Hi - I am an afterschooling mom of 4 too and my oldest tested PG in second grade. He is currently in a GT center school in our district and doing well. He actually gets real homework so afterschooling for him is mostly latin and some additional math. He is now in 4th grade. He is the reason why I started afterschooling. He was in a private K and doing great and when he changed to PS - he came home crying over math. So like you I found resources on the net. The best one for him was EPGY math (expensive, but he loved it). From there I jumped into doing alot of afterschooling with the all my kids. I think I was always doing it before, but now it is more structured. And I have learned a lot about different resources. Because what works for one child does not work for the others. My dd is in second grade and has begun the testing process for GT. She is my workbook person and is also currently doing EPGY for math as her homework load is nothing, but busy work. She is also my reader and has about 5 books in her backpack that she is reading. Everything from Harry Potter to Geronimo Stilton. My girl boy twins are 4 and are currently in a private K program. Since this is a year early we do lot of art and fun learning games. However, we also do HWT (handwriting without tears) and HOP (hooked on phonics) program. My 4 dd is reading so we have begun introducing early chapter books for her. My 4 ds is having some issues with blending so we have been playing with letter tiles. My ds has some sensory issues so we also do OT with him, heavy work and things to help him develop his fine motor skills. Besides academics we do Tae Kwon Do, piano, violin and soccer - all I include in my afterschooling plan. Welcome - this is a great resource. I tend to read more then I post.

We have found it somewhat helpful with the PS. My son took the WISC IV to help him qualify for the GT program at our ps. His score made him eligible for the Young Scholars. We decided to enroll him. We have found the support from our sponsor counselor helpful. While Ds does great in math his writing and organization skills need work. They were very helpful in providing information and resources for us to use. This is also a free service. Since I have 4 children free is very helpful. They also wrote to his teacher at school and offered their services to them as well. However, his teacher did not chose to use those resources. You do need to re-apply every year. However, only the first application is long. At the time I joined the boards were not very active. However, I did read alot of the history and it did help me understand some of the issue my PG son was going threw.

Been there, done that and now own the t-shirt. First never ever use the B word when talking to the teacher. (bored) even sometimes using the word unchallenged the teacher hears it as bored. This was the reason why I started afterschooling. In first grade my ds came home and cried because he got in trouble for looking at the middle of the math book. He would not do the work and get 70% because he turned his mind off. So we did EPGY at home and told him he could talk in class but not to get caught. We also worked on doing the work even if he did not want too. It was a struggle for two years until he got into a GT program in third grade. My son was all about the math. He was reading above his age level, but it was not his thing...and writing at grade level. What we did for my son was to be part of the solution not the problem. My dh offered to come in and do math with a group of children. The teacher said yes and he would pull-out 2 groups of 6 kids and do critical thinking math skills. This allowed the teacher to help the more struggling students and allowed my son to get more math. And dh would teach the forbidden things to the kids. Like teaching a first grader multiplication because that can not be taught until third grade. It was a win, win all around. Now dd entered 1st grade and after the first day of having the book, "My Dog can Talk" a book she read when she was 4 as her reading material. We put a few Magic Tree House books in her back pack, emailed the teacher and off she went. Now she is my writer so she will write pages and pages of stories instead of the three sentences so for her school is fun and interesting because of the art, coloring, projects (gluing and pasting) and she loves to read. Now in second grade, we learned are lesson so we just put a few of her books in her back pack and off she went. Since the beginning of school she has been reading Harry Potter. She is currently on book 7. Now part of my is concerned because that means that mostly all she is doing is reading when her work is finished. But she loves school and she gets to do alot of art, science and her current teacher used to be a third grade teacher so she seems to be bringing home more challenging math problems -critical thinking ones then just what is 11+2. We also afterschool her and she is currently doing EPGY. The teacher are required to teach certain things and at our school they were not allowed to give more difficult math work only critical thinking skills within the standard of Learning. Also for us the ratio was 26 to 1 and that is very difficult for a teacher to do individual plans for all children. We also have the reading testing problem. It is a bogus number because if you max out the test they can not give you the next grade up. So my suggestion is figure out how you can be part of the solution.

