I agree with this, and I see nothing wrong with facilitating instead of teaching, even without outsourcing.

I'm reading The Smartest Kids in the World right now, and to get an education degree in the US does not require one to be overly studious. There was a story about a math teacher in Oklahoma who said his program allowed an ACT score of 19 to get in, while the national average was 20.something. You could score below average and still be accepted. His educational scholarship allowed him to make a 2.70 GPA to keep it. He wanted to be a high school math teacher so he could coach football. He didn't even have to major in math, so he didn't. I'm not concerned at all about not having a teaching degree. I know brilliant teachers and I know teachers who had to take our high school "9th grade proficiency" exam all the way to the last semester of senior year and then mysteriously passed, so I know not every kid in public school has "experts" teaching them. I do try to stay on top of math only because I don't want my avoidance of it to rub off on my kids, but other than that, I don't need to be an expert. When the time comes that my kids need more than what I'm giving them, we will try to facilitate higher learning through outsourcing, but I have 3 kids on one income, we don't have thousands of dollars a year for outsourced classes. I also think there is value in figuring things out on your own. My oldest is an autodidact anyways, he really doesn't want me, or anyone for that matter meddling with his learning too much.

I second all of this! And also AAR! The AL board has a lot of people schooling preschool aged kids.

Yeah some of these posts are coming off kind of elitist. (This is coming from someone who truly values knowledge and education.)

Well, theoretically I *know* the subjects up to the end of high school and whatever constitutes the general education requirements in a BA. I certainly don't remember everything, especially when it comes to math. So far, I'm just working a chapter ahead of DS in order to help him with pre-a. (Which I do remember for the most part. Geometry and statistics are another story. ) My husband is great at math so he has agreed to take over next year if we decide against an online class. I'm almost positive DS will be doing AoPS online, but I do have a back up. I could re-learn algebra, and maybe I remember most of it, but I don't like it, and I'm getting burned out. (That's a topic for another day.) I do not have a teaching degree, so I will never be able to say I'm professionally equipped to teach anything to anyone. I don't see anything wrong with a parent learning along side their child, if that approach is working. As long as the child is learning, what difference does it make? ETA: I agree on the facilitating point. Especially with GT kids, who surpass parents more quickly than NT kids, there's only so far we can take them. (Unless you are a PhD but even then the interest/subject has to line up.)

This thread popped up in my search and made me smile. How did this turn out for everyone? I read the new edition of TWTM one week before school started. Things got interesting around here. :lol:

Well it looks like I was going through a TWTM 4th edition phase......it's passed.

I only know about the talent searches from here and DYS forums.

Good Luck to him!!!!

Actually, my son had an anaphylactic reaction to milk being steamed at Starbucks, so lots of allergies can be airborne, although they are extremely rare. (we don't keep milk in our house, but we do have cheese.) Obviously if cooking a certain food causes a reaction, of course you do not cook it in the house. I was under the impression that the question was "do you keep food allergens in your house."

We only keep his highest IgE reactive food out. We are very careful with the allergens we do have. He's very allergic to milk, but we do allow the other kids to have cheese. I think it's unreasonable to imply that no allergens should enter the house. I would be making a decision that left the rest of us nutritionally deficient. My son is allergic to so many foods that he drinks a nutritional shake (a very expensive! Neocate jr Shake) every night. In theory, we'd all be on the shakes if we ate only the food he could have. No nuts is easy and we don't have them in the house. Potatoes for some reason are also very risky for my ds so we only have them on thanksgiving. No dairy, egg, wheat, soy, most fish, all legumes, celery, ( I could go on.) would be nearly impossible without all of us suffering nutritionally. Bottom line, it's not in anyone's best interest to live like that so we are just incredibly cautious.

We also didn't do it. I don't even remember that page. :laugh:

I'd take away the light sources. I know it's annoying to remember. There are nights it's 11:30 and we go up to bed and DS' light is still on because we forgot to tell him to turn it off. :huh: We started setting timers on our phones to remember. My DS turns it off when we tell him, but if he didn't I'd have no problem going up to take away his light and if needed the books. Reading is important, but sleep is more important IMO. Good Luck! I guess there are worse problems to have. I love when kids are that into reading. :) ETA: I saw you've taken away the lights, how was he still reading, in the dark? I would remove the books from the room if he still doesn't listen. I know in my DS' room this would be a huge undertaking, but I'm not sure what choice you have? Either that or let him sleep in and arrange your school day around that.

Well that does help me to feel better. :lol: :grouphug:

DS just switched from double bass to piano, and I'm relieved not because I thought he would intentionally hurt the bass, but because he's so gangly and uncoordinated, and the bass keeps growing with him. I want to get my DS onto a swim team. I think the daily exercise will help greatly with attitude and attention.

just adding my 2 cents: There's very little you can plan with these kids. The only thing consistent with my GT kid is change. We loved MCT in second, he understood the nuances in the language and really blossomed with that program.

Just popping in to say that I think that my great idea to ramp up super quick right when my almost preteen is starting to become hormonal wasn't my best. :lol: I know he's not into puberty yet, but SOMETHING is going on. He needs space. I had this thread bookmarked, and just came across it tonight. A post on the high school board about creating great middle school years. (sharing for anyone else who may benefit. :) ) http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/76668-high-school-parents-looking-back-what-would-your-ideal-be-for-7th8th-grade/?do=findComment&comment=739982 I also read an article called "How to Raise a Genius," (poor title but the content was great) I'm feeling a tiny bit better about the amount of time DS wants to spend on the computer. :laugh: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-to-raise-a-genius-lessons-from-a-45-year-study-of-supersmart-children/ Things are getting better here, the kids are getting into a routine. i'm figuring out what is going to work and not work. I let some subjects slide this week after our rough start and I am glad I made that decision. It's a marathon, not a sprint, right?

Wow, that's really interesting! I've never seen that either. She sounds like a cool kid. :)

My question is in the last paragraph of my OP. I'm asking if people have forgone diagnosis, and if so, why. Or if you got one, what are the positives and negatives. Just looking for real world experience. Also, I don't "know he's has ADD." He was diagnosed from a checklist (at the age of 5) which isn't exactly the gold standard.

Thank you for the replies! I'm sure I'm just overthinking this. I read Smart But Scattered a few years ago, and recently bought it so I can reference it. I think I have another "smart but scattered" kid coming up the pike.

Thank you!

Thank you Zaichiki!

If we were unschooling, that would definitely be a rule. As of now we do no screens before 3, and 2 days a week he's at an afterschool program from 3-5:30. (unless it's school related.) It's something I go back and forth on, and I'll never know the "right" answer. :( I guess we are interest led, DS has a giant say in what we study.

This all sounds amazing! Want to come teach at my house? :)

Thank you!!