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lisaj

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Everything posted by lisaj

  1. Thank you for your help! I'm going to see if I can get my charter to approve them for me. :)
  2. Hi everyone, DS6's charter homeschool is starting again in 2 weeks, and I'm making some last minute curriculum changes to my order. The charter is great about ordering what I ask, but they haven't led me to gifted-specific curriculum, and I've discovered lots of great things this summer. I'm on the fence with lots of choices, though, so would love it if any of you could just give me that push by telling me something is great or that it's terrible!! Math: We're 100% sure that we're going to continue RightStart D for fun, along with an online math program. I'm nearly sold on EPGY OE, but keep getting bogged down with all those other options. Tell me to just do it, please! Language arts: Please tell me if I should order MCT materials, and if so, which ones. DS has mastered the 2nd grade level (99% proficiency on standardized testing), so we're on 3-4th grade level for grammar, 5th for spelling, and probably 3rd for writing. I have a great 3rd grade poetry comprehension book and we're starting Word Roots. I also have a comprehensive (though dry) Vocab Workshop book by Sadlier-Oxford. I was going to order Critical Thinking's LanguageSmarts D, but I'm really intrigued by MCT after looking at his comments on a webinar. He's recommending Grammar Island and Sentence Island for some of our DYS6s. Is that the best for gifted kids? In all the examples I'm finding online, I see no actual writing exercises. Is Grammar Island/Sentence Island read-only? I don't really feel like I need the teacher's manuals (never use them), so what should I really order if I go his route? Thanks for your help!
  3. My older son recently started playing, and I know he'd also love playing with other younger kids!! I'm not a chess player myself, so I'm not familiar with the ways we could make that work.
  4. Stacy, I actually had to look at your post twice to make sure I hadn't written it myself without realizing it. Our stories and absolutely identical, right down to what our public school told us. :) :) I wish we were closer in person!
  5. I have quite a few ideas because we're in the same situation. My DS6 is between 2 and 5 grade levels higher than age level, and I'm trying to slow him down from accelerating too much faster by filling a lot of our schedule with learning activities that teach "out" instead of just "up." In our main weekly co-op, we're exploring: music appreciation Spanish geography (with penpals from different countries) drama (brought in by a local theater company) fine arts (will be taught by a local artist) LEGO robotics We're also starting Latin (Word Roots and English from the Roots up). In our core curriculum, in addition to the usual math/LA/science, social studies, we also incorporate Story of the World. We're thinking about starting some quasi-academic extracurriculars, such as Odyssey of the Mind, mathcircles, robotics competitions, etc. He wants to start guitar too, but between all this, sports and religion classes, and his brother's schedule, the taxi schedule is full right now! :)
  6. We're a YS family, so if you're trying to decipher grade level for your application portfolio, you're better off getting a standardized achievement test or just writing down what curriculum he's in. The applications committee is well aware of which materials are "above" or "behind" without you trying to figure it out. Trust me, they're much better experts at that stuff than we are! :) :) For what it's worth, most YS children I've learned about (including my own DS6) is working a good 2-3 years above grade level in math. Mine happened to score in the 99th percentile in national placement ranking on a standardized 2nd grade math test (last semester when he was 5 and in Kindergarten), so we submitted that in our YS application to show achievement. (He also did the same thing on the language arts and reading tests, so we submitted those, as well.) You don't have to get him tested across the board, though. Grade level can get very tricky to figure out without achievement tests. For example, when DS was doing RightStart B, it was only considered a 1st grade curriculum, yet he learned multi-digit mental addition that isn't even taught in most curriculums. However, it barely touched subtraction or some other concepts that were in other materials. Thank goodness we were doing a standards-based program (CalMath) as a supplement, because I later discovered that he wouldn't have done nearly as well on the achievement test if he had only learned Rightstart B and C.
  7. My DS6 is reading at a high school level (per several comprehension and other standardized tests), and I've been figuring out options for the past year. First thought... I'm sure we all know that reading ability is different than reading comprehension, and both are different than critical thinking reading skills. The latter is generally what is tested on the SAT and other achievement tests. I just offer that because I've met a lot of people who assume their children are at a certain reading level just because they can physically read books for that grade level. Reading level itself is tested differently, which is important to know as their primary educators. We have consulted with reading specialists to make sure we're not leaving any holes by dropping out of the standard reading group types of programs that they do elem school. While my DS doesn't need "reading lessons" per se, he could still use practice with higher level critical reading/analyzing. When we start 1st next month, we'll try Critical Thinking Resources' Reading Detective, grades 5-6. We also use a lot of middle school reading portals. We found one on Harry Potter, and it not only had the reading comp quizzes, but tons of great creative writing ideas to go with it. Some of them are designed for the classroom, but they're easy to modify. We also tie a lot of our "school reading" in with our study of SOTW. For ex, when we studied Greece, we took a month and read every book on Greek Myths that we could find. You can always find LA activiites to go with these subjects online, too. Finally, we're going to sign our son up for EPGY's online literature course, as well as the math and grammar ones. It looks like the literature piece has them read books on their own and then work on the comp through exercises. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds a lot like the lexile program DS was doing through his elem. school last year when he was in kindergarten.