I too would check out hoagies website for advice. My children were all advanced verbally. I guess I would ask why do you want to know if they are "gifted". We have only tested one child because we needed too to get him into the program he needed at public school, but it was not until he was in second grade. We will be probable testing number 2 as she is in second grade and GT placement begins in third grade in our school district. For me when my children were little the hoagies site was very helpful. Gifted children are not just ahead educationally - they think differently, the processes information and the world around them differently. It is true most all children will learn to read by third grade so in some ways they all do catch-up, but a child that has been reading since 4 has a different take on the world. But not all gifted children are alike. I would suggest reading as much as you can on gifted children and how to help them deal with the world around them. I know my son did not always fit in with his friends, were my dd she fits in anywhere and with anyone, but she is my overly sensative child. For me, I just assumed my children were gifted and did my research on how to help them and me adjust to the world I found myself in.

My oldest is a gifted perfectionist (or was). When he was 2 he broke not one but two guitars because he could not make it sound like his Daddy. Ok funny now. What we did when he was younger was do things badly around him, laugh about it and keep going. Like I tried to play the guitar and did it badly and Dad started making mistakes and then keep going. As we got older we stressed it was the trying that was important not the end result. At dinner we talked about what we did wrong during the day and how we felt about it and how we correct it. For example I would say I send out an email that I did not use capitals and then how I just sent it out again corrected. We had similiar issues with writing as you are having. We used chalk and dry erase boards to practice. Worked better because he was still practicing but it was not perminent like it is when you do it on paper. Gifted children do think differently and their thought process is unique and ever changing. It is difficult to stay on top of it. My oldest need to know the plan and ie what shoe to wear. It was very important to him. So I tried to always take the extra time to explain the plan and figure it out. Now my second child gifted but different - needs no plan, but is an emotional being and a wrong look or harsh word can send her over the edge. What I do is try to get an idea of what their triggers are and then help them learn to cope with these. I would second the hoagies website. Sorry so long hope this helps.

I love HOP - I have used this program to teach all my children to read. My favorite thing about it that it all comes in a box and is easy to use (juggling 4 kids so I need something that I can use consistently). I don't use the tapes (I have the older vesion). You practice sounding out words in the work book and then it will tell you when they are ready to read the next book. What is awesome about it is once they get to the point to read the book - they can read it. So there is great success and they want to keep reading. Now sometimes it is a struggle to have them do the workbook words and learning to read the site words, like, the and etc... But I just go back and have them read the books they read successfully or pages in the workbook that are more story like then just list of words, like ox, box, fox ect.. I have used the program to teach beginner readers and it was great for my dd who learned to read by using whole language and we went back to teach her how to read doing phonics. Also the program is so simply laid out that you can skip around. For example my friend used it with her struggling first grader who could all ready read the basics - she took the second box did a quick check at the level she was add and then jumped right into the middle of that box and finished with these easy to read chapter books giving her confidence that she could try to read smaller word books with less pictures. Hope this helps. The program can be found cheaper on ebay and sometimes at COSTCO

LisaK - "All took unique paths in their developmental process." -love this and your stories too. Your life sounds like mine, people always assume that I am a pushy parent what they don't realize is that the children are pulling me in directions I never thought I would go. Yesterday my 4.5 year old daughter said to me mom I can spell dog and then she said I can even spell it backwards g.o.d. then she gets this look on her face and she says mom I can even spell God. :lol: Having gifted children is an awesome tiring journey. For me the hardest part is going from having big adult conversation with my children and the next minute dealing with a fit over the fact that a sibling has touched a special string.

Finding the time is harder as they get older and the homework gets more involved. But I found if you break things down into 5-10 minute activities you can get alot done. For example my oldest takes violin and he practices on 10-15 minutes as part of his chore routine in the morning. It was amazing how his playing improved. My dd does the same with piano but it is more like 5 minutes. You also need to be creative on time. For example I keep workbooks in the car so if we are watching a soccer game - the kids can do a page or two of math problems. Or latin words in the car at red lights. We also listen to multiplication unplugged on Saturday mornings on the way to CCD. Or we have family game night on Thursday and we play apple to apples or blokus or 24. Educational games are a great way to get afterschooling in and great family time too. I will do art projects on saturday morning we learn about artists and then try to paint like them. My kids love doing watercolor. Oh and we listen to classical music at dinner and talk about the artists. For me I take a big goal like learn latin and then break it down into ok we will learn 3 words a week - then I put them in the car and off I go. (using English from the Roots Up). Or we are using Handwriting without tears and we sit down for 5 minutes and do a page or two - same with HOP. My dh reads the great illustrated classics at bedtime or the SOTW. I have also started getting books on CD at the library and putting those on for my twins to fall asleep by - this has stopped the talking. Hope this helps. OT - Hi Hawke

I never believed in defining my children by a number. With that said, our school system gives the NNAT and the cogAT in second grade and my son did the tests in about 15 minutes each and scored with the 92%. While this is a high score it did not qualify him for GT services in our PS. So we had him privately tested with the WISC IV - which he tested into the GT for public schools. I guess what I am trying to say is that you need to look at the reason why you want the test. We are glad that we did test my oldest because now he has the opportunity for various other learning opportunities then he would not have with out the test done. How I found pyschologies who give the test was I searched private schools websites that required testing for admission as they posted a list of DR. Our PS required that the test been given by a LI pyscologiest. The cost was around $500.

