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Here's a long blogpost from awhile back on how we've supported DD's Herpetology interests

http://makingmusicwithkids.blogspot.com/2016/02/homeschooling-herper-or-perils-of.html

 

In general, though, we do the next thing. In math, that meant continuing through the books with additional materials added, until age 12 when she started college classes for credit and needed to take math there so she would be eligible to take science. In science, we followed her interests and, when she needed to add background (which happened when she got seriously into reading professional research, we filled gaps by using Uzinggo so she could go through high school bio and Chem very quickly (we did the same with statistics using a college freshman text and a calculator).

 

We leave Weds for this year's big Herpetology conference. She is looking forward to seeing her friends, and has marked out a rather hectic schedule of talks (including a few jumps over to the Icthyology side to pick up some elasmobranch talks). The first question I asked before changing cheer gyms this year had to do with flexibility to miss to attend professional conferences and do fieldwork-because those are too important to her to give up.

 

We also go to other science stuff when we have a chance. SERMACS has really cheap high school student and pre-college teacher rates, so we went there when it was local to us so she could see neat stuff done in chemistry. She'll be doing labs weekly this year with a PhD Organic chemist.

 

It's a trip-sometimes literally-but in some respects this has been the easiest acceleration we've ever done, because there was no question. It all unfolded very organically.

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Dear all,

 

For those with gifted kids with a love for STEM. What do you do with them and how old are your kids..

 

I need some inspiration :)

 

Thanks in advanced

We provided museum, library, internet, and garage access as well as skateboards and bicycles and cub scouts at the age range you have posted. Their school did Invention Convention, which was a blast. Also provided an appropriate math course, box of legos, box of recyclables, funnels,.measuring cups, things to safely take apart and put back together, etc. The funnest stem things we did with cub scouts were make a miniature golf course out of found materials, make and launch water rockets, and build/use rope machine. Cheapest stem suggestions for this age can be found in cub scout material. You don't have to join to access the material.

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At 6, we were still just reading and watching sci-fi/fantasy (Doctor Who, for example).  At that age, imagination is more important than anything formal.

 

At 8, each of our boys were already showing some leanings.  The older preferred history, so he kept reading and playing in a medieval world.  He had only just begun to dabble in computing.  The younger had already decided to become a cosmologist.  Since that requires strong math, he had taught himself the essentials to go into pre-algebra, so we started with AoPS and let him read Conceptual Physics.

 

For both, we were already using middle school science books (the red, blue, green ones).  Those are simply good content for a child able to read independently.

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My 7yo has regular library access, science kits, trips to science museums and children's museums, science kits, STEM toys (marble run, Lego, Snap Circuits, Dash and Dot).

 

Curriculum-wise, we've accelerated through BFSU and jumped through unit studies (mostly self-designed). She's less accelerated in math than most other subjects, but we've stuck with conceptual programs at her level plus fun supplements and living books.

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Math goes with science...So it is difficult to get to high school level chemistry for example without having solid algebra skills. That being said, we do a lot of science, and it's by driven my son's interests in what he says he is interested in doing. It's hard though to balance increasing the difficulty conceptually when written output is an issue. So, tinkering/modifying material is necessary if you are planning to use any sort of preset curricula. My son has enjoyed the Athena Academy classes which doesn't require much output. 

Edited by calbear
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In addition to free reading (mostly age appropriate classical lit, mystery novels, and some non fiction), watching documentaries and TV, taking loads of road and field trips and self exploration (Rube Goldberg, kitchen science demos, rocketry, tons of magnet/ marble run experiments), we kept 2-3 strands of math running alongside all the time. One was an introductory strand, another was usually problem solving of sorts and the third either living math style or several notches higher to show the big picture of math.

 

This was not done with some big plan in mind. It just happened that that's what worked to keep my child's eyes shining with curiosity and joy. :laugh: But it helped make everything else easier, e.g. physics was always intuitive thanks to math understanding and writing proofs all the time led to initially resistant and choppy but eventually impressive English essay writing skills. Things like history got shoved to the back but because there was no pressure to do history every day or even every week, my child naturally reached for those books and audio CDs from interest.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks all for your time ..... :grouphug:

 

So this will be our planning:

 

Lots of readings 

Lego Wedo 2.0

Programming with scratch and Phyton

Beast Academy with Singapore math

Makey Makey

Little bits

Engino STEM with the workbooks for oldest DS.

