She's always been one of those 'where am i going?' type of kids but I don't think the job she'll be doing or whatever worries her. She's worries about whether she'll be putting her gift to good use because she feels a responsibility with it? I don't know quite how to explain it. Her interests have narrowed considerably in the last few weeks alone and I think she'll get closer to picking a career soon but we'll definately put that 'getting out there' idea into action. I think she'd love to find out about all different careers and such. She's been researching different careers for a while and has never found the 'perfect career'. And it sounds like our DDs would get along Anita. :D

DD was reading from a very, very young age and I never pushed her to do anything, I always followed her interests and let her go through at her own pace (more often than not a lot quicker than I would have gone through it with her xD) but I didn't homeschool her as a child. That's just DD's opinion of what she would have liked her school to have done for her, I suppose. They didn't - at all. :lol: I wouldn't push her. Just going through at her pace she'll hit topics she'll have difficulty with and she'll be challenged by them. She doesn't need to be constantly hitting a brick wall but facing challenges as she learns is enough. Being challenged constantly could turn her off learning, definately. So if you go along as you are now, she'll be challenged as often as she needs to be. I think trusting your DD's insticts are a good idea too. If she chooses to go at a certain pace, always trust that she knows what's best for her and you can always slow it down as you get further into it. A problem my DD had when she was about 9 and for the last few years, with it only recently getting a bit better, she would argue with my mother (don't ask xD) and her brain would be going that quickly and have so many different things to say at once that she would lose her trail of thought. When she calls me and has things to tell me too she often has to write a list or save them in the drafts of her mobile and I'm normally on the other end of the phone writing everything down. xD But her brain moves that quickly and can go off on another trail of thought and she'll forget what else she has to say. She also likes to be able to immerse herself in other stuff and call me later so writing it down means she can forget about it until she needs it and it 'frees up her brain'. DD is also good across almost all subjects apart from science: :willy_nilly: < --- an impresion of DD right now after looking at a physics book. So I know what you're going through. If you ever have a question for my DD, you're more than welcome to ask and she'll write up an answer for you. Her writing's normally a bit unorganised when she writes informally though because other things pop into her head as she's writing and she hates going back to edit it when it's not for an exam or something. Just bear with her if she answers anything for you. :D Jo

Thank you for your message Cathy. When DD left school she basically fell out of contact with her best friend of ten years. But she's told me she thinks most of them were friends with her just because it was convenient, not because they wanted to be. Her group of friends has also disbanded from roughly 20 of them and split three or four different ways now so DD was likely the only thing holding them together. DD isn't religious, which is strange since she did go to a Church of England school for years. But I sent her there for the academics more than anything. I'm not religious myself, but I think DD would have found comfort in it from the things she's gone through recently. As my mother has said though, she wouldn't have got through what she did if she wasn't as clever as she is. I suppose that's her replacement. xD My DD's very thrilled about the whole growing up thing (she's very, very independent & also aiming to go to uni early) but it's the whole what-happens-after-uni questions. Like, when she's working, after a while there'll be nothing left for her to learn about her job. Plus she's very insistant that she wants to use her gifted-ness well and not waste it. I suppose the most obvious answer is 'become a doctor' or something but DD is honest about the fact that she's not very hands-on. She's a people person, but she's not good at science, practical things (having to learn how to give someone a needle would be her worst nightmare, etc xD) or anything potentially squeemish. Aghhhhhh! :confused:

DD told me that she feels like when she finished school, then uni, she feels like she'll just be stuck... that she'll find it difficult to get along with people her own age (she does at the minute - she uses words too long for people, and isn't into the whole 'jumping up and down and squeeling' thing that teenage girls do) and she won't be able to put her giftedness to good use. I don't know what to tell her. I know she's always got the option of self-education and such but I don't know what to tell her. She feels like everything ends at 16, basically. She doesn't know what she could do with her giftedness when she grows up. Help? S:

I don't use Open Office myself but my DD does on her laptop and she loves it too. She uses it over Word now since word messed up on her and since she likes Open Office better anyway, she's never bothered fixing it. (:

I'm gonna have my DD write you a reply here. She's fourteen now, so eight years older than DD so here it is: Hi, I was good to read about your DD. I remember being very similar too her when I was her age. Just some advice from my perspective, make sure she is always challenged. I had years and years of school where I didn't learn a thing because I was ahead of everyone else. I regret not pushing myself now because anything I find difficult I give up on immediately because I'm not used to being challenged now. So keep challenging her & let her read a lot. I stopped reading all of a sudden when I was 11 and switching up to secondary school and I really wish I hadn't. It's difficult for me to get into again now. I'd just advise you to challenge her and never hold her back from learning so she's at the level of public schooled kids her age. Encourage her to learn at her own page or learning can be seen as a bad thing. I was lucky that my mum kept teaching me despite my teachers complaining that I was too far ahead. I just wish I'd kept up reading as much as I used to. I'm trying to get back into it now but it's difficult to find your interests again as you get older and closer to college. Good luck to you and your dd =)

OK, I saw this mentioned in another thread and just thought I'd mention it. Me and DD went through the 'levels of giftedness' on another site and figured... she's a lot more gifted than either of us ever knew. It explains her frustration in school though. All through primary school (4-11 y/o) she didn't learn anything, because she already knew everything they were being taught. Because of that though, she's never been challenged. So when I give her something that's a bit complicated (she's not really a 'science person' for example) she gives up immediately because she's never had to work at anything and doesn't know how to. Is there anything I can do to encourage her? Anyone been in a similar situation?

DD (9th) is going to be using Kinetic Books algebra & physics web access license which is cheap. We're homeschooling 'on a budget' too. Some hugs too for getting through all that. :grouphug:

Sorry, I should have elaborated more. And I didn't mean to sound disrespectful to your faith, which I realise my question could be taken as now. It was out of pure ignorance and not maliciousness though (and probably tiredness/supressed anger/delayed grief too) so I do apologise. DD is agnostic, but both of us have complete respect for all faiths and she felt that at her dad's funeral, when she was asked to come up for communion with her dad's mother seemed offended when she said she didn't want to go. No one mentioned to her that she wasn't really supposed anyway. They explained to her what she had to do to go up for communion really quickly (she's since forgotten, it was obviously a bad day) so they were aware she wasn't Catholic. But she said her grandmother looked offended when she didn't want to go. She had to stand up though, to let them pass and she had to stand directly next to his coffin which I'm shocked they did to her. But it upset her a lot and put her in a really awkward position which is why I think she wished she'd known what to do then. Only one member of our family is Catholic, however so does that mean that only one of our family members can (I don't know if this is the right phrasing) take Communion? ----------- My mother just called and told us they've found out the chapel is open to any religion but that the cemetery is Catholic-owned. I've no idea what that means, but the service is going to be CoE, I think. Will there be anything different about the burial compared to CoE? Sorry for all the questions.

Hello, My grandmother unfortunately passed away recently and her funeral is approaching. My grandfather was in the navy and so he had a church of england funeral thanks to them but my grandmother's is more than likely going to be catholic since my grandfather is buried in the grounds of that chapel and my grandmother will be buried with him. The chapel there is catholic, which is what makes me think it'll be catholic (my mother doesn't even know xD). The chapel is beautiful though (although admittedly not as beautiful as where DD's dad's funeral was a couple of months ago) but I was wondering about communion? At DD's dad's funeral they were offered communion and DD freaked out and said she didn't want to do it since she didn't know exactly what to do so I thought I'd ask now to put her mind at ease and mine too. Having to go to her father & great-grandmother's funeral in the space of less than two months can't be at all easy for her. D: Any help on the communion front though? I was trying to find a video on youtube too, I don't know if anyone can help me there? Thanks again, Jo