Duplicate post - not sure why it happened.

I don't think it can be tamed. :lol: How to work formal schoolwork into the day? -Depends on the day. Somedays nothing and somedays we do lots and lots. I create end goals like learn 3 latin words a week and then try to schedule that in. - How much is enough at one sitting? - Again it depends. Sometimes it is as fast as 5 minutes and other days it can be 45 minutes. - What to do with the toddler while his brother studies? When my twins were smaller (ok I still do it) I would put on an educational video or better yet a video in Spanish (love the library). Or get them set up with a "new" toy only used when afterschooling the older ones. Or pull out crafts like paper and crayons or chalk or water play outside while I worked with the older ones. - What to do with dd, who is proving resistant to Bob Books? I love the HOP program (hooked on phonics). It works perfect for the afterschool. I don't use the tapes and do the sounds myself. Basically there is a work book and when you learn enough sounds and letters then it tells you to read one of the books. Some days they would do one page and other days they would read 4 plus a book. The other idea is to use small letter tiles (got mine from Walmart) and then they play putting words together. Or have them learn to read by writing. - What is a minimum budget for all the afterschooling materials? I've managed almost exclusively with my local public library so far but I see I must stock up on stuff. This is not a good area for me I buy way to much stuff. I buy educational material like some women buy shoes. It is a sickness. But I buy workbooks at the dollar tree and I shop on ebay. I also use those plasic sleeves and use dry erase markers. I just got this great map of the US in plastic from the dollar store. It will be so cool for the kids to write on and really play with the states and capitals. When you afterschool you really need to get out of the box on what education is. For example making cupcakes one of my dd favorite things to do. First their is reading the box - awesome because it has pictures like 3 eggs, then their is the measuring (math) then the mixing (help with fine motor skills) the same with frosting them. Oh and making pizza -great for learning fractions. A trip to NC to visit Grammy. First a quick trip to the library to get books on NC and flowers. Then an hour spent with grammy looking at flowers in her garden and finding them in the book. Did you know that NC is the tar heal state? and even has a toast. Nothing like a bug catcher and an after dinner walk or a talk on how old a tree is. I also count soccer, TKD, piano and violin into my afterschooling program. Then there is listening to classical music over dinner while you talk about the life of Motzart. Again the libary has ton of children's books on him as well as some CD or you can find these cheap on amazon - the ones that WTM talks about. less then $5 on sale. You can also do car schooling nothing like listening to the Trojon Horse on CD or spanish tapes. We tried learning Korean for awhile in the car. OF course at one point I think my children could tell me no in about 6 languages. :lol: Oh and the car is the perfect place to do math facts. My favorite is when I tought the little ones to count by 2, 2,4,6,8, who do we appreciate mom mom. LOL and then we moved on to get to 20. I also do math facts, counting by 5, by 10s. I start with a basic goal of what I my children to be able to do and then I break it down and figure out were I can fit it in. Like all that math in the car. For me with 4 kids I have to learn to be flexible. Like I found these great pirate things at the dollar store. So next time we visit the cousins we will be learning abou pirates.

What math program are they following in school? My oldest used Everyday Math in third grade and my younger daughter used Scotts Foresman in first. The reason is I try not to teach the same thing as they are doing in school, but supplement and work on things they need help with. What I have used to afterschool. I am currently using the Sigapore math for my 4.5 year old twins and I am finding it easy to do in 5-10 minute settings without a lot of prep time for me. I am also using it for my 7 year old dd. It was a great help this summer because while she is good in math I had her take the placement test and found some holes in her math learning that we have been skipping to those section in the workbook. She also loves music so she listens to multiplication unplugged to learn her multiplication facts. DS 9 listen too, but does not admit that he likes it. :lol: http://www.sara-jordan.com/product-111.shtml We also use Challenge math for word problems. I don't think they do enough of these at school. http://www.challengemath.com/ Dd 7 and dd 4.5 loves work books so I also used basic work books I buy at Target for her to do while hanging out soccer games etc. DS 9 had issues with math minutes - doing as many fact problems as possible in a minute. So I printed off sheets from the internet and we do math mintues for marshmellows. It was a stress thing and he knows all his facts just not fast and not under pressure. So we worked on it. Now ds 9 loves math so we also did EPGY for him and we also did it for dd7 (but took a break because she hit a learning wall - she needed to know more basic facts - we will pick this up again for her in the fall) Ds 9 and I are also watching Chalk Dust algebra tapes and doing some problems. This is going very slow, but he thinks it is cool that he is learning algebra. But I am impressed with the program so far - we are still on tape one. http://www.chalkdust.com/ I bought my program off of ebay. Hope this helps.