 

This will be a program for 2 years. 

 

 

 

 

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My apology, I'll be short :) 

I have 2 scientists in the house and we do all the following:

We provided museum, library, internet, and garage access as well as skateboards and bicycles

Also provided an appropriate math course, box of legos, box of recyclables, funnels,.measuring cups, things to safely take apart and put back together, etc. 

 

 

science kits, STEM toys (marble run, Lego, Snap Circuits).

+ Robotics toys like Littlebits, Rpi + GoPiGo, Ozzobot, Mbot, Mindstorms, etc.

For our youngest we have ordered Lego Boost set as a b'day present. He also gets a snorkeling mask with 180 degrees viewing together with an action camera and a few books about marine fauna and flora from his granny. Eldest got cash from grandma too, which he has splashed on three sets of Horrible books (Horrible Science, Horrible Geography and Horrible Histories) and intended to read them all this summer :willy_nilly:

watching documentaries and TV, taking loads of road and field trips and self exploration (Rube Goldberg, kitchen science demos, rocketry, tons of magnet/ marble run experiments), we kept 2-3 strands of math running alongside all the time

 

 

+ Robotic and Programming classes/books/programs for independent learning. Minecraft.

My little one also loves to draw and is dreaming to become a racing cars engineer-designer-mechanic, so he is reading lots of books about cars, mechanics, engineering and I have signed him for art classes and another 3d drawing and painting course for the next scholastic year. 

Also he wants to join the eco-school. So far we were trying to cover this curriculum ourself but I am considering to enrol him for after-school classes from the following scholastic year too. 

 

 

 

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In addition to free reading (mostly age appropriate classical lit, mystery novels, and some non fiction), watching documentaries and TV, taking loads of road and field trips and self exploration (Rube Goldberg, kitchen science demos, rocketry, tons of magnet/ marble run experiments), we kept 2-3 strands of math running alongside all the time. One was an introductory strand, another was usually problem solving of sorts and the third either living math style or several notches higher to show the big picture of math.

 

This was not done with some big plan in mind. It just happened that that's what worked to keep my child's eyes shining with curiosity and joy. :laugh: But it helped make everything else easier, e.g. physics was always intuitive thanks to math understanding and writing proofs all the time led to initially resistant and choppy but eventually impressive English essay writing skills. Things like history got shoved to the back but because there was no pressure to do history every day or even every week, my child naturally reached for those books and audio CDs from interest.

Could you elaborate on 'living math' & also 'the big picture of math'? I'm interested in what this looks like. Thanks!

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Could you elaborate on 'living math' & also 'the big picture of math'? I'm interested in what this looks like. Thanks!

 

Sorry for the delay, finally found a moment to reply!

 

Our "living math" took inspiration from something a homeschooling mom in San Diego created about 10+ (?) years ago on her website and shared about it on her popular yahoo group, the basic idea being using history of math and age-appropriate math literature to introduce math concepts beyond what you see in normal school texts/ curricula. We took that idea and put a more customized spin on it with biographies, documentaries, youtube materials, and mass market books written for older kids (because fluent reading and math maturity came early here):

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/LivingMathForum/info

http://livingmath.net/

 

By "big picture" I mean showing how math is interconnected. I had some help from our math mentor at the time. It really all started when A's mentor mentioned how we needn't wait to start on a certain math topic because all math connects with each other e.g. abstract algebra and topology and that when taught well by someone who knows the content, even young kids can understand some of the "higher" concepts (but not necessarily be able to manipulate/ solve problems with them which is also completely okay as what you are trying to build is interest and familiarity and not necessarily a solve-everything mindset). I was also careful to keep A's boredom with too-easy math at bay by posing puzzles/ questions that were *just* beyond A's reach so that after a few days/ hours of puzzling, A would get them (we wrote them on our hallway whiteboard and let it stew there) and excitedly ask for more. We made math a game whenever we could.

 

HTH!

 

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Dear all,

 

For those with gifted kids with a love for STEM. What do you do with them and how old are your kids..

 

I need some inspiration :)

 

Thanks in advanced

 

My son is now 20 years old and will be beginning his junior year at MIT this fall.

 

In elementary age, we were frequent customers at Radio Shack, but we didn't do a formal science program.  He did read a lot of science magazines, though.

