, so this approach has worked well for us. My children are 13, 17, and 20, and as they have grown up, I have been glad that I would get to keep company with them for the full normal span of years. Mine are young for their age in many ways, and I am happy not to be sending them off to college early. We thought about sending the 17yo next year with his 20yo brother, since they want to go to the same college, and I probably could graduate him a year early, but I didn't want to give up another year at home with him, his younger brother didn't want to give up another year at home with him, and he doesn't want to go away to college yet, either.

 

It is really, really hard to tell what will be the right thing when they are so young. I opted to do whatever curriculum seemed right for the next year (until high school, when I made a 4 year plan, which I've since changed numerous times LOL), tell the school system they were in their age-grade, and leave the future to worry about itself. So far, it looks like that strategy has worked out fine for us, but perhaps we just got lucky? I don't know. It is very hard to tell.

 

-Nan

[LisaKinVA]

We, too, school year-round.

 

But, if it were up to my HG son, he wouldn't do any school work at all. He's not self motivated - period.

 

He thinks it's not fair that he has to "do" school. I don't give him a choice in the matter.

 

Now, it's not about the level of work -- or even how much. He just doesn't want to do school.

 

If he continues at his current pace, he'll be doing algebra in 5-6th grade.

I've actually slowed down the math pace because I thought he'd have difficulty with mixed numbers, fractions, etc. I was wrong. He figured out how to convert a fraction to a decimal today on his own, just goofing around flipping through the book and going, hey this is neat...

 

Am I being "fair" to my son. If you ask him, no -- but it's not because he might wind up doing AP Calculus as a freshman in high school, it's because he has more school work to do than his k4 & k5 brother & sister.

 

IMHO, it pays to keep going forward -- especially with Math. You don't have to go at a break-neck speed, but don't hold them back out of fear that your ds won't want to be stuck taking AP Statistics to get his math credits.

 

There are lots of on-line options for math, some of which can be dual credit (college and high school).

 

With other subjects (history, Lit, Science), going deeper may be an excellent option.

 

Going back to my high school experience, just to complete my senior year with enough classes to fill our required daily 8, I would have been essentially *forced* to take 2 AP Science courses -- because there weren't enough electives I wanted to take.

 

I guess my point is, your son could have just as many problems in a regular school (which classes they could take, versus must take), and not to worry about it right now.

 

Just go at the pace which keeps your son adequately challenged, and let tomorrow take care of itself. Only the good Lord knows what tomorrow holds.

[KAR120C]

As I prepare for middle school, I am struggling about placing my ds on an advanced track. We school year round which naturally puts us about half a year ahead of p.s. No problem there. For the last 2 years, my oldest ds has scored the the top ten percentile of science and I am considering skipping him ahead for the upcoming year. He will be in 5th.

 

My reservation is this: if he starts on an advanced track now, by my choosing, I am asking him to do high school level work in 8th grade without earning h.s. credit. Also, I will force him to take an advanced course as a senior to fulfill state/local requirements (4 science credits), which he may not want or be able to do at that time.

A couple different things here...

 

First, I don't know about the assumption that 8th grade work won't count for high school credit. I know I've heard that before about some colleges, but then we had a college admissions officer come to our homeschool group meeting a couple months ago and he said the exact opposite -- no matter what age, he wants to see all the high school level courses. So if you have a particular college in mind, it might be worth calling them to ask, just so you know what the deal is now (even though it could change before you're done)

 

Second, there may be another way to deal with the science -- instead of a more advanced class his senior year, maybe a different topic? Like astronomy? or ecology? or another specialization? It doesn't have to be AP just because he's done the big three already... kwim?

 

And third, I'm not completely clear on one part... what is his math level like? Generally speaking, I would not advance science without the math coming along too. If he's a year ahead in math, then go ahead, but if he's doing fine with his grade in math (not needing to be accelerated there), then I'd probably take an early year to do some fun science and save the high school science for when he's doing high school math. They tend to track together pretty well, and especially in high school it can really make a science class too hard if you're not "there" mathwise.

 

In a general not-specific-to-your-situation sense, I don't think the same answer will do for every child... Some kids should not be accelerated. Some don't need to, but could be fine. Some would do better accelerated but will survive without it... And some really can't be served well at their "age-based" grade level no matter what inconvenience it might cause down the road.

 

DS is radically accelerated, and fair or not, it's really the only way he's going to make it through the next five or ten years with his (and my) sanity! It might complicate things for college -- we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. If it does, it will still have been worth it in our case. Really seriously worth it. In a case where it's absolutely necessary right now, I wouldn't worry too much about what happens in eight years... but if it's not vital to your current situation? I'd probably not do it.

[EKS]

I think it has to do with the expectations you have for your children and for your homeschool. I expect my children to work at a level that is challenging but not too challenging. If this means that they are doing high school work before high school, that's just the way it is.

 

My 11 yo is doing algebra this year (6th grade). Next year he will be using materials for history, science, literature, math, and Latin that are considered high school level. He may or may not get credit for these things depending on what he ends up doing for high school as well as whether his output is at a high school level. Output is easy to assess for math and language and difficult for everything else. Just because he is using a high school history text doesn't mean he is writing high school level history essays.

 

My 6 yo (K'er) is about two years accelerated at this point. I have no idea where he'll be when he gets to middle school. I just want to keep him challenged and happy.

 

Average high school work is for average high schoolers. If my kids reach "average" high school level in their studies a year or three before high school, so be it. People who are successful in life tend to go beyond what is average.

[frogpond1]

school level work earlier. He may need more time to complete it and he may slow down, but he can still get credit for it. My 7th grader is doing HS Latin and math this year and doing great. I cannot see slowing down and filling in time until he got to the correct age, but I am sensitive to the idea that he could hit a wall where he isn't ready for the next stage of the Trivium. I watched him carefully jump into the logic stage and it worked for him well. I have other children it may not work for. Just take the time to really know your child and you will know when to pull back and slow things down. I continue to wait for that day with my son, but he just keeps going and doing well, so it may never happen.