I afterschool - not homeschool, but I do have 4.5 year old twins. My thoughts for what they are worth. I like the schedule, but I would put more wiggle room in it as far as what you want to get accomplished in the end. Some days everything I have planned works and well other days nothing works. The other thing is that I find my 4.5 year olds need alot of one on one time with me. I can't have one doing handwritting and the other one doing math. I am using signapore K for the twins and I find I get more done doing 5 minutes alone with one then 20 minutes together. I do my reading and my math in 5-10 minutes and then off to play or use manipulatives. For me to help with the interuptions I set the timer and give each person their own time. It sounds like a great plan. I would try it out and if does not work then try something else. I am a big planner - I find I work best with a plan and then adjust it as I need too.

High School for me was a lifetime ago. LOL. I would email the P.E. teacher and ask the questions. About how P.E. works and you should be able to get a tour of the school as a "new" student so you would be able to see the locker rooms and then discuss the best way to handle the changing. Way back when we did not have to shower - actually no one did and we had changing stalls. However, you did get teased if you changed in the stalls.

First - most research will tell you that most siblings have IQ's within 5 pts of each other. The issue usually comes into play with regards to school GT services and the cut off score so if one sibling has an IQ of 134 gets services and a child who has say 130 will not if the cut off score is 132 - yet both children are gifted. Second - your situation sounds similiar to mine my first child hit all his milestone very early. For example he was reading at 3. Now my second dd - she could care less about reading at 3 but she dropped her training wheels on her bike - almost before her older brother (he is 21 months older). Now when dd was around 5 - she said "mom I have read all the books in my room and well she had. Somewhere along the line of juggle her and her older brother and the new twin additions she taught herself to read. I now have a 9 year old ds who has been tested and is PG and a 7 dd and 4 year old g/b twins. Each one I beleive is gifted and since they will all be in PS they will probable all get tested so someday I will "officially" know. But for now we just assume that they all are. To answer your question about grade levels - one of the things that I have learned about gifted children is that they are not all gifted in the same areas. My oldest is amazing at math, good at reading, and not so good in writing. Actually his younger sister is a better writer then he is. The point is that we stress will all the children is everyone develops and learns at different rates it does not make one person better then the other it is like one person has green eyes and the other has brown. One can read chapter books and one can read early readers (my 4.5 year twins are at this point). Besides this we stress it is the trying that matters not the actually doing or being able to do it that matters. Not sure if this answers your question or not. Oh and also there are studies that say most people don't believe the second child is as gifted as the first because their development becomes the new normal I know we were guilty of this with my second - until she entered first grade and then it seems like she became gifted over night. lol Jean

For me I try not to duplicate what they are learning in school- thus why I loved the WTM book. I also try to afterschool what the kids want to learn and this is the difficult one because it jumps around alot based on their wants. PE: Soccer for my older two this is 8 months of the year and for my younger two this is just 6 weeks in the spring and fall Swim Lesson in the summer TKD - all year round 1-3 times a week depending on schedule Music: DS takes violin and this summer trying guitar DD takes piano DD/DS (4) I am trying to teach them based on color dots on the key board - not going that well. Listen to classical music during meals. Art: About every two weeks I pulled out the water colors and we work on different techniques. We watch videos on different artist from the library and look at paintings. (this subject usually gets lost in the schedule) Reading Read alouds to all the children DS 9, DD 8 15 minute of reading at bedtime. This summer doing the Barnes and Noble reading program, their school reading program and the library reading program. DD/DS (4) - HOP program Math DS 9 - chalkdust algebra at his request DD 7 - EPGY and Signapore 1B DD/DS Signapore Kindergarten A Math games, blokus, 24, rush hour, card games Science This subjects jumps around from chemistry to building rockets to paper airplane flights History: SOTW - mostly done in nighty reads and then I will get books from the library on the subject they are learning. I always struggle with getting organized, not repeating what they are learning in school and doing what they want to learn.