  8. You should definitely look into the Righstart Math program! When we started HSing in January, our charter recommended it for our PG son. He absolutely loves it, can fly at his own pace, and now claims that math is his favorite subject. We also love R.E.A.L. science, which was also recommended for GT learners. It's very lab-based, with easy fun projects we can do at home and that can include siblings, too. My favorite one last year was making a self-contained water cycle, changing salt water into fresh drinking water. I'm still jumping around on LA. However, SOTW is an amazing program for these kids, too. My DS reads a ton of books that correspond with the history chapters, and we're always making the crafts and activities that correspond.
  9. I think that's great! My DS (just turned 6) loves sudoku, too! Considering that DS has been confirmed to be profoundly gifted and just started the regular 9-square puzzles recently, I would absolutely agree that your 7 year old has a gifted mind for these types of logic puzzles. With the double-digit addition, that is harder to pinpoint. I know they don't teach that in regular math curriculums, but it is covered in Rightstart B, which is meant for 1st graders. Multiplication and fractions are common 2nd grade curriculum. He might enjoy Mindbenders, too. That's a great logical deduction exercise. You can find free samples on the critical thinking resources curriculum website.
  10. I would also love to know to what you're referring. We attend a California charter, and we thank God for it every day. My DS is profoundly gifted, and the regular classroom is not nearly enough for him. We have FABULOUS certified teachers (who came from a Blue Ribbon school), and they have provided everything we need, from the best curriculum to educational workshops and field trips, etc etc. There are several gifted children in ours, and it would be devastating if they didn't have this option.
  11. There are competitive moms everywhere. Unfortunately, our gifted children bring out their snarkiness like magnets. I've learned that there are 2 types of moms I encounter: those who are generally supportive even when our children are studying higher level things, and those who we stay away from. Like 2smartones pointed out, the worst are parents who think their children are gifted (or they might be on the edge) who want to play "who's smarter." My child happens to be PG, and I find that there's never been a time that this type of conversation has ended well. My latest was from a neighbor who has a child same age as my older son. They were in school together, so she knows us well. When I talked about our summer schedule (on various weeks he'll have VBS, summer camps w/ friends, and swimming lessons/soccer/year-long tkd--all at his request), she tried to lecture me in front of him about kids needing downtime. 1) Most of every day is downtime and he fills it up w/ creative activities; 2) he is PG and BEGS to be in thought-provoking activities, and 3) I'm suspicious that her idea of downtime is centered around the tv and computer. BUT I'm not going there with her. LOL! As for science, we do R.E.A.L. Science, but we're also starting Apologia Flying Animals with our co-op. I'm not a "young earth" person myself, so I'm waiting to see how appropriate these are for my family, but they have a very high reputation among many WTM HSers.
  12. I think it's great that your son qualified! I have to honestly say that I cringed, though, when I read about yelling at him after the test and immediately signing up to retest before the numbers even came in. It sounds like something I'd be tempted to do, too, but I'm quickly realizing how easy it is to get too overwhelmed by numbers and statistics. I'm starting to read about parents who are retesting and freaking out about scores to get their kids into Young Scholars. I guess my opinion is that if our kids get accepted into a program, it's because they really need it. If they don't, they'll never know anyhow and won't be missing anything that is crucial to their lives. I keep reminding myself not to become.....what do they call those beauty pageant moms?? LOL!!! (I"m really kidding!)
  13. I probably should've updated my original post. Like Melissa mentioned, I've found lots of information by searching for EPGY and emailing with her and some other moms on the Davidson forum. It doesn't sound like the creative writing is really addressed at this age, but we're going to be signing up for the math and LA programs through OE. The only other question I have is how ALEKS is different than EPSY. ALEKS looks like it might be more kid-friendly?
  14. Could you just ask your public school if they'll administer an IQ test for you? That's how we got the testing for Young Scholars.
  15. My DS loved the R.E.A.L. Science labs this past year as a 5 year old. We just fell in love with the Apologia books (more for the content/immersion approach, with the creationism secondary), so we're going to do Apologia Flying Animals with our co-op, along with continuing REAL Life Science for 1st grade.