 

In middle school, he took online science classes with CTY and attended CTY summer camp for three years taking science classes. He especially loved the Genetics sequence at CTY.

 

In middle school, he began shadowing doctors in the biomedical field.  He was able to observe many surgeries that the doctors conducted in order to test their devices.

 

He also began taking the AP science sequence in middle school.

 

In high school, he spent 1 full day a week during the school year conducting research.  He devoted more time in the summer to the research.  The research his team conducted won international recognition for many of its projects. While my son was never listed as the first author, his contributions resulted in the 2nd author position. (There were many authors listed, and all the others were MD's.)

 

Once he had taken the AP science and math classes, he homeschooled his remaining years of high school using MIT OCW.

 

Homeschooling was one of the best decisions we have made for our kids.  Their educations would have been much different had we kept them in public school.

 

Good luck!

 

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He also began taking the AP science sequence in middle school.

 

Once he had taken the AP science and math classes, he homeschooled his remaining years of high school using MIT OCW.

 

What courses did he take? My DS12 doesn't want to dual enroll yet but we would likely have to dual enroll math and science all four years of high school. He is thinking of Statistics for 2017/18 (8th grade) and he did aops calculus for 2016/17 and cleared the AP Calculus BC exam.

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What courses did he take? My DS12 doesn't want to dual enroll yet but we would likely have to dual enroll math and science all four years of high school. He is thinking of Statistics for 2017/18 (8th grade) and he did aops calculus for 2016/17 and cleared the AP Calculus BC exam.

 

I don't remember the names of all of the courses or know whether they are still available.   He completed some biology OCW in his areas of interest, the mech and E&M physics, multivariable calc, linear algebra, and stats.

 

For a number of reasons, DE was not a good option for us, and these courses worked out great.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry for the delay, finally found a moment to reply!

 

Our "living math" took inspiration from something a homeschooling mom in San Diego created about 10+ (?) years ago on her website and shared about it on her popular yahoo group, the basic idea being using history of math and age-appropriate math literature to introduce math concepts beyond what you see in normal school texts/ curricula. We took that idea and put a more customized spin on it with biographies, documentaries, youtube materials, and mass market books written for older kids (because fluent reading and math maturity came early here):

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/LivingMathForum/info

http://livingmath.net/

 

By "big picture" I mean showing how math is interconnected. I had some help from our math mentor at the time. It really all started when A's mentor mentioned how we needn't wait to start on a certain math topic because all math connects with each other e.g. abstract algebra and topology and that when taught well by someone who knows the content, even young kids can understand some of the "higher" concepts (but not necessarily be able to manipulate/ solve problems with them which is also completely okay as what you are trying to build is interest and familiarity and not necessarily a solve-everything mindset). I was also careful to keep A's boredom with too-easy math at bay by posing puzzles/ questions that were *just* beyond A's reach so that after a few days/ hours of puzzling, A would get them (we wrote them on our hallway whiteboard and let it stew there) and excitedly ask for more. We made math a game whenever we could.

 

HTH!

I like this mathematics approach. But don't know were to start :) Can you tell me how much you spend on math daily ? For math DS is doing Singapore Math & Beast Academy. But he wants to do more. I already have Borac and Olymoiad Junior. But I also want to do something light. Just for the sake to enjoy math…

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It might depend on age of the kids. I started with short sessions, about 10 or 15 minutes in the morning, after lunch and perhaps one more time before dinner. As A grew older, I increased duration or allowed A to spend more time if A asked to do so. I learned to watch for boredom/ frustration and stop just before that happened.

 

Good luck!

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For math DS is doing Singapore Math & Beast Academy. But he wants to do more. I already have Borac and Olymoiad Junior. But I also want to do something light. Just for the sake to enjoy math…

I am assuming you are talking about your oldest son. At that age we just went as wide as possible. It didn't matter if my kids didn't understand what they were reading or watching as it was more for the exposure. Besides they were crazy over time travel and black holes then and the math (and astrophysics) is out of their reach.

 

My DS12 is still going wide and my head hurts from all his questions. At this point in time, I am just too tired to catch up with him and my husband gave up before me. He has all the mental and physical energy of a 12 year old despite our whole house suffering from probably ragweed allergy (all have runny noses right after being outdoors, same happen with pollen). He flits from number theory to linear algebra to multivariable calculus and is already enjoying the WOOT discussion even though class has not started.

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