I would go with the first question is why test? I never wanted to have my children defined by a number. However with that said after my son did ok on the school given CogAT and the NNAT he did not qualify for the gifted program. We decided to have him tested with the WISCIV - these test scores allowed him to go into the GT center class. This has been a great experience for him. Oh and just to let you know Gifted is usually defined as an IQ over 130.

My four year olds have started signapore math. I bought right off their website so we are doing earlybird A. They are both moving pretty quick threw it, but love the color and the exercises. They are finding it pretty easy right now and flying threw it. You can review sample pages from their website. If she has all ready done alot of worksheets you may want to take the one line test for 1A. Don't think you have to stick to a kindergarten program - if she has done alot of workbooks all ready she may be ready for first grade work.

Never too young... At that age I used to do a letter a week. You can do letters in play doh in sand and my childrens favorite shaving cream in the bath. I would follow your gut...with how much you do. Most of all my children were reading by about 3-4 at different levels. You can also do alot of sorting and counting. I would not start any formal workbook training, but that was just for my kids, but then again mine started doing workbooks at about three - and most would have said that was too early... So I would say if your child wants it - then go for it...

I have four children - I started after schooling because my oldest came home from first crying for more math. How do I do it....gently.....Right now I am doing HOP and Signapore with my youngest two 4 - basically 5-10 minutes a night or so and this is in between Tae Kown Do and socccer. My first grader soon to be second- her passion was writing so I just provide work books and lots of notebooks and a willingness to read her work. She also does EPGY math and I have just started signapore math. She got very little homework -just reading. And well she is reading at about a 5th grade level so no worries there. This again is in between Tae Kwon Do (she is a black belt) and soccer and fun with friends. My third grader soon to be fourth-not so much this year as he went to a GT center school and his homework jumped a ton and his motivation dropped. He also does Tae Kwon Do (black Belt) and travel soccer. I also work full time - so can it be done YES YES and YES. The trick is to have information at hand when they are interested and have it in 10-20 minute lessons. Like we will read SOTW for night time reading and then I will give them library books to look at regarding the time period for their independ reading for homework. I also do unit studies when I can. For example we are going on vacation to NC in the moutains - so I have created workbooks about NC, plants, rocks and flowers - yup counts as afterschooling. We bake on the weekend, lots of math measurements. We also do alot of our science on the weekends. Nothing like giving children baking soda and vinger to play with. LOL then we talk about chemical reactions. When you do afterschooling it is all about the moments and what you do with them. It is not always about a formal plan and a report checklist. It is about being prepared to jump around. DS went threw a phase of inventors so a trip to the library and a trip to a museum. What I have learned is not re-doing what they are doing at school, but doing the difference. Like we do English from The Roots up - a quick easy way to get latin in before school or in the car. Oh and that leads me to car-schooling. There are great CD, the math rap and unplugged series are awesome. Actually my dd requested multiplication rap on her ipod. There is also one that lists all the presidents. How about the SOTW on CD or spanish on CD. Or listening to the classics while you drive them to practice. You will be amazed at the places and spaces you can put in afterschooling - it is not about sitting at the table and doing seat work. Yes it can be done, even with a baby in the house. I did it with twins. It does require I different mindset and for me marshmellow for bribes. LOL Best of luck

I would request a sylabus of both classes from the teacher. So you can get an idea of what the two course look side by side from the teachers who are going to teach. Not sure if this applies but for me I found that sometimes the "harder" classes were easier because the teacher was better and the class had more motivated students in it vs just having to take the required course.

Kathy in MD said "SPD is one therapy I'm against trying to treat on your own. It's very complex to diagnose properly because each major category of problems can be either hyper or hypo and it's not always obvious which it is. " I guess in my case I would have to disagree, since I stopped going to the OT. We did receive a detailed report on my sons condition and I did see some improvement while we were doing the OT, but I have seen the biggest progress in the last few months since we have been doing the OT every day using the sensory diet that my OT provided form me. I don't think I could have started this on my with without the help of the OT, but I do not think I am hurting my child by stopping the weekly sessions. However with that said, my son has a very mild case of SPD and the OT told us he only needed a "little bit of OT" - her words. Also we do have a specific dx and a plan provided by the OT that we are following with some additional fun things from the out of sync book.