Some people give credits for the completion of a textbook if they think the textbook is worth 1 credit and like Faith said, you just don't tell them it was a semester long. :] I would recommend a foreign language of some sort though. If the CC will let her test into a higher Spanish class when the time came it'd be good but even if they don't, she'll know the material and be ahead of the other students so it's a win-win. I think if she's interested in Spanish, go for it. (:

DD has a scientific calculator since the school she went to has required them since she was 11 but I'd never even heard of a scientific calculator & I don't know what the difference between a scientific & graphing calculator either. ;D So anything past Algebra needs a calculator, do you think? That could cause some trouble xD

Hi, Right! I need you to curriculum-experts to help me out. I'm not looking for a complete curriculum, actually. Hehe! I'm looking for a book on french grammar from basic to advanced for my DD who's done about 10 years of french but never mastered grammar, really. We're hoping she can master grammar, then go on to vocab and finally, reading french books so obviously the foundation of grammar is really important. Any ideas? Jo

My DD's a complete calculator-phobic. She only likes using them for basic +-x/ for quickness but doesn't use them for anything else. Is this going to be a big problem when we get further into her high school years?

If she plans on going to an Ivy, my DD says most/if not all want four years of foreign language. I also agree about the health being a 1/2 credit but you could do anatomy along with it, and it'd go along with biology too. Don't know if that's any help. (:

Not really, but I've told her that if it starts to get too much we'll drop Kinetic. So it's not a strict thing that she has to keep it going through the whole year. (: I'm not slave driving, no matter what the British government think. xD Jo

She's going to be doing Kinetic books physics, and their algebra, as well as saxon 8/7 I think. It doesn't make much sense to me but DD wants to try and work them simultaneously and if it's too difficult we'll just drop Kinetic books until she's finished Saxon. We can't wait for Saxon to arrive though D:

She's planning on taking it next year. (: She's taking GCSE Maths, Religion & General Studies in November/June this year. Next year she's taking GCSE psychology & IGCSE english language. We've already got the CIE English Language book and workbook though but I don't want her to finish it this year and forget it by the time she takes the exam. S:

The plan idea did help, actually. DD thinks it's a good idea so we're going to sit down now and make a list and a plan. And Truscifi, DD actually likes language arts, hence the writer written in my sig but she's never been taught how to write a paper so I've asked her to write two this week for me to look at and then we were thinking she's have to write a paper on every chapter of her history (History of the Ancient World, SWB), Religion (Religion & Life, a GCSE book) and Biology (Biology for IGCSE). It's basically to secure her knowledge, and it sounds like a lot of writing but since DD likes it and wants to do it (it was actually her idea I'm taking credit for xD) so I don't have any worries about that. So could I use that as language arts alone? We don't have to worry about transcripts luckily. :]

My DD was top of her class from 3-11, and then she moved up to secondary school & remained in the highest classes possible in all subjects but now she's left school, her mental health issues are okay again and DD's keen to start work again we're off! Haha! But basically, DD wants to learn everything humanly possible but because she wants to do so many things all at once she ends up doing none. Is this a common thing for gifted kids? She just tested off the k-12 reading comprehension scale of a test I gave her. Hehe! But basically, I was wondering, math she's working at an 8th grade level so should we drop language arts for now and concentrate on maths & science? I've no idea what level she's working at science wise but I'd estimate it at 1-2 grade levels below her age. Due to bad teachers while she was in school, not her fault. But she's paying for Kinetic books physics because she's interested in going into computer science (and you need a physics A Level to get into uni) so she's buying it out of interest and it's going to be her science lesson. But should we concentrate on that and her pre-algebra & algebra and temporarily abandon language arts? For some reason I think she's going to miss something if we skip it... S:

Me & my mother had many, many rows over her smoking around DD when she was a child. When my neices were born she didn't smoke around them for the first few months and then she seemed to think it didn't matter anymore. My DD asked her why she smoked around everyone when it was making them all ill and she said that DD was the only one that was ill so it must be her own fault, kind of thing. Only me, DD and my brother have lived with her and my brother smokes himself now & has done since he was a teenager so obviously it'd only be me & DD complaining - my brother would just put down anything respiratory to smoking himself. I wish my mother would listen to me! Grr D: And no, they're most definately not. :glare:

That's terrible. :grouphug:, for you & all the kids. I agree with remudamom, tell the kids to bring over something to eat and if their parents ask you just say it was so they were having the food they like & you didn't want to be giving them food you wasn't sure they'd eat. Keep us updated on what happens. More hugs for good measure. :grouphug:

Thanks for that Kiana! I was just searching 'foerster's algebra'. Silly me! And Antonio, is Jo any easier? ;D It stands for 'homeschooling high school'! We are across the pond, indeed. To be honest, over here, we don't have the options you do. I don't think we actually even have any curriculums that are made and mass-sold to home educators over here. I only started home-edding DD a year ago and by then she was ready for GCSE-level so our options were buy a GCSE textbook, do a distance learning GCSE course or... that's about it, actually. Haha! So we want a bit of variety. DD's taken a year off though. She came out of school with depression & anxiety and I felt mental health was more important. ]: But basically, we have no options curriculum wise. There aren't any. Are you feeling lucky yet? Because DD hasn't done any maths for a year she's testing at 8th grade level, roughly I think. That is, according to Saxon & Mind Sprinting (which she's bored with already since she's finding it too easy. Fast tracker, here we come). So I'm not sure if she's actually at that level or not. But that's what she's testing as. I think it is because she hated algebra in school though and I think most of what she does know was taught to her in her last three months of school when she got a new maths teacher who helped her with algebra and didn't mind her needing things explained more than once ( I'm not going into my rant about her other teacher O: ). I got her an Algebra book after she left school too that explained algebra in terms of cats and all of a sudden algebra made sense to her. :] Best book I ever bought! Haha! I asked DD what textbook she used for GCSE maths when she was in school and she told me she used so many different ones she didn't know what they were called and I think it depends on the school too so there isn't a universal one that I could pick out as being 'the best' or 'the most common'. And the national curriculum = boo! Luckily it's only followed by state schools. Private schools & homeschoolers are free from it (for now at least xD). I was sort of suprised by DD testing at 8th grade though since according to test result the UK's public school system's supposed to test higher than the US's. I'd say 'not to insult you', but you're a homeschooler, the public schools don't make any difference. xD And I actually didn't know who she was, Antonio! I had to amazon (instead of google xD) her name. And we can! The King Arthur trilogy for a penny (plus postage xD)! Jo

What were you searching kiana? Evidently I'm not searching for the right key words. xD Has anyone used Kinetic Books to make a comparison? Oh the number of curriculums available! Haha! :3

Thanks so much for you answer Orthodox, I really appreciate it. :] You also get the 'DD approval' since she read your post with me. DD absolutely loves maths (she's even willing to suffer through Algebra) and could happily spend all day on it, I'm sure. We're both 'mathy people' but DD gets more enjoyment out of it. I was taught a lot better than DD during my public school years though and I think if we got BJUP I could learn alongside her relatively easily but DD is very, very independent. She loves discussing things with me (history & just general opinions on things. book too! :]) but when it comes to math she asks me to help her as a last, last, last resort so working independently is important to her. She also learns better later at night, whereas I'm a morning/early afternoon person which would cause one or both of us to be grumpy. So basically independence = good thing. I think that basically rules out BJUP from what you've said? Foerster's I don't think we've ever looked into but we definately will now. I think I'd be very upset about Saxon if I hadn't got it so amazingly cheap. Hehe! I think we'll try it with DD just to fill in the gaps for her and just as a reference math thing to have lying around. ;D Righto, I just looked up Foerster's and it doesn't look like we'd be able to get it over here without getting it directly from them (no doubt with a huuuuuge shipping cost, if they'd even ship it at all) so I've no idea what to do know. I'm all conflicted :3