I would reprint my return address label with my name spelled bigger and maybe sign my name a bit bigger in the cards and then move on. My girls will probable hate me when I get older as I named one Caitlin and there are a thousand ways to spell that one and Meghan and yes there are thousand ways to spell this one too. But then again now a days even John or is it Jon spelled many ways.

What is gifted? That is the question.. As parents we all think our children are gifted and I truly believe that all children have talents above their years. But to answer your question, how did I know with out the test that my ds was gifted? (he was my first). Well I would have to say it was because I read those expert baby books. After the first 6 months I thought ok the checklist are averages, then after the first year I thought ok everyone devlopes differently it will normal out by the toddler years. At the toddler years I stopped reading because the book checklist were not what my son was doing. I would have to say he hit most of the milestone way early in most of the areas. Then I went through a period of denial, ok all three year olds can have these conversations, read and do math. I was lucky and my children went to private daycare were alot of the children were ahead academically so I started to think ok - he is just a bit ahead and I believed that it would "all even out by third grade". Then he went to PS in first grade and my eyes were burst open. This is when I knew my son was just not working above grade level. He just did not fit in with alot of his friends, he thought differently. He said to me "mommy my brain is like a race car and my friends like your van". However he shut down in both first and second grade - if our school gave letter grades he was probable be a b/c student. He just did not do the work. Then he took the cogAT and NNAT for third grade GT placement - while he did well he did not score in the 99% he needed for the program. We had him privately tested with the WISCV. He tested PG and the results allow him to be placed in GT for third grade. The pysch explained the huge difference in the score by saying he had shut down in school. He loved it and is now an A student and has lots of friends because he says they all think like him. . When my dd came along I was not reading any of those books and we just figured everything she was doing was normal and she was different then my ds. She did not read by 3, but she had dropped her training wheels and could go across the monkey bars - used to scare the other mothers on the play ground. lol. It was not until 5 when she said mommy I have read all the books in my room and well she had. She is now in first grade in PS and is doing great, she has lots of friends and is well above grade level. So while she does not exibit the same signs of gifted as my ds - we will wait until second grade testing and then we may do private testing so she too can get placed in the GT center school. If I were to guess I woudl say she is reading at about a 5th grade level. Now I have 4 year old g/b twins - both are reading and doing math. Again while they do not track like my other two we have a feeling that we will be heading down similiar paths with them. Each one of my child has different stregths and weakness, most all are working way above grade level in at least one subject. For my 4 year ds it is his ability to talk to adults and charm his way into getting them to most anything for him. Thus at 3 he finally learned to put on his own shoes. Well that is the long answer and I think the short answer is that gifted children think differently - but they confuse us because one minute they are having this huge adult conversation and the next they are having a tantrum like a 2 year old. LOL Not sure if this helps or not....

Enjoy...one of the most amazing things is to watch a young mind work. The hardest part is trying to figure out what "age" they are. One minute you are having an amazing conversation about how cells divide and the next minute there is the tantrum because his sister touched his favorite piece of string that he had left on the floor two days ago.... so I feel your pain and it is "normal". My 9 year old goes to a GT magnet school and we afterschooling him in mostly math - his passion. He wants to do algebra this summer. We will also do some afterschooling in writing because well his 7 year old sister has started correcting his grammer. lol. Oh and beware, just because #2 or #3 or in my case #4 don't show the same early signs - they do say that most siblings IQ are only off by 5 points or so. While my oldest shows his giftedness in math, my 7 year dd shows it in writing. And well both my 4 year old twins are reading and doing basic math. The issue is that this level of education becomes normal and you start to forget that they are above the curve just in different ways. We stress that with all our children -that they all have their own strengths and weakness and for my oldest who started to get a big head because he was in GT. We told him that the only difference between him and some of his friends who did not get in, was that he just learns the stuff faster. We try to stress that it is in the doing and trying that is important not just the knowing. We also do Tae Kwon Do and that has a lot of lessons about always doing your best and respecting others who may not be doing it as well, but if they are giving 100% that is what is important. And finally I would say go with your gut...you know your child the best and you will know what is right for him. I found that some of my neighbors thought I was being a pushy parent - what they failed to realized is that I started afterschooling because my son came home crying in first grade because of math. So what if my 9 year old wants to do algebra - why not. I am not pushing him or forcing him - he just wants to do it. Now with that said there will be some forcing with the writing because well that is his weakest link and it will start to hurt him in science and math if he does not start his sentences with capitals and end his sentences with periods. lol