  16. Hi! We're in the middle of RS C with my to-be-1st grader, too. I was going to supplement with California Math Grade 3 (the Houghton Mifflin books Cal public schools use) because the standards-approach ensures we have no holes. (This worked great for RS B and CalMath 2.) However, CalMath3 is a hardbook, where my barely-6 year old would have to transcribe all of the problems on paper. Based on the great information here and on the Davidson board, we're going to supplement RS with EPGY now, instead. Since RS is so hands-on and mom-intensive, I think the on-line supplement will be a nice add-on for both DS and me! :)
  17. That's really obnoxious! I just read the comments posted on that article, and I wanted to jump up and down. Of course remedial teachers wouldn't like a gifted program!!! Most math programs, and especially those that properly fit with remedial students, necessitate a lot of instruction and spiraling. I'm not a certified teacher, but I would also think that remedial learners would also benefit from more hands-on manipulative-based learning to help with concepts. PG/HG kids pick up material and retain it so much more quickly that they need programs that move quickly and don't spiral. If it matched regular curriculum, it wouldn't suit these gifted children for whom it's designed. The fact that EPGY moves them forward at their own pace is exactly why we're going to sign up for it.
  18. My 26 month old is right there, too (just a tad past those benchmarks), and we've started 10 minutes x about 2ce a week with Critical Thinking's Mathematics Reasoning I and Building Thinking Skills. He can rote count past 20 on his own (which RS seems to discourage, btw) but is still working on 1-1 correspondence past 3, so these are the perfect level. They are designed for a lot of finger-pointing instead of writing, which works great w/ a toddler on your lap. They also strengthen core logic/deduction skills. I'm debating starting mine on RS A when school "restarts" (he'd be 28 months) since my DS5 is in RS C, but I go back and forth. There are so many household manipulatives that we can use for math right now, plus puzzles, blocks, etc are still important, too. I didn't do any of this when my older DS was 2, but he was also in many more mommy-and-me classes. Now that I'm HSing, I really appreciate hearing what other GT toddler moms have found to "play with" at home! [/url]
  19. GREAT THREAD My 1st grader will be doing: Math: Rightstart C (2nd half) and D; Were going to add CalMath 3, but now probably EPSY instead Language Arts: LanguageSmarts D (and again, EPSY?) Spelling: Spectrum 5 Handwriting: HWT 2 (and probably cursive mid-year) History: SOTW 1-2 (We're in the middle) Science: Apololgia Flying Animals & REAL Science Latin: Root Words/English from the Roots Up Then, to study "out" more, we do 2 weekly co-ops, where I have vendors teaching: LEGO Robotics (1 quarter) Fine Arts (bi-weekly) Musical Theater (1 quarter) Spanish (bi-weekly) Music Appreciation (bi-weekly) Geography (bi-weekly) And bi-weekly charter workshops for: Creative Writing AIMS math/science FIAR/Children Around the World group activities Plus Religion class: Faith First curriculum PE: taekwondo, soccer, group activities w/ co-op My 26 month old dabbles in: Building Thinking Skills Building Mathematical Skills I ABC Reading Eggs/Step Into Reading I, etc Music Class and I will be co-teaching a 2 hour co-op where we'll use Story Stretchers I'm tired just thinking about it! :)
  20. My DS5-almost-6 loves creative writing and is extremely talented. (He is also PG and a Davidson Institute Young Scholar.) We are homeschooling through a fabulous charter, but it's hard to find really interesting substantive LA/creative writing materials for him. I'm thinking about signing him up for Stanford's online EPGY 3-month "Language Arts and Writing" and "Reading/Writing about Literature" courses. Does anybody have any experience with this? I'm brand new to the world of EPGY/online education. Thank you! PS I talked with someone from the program, and there are no qualification issues.
  21. My DS5 will be turning 6 soon, and we've just gone through this. I don't know when your DD's birthday is, but the ages between 5-6 are when you'll see a huge natural development in their handwriting abilities. Personally, I would strongly encourage you to make handwriting a bigger focus of her standard curriculum than the 3rd grade materials. Since my son was 3, his teachers have all recognized his gifts and constantly advised that we work a lot on his writing skills (referred to as fine motor skills at 3-4) because he'd be frustrated with his mind and hand in different places. They have been right! FLL was too simple for him this year, but he really took a long time with his language arts/spelling/social studies materials, etc because he wrote like a 5 year old boy, and it was very frustrating to him (even as we moved a lot of it to narration). We've worked every day in HWT and w/ lots of other fun writing projects (he's a very talented creative writer), and now he can write pages at a time. PS My son also wants to do cursive very badly, but we've been advised to stick with printing until it was very legible. We covered HWT K-2 this past year, and I'll probably let him pick up cursive this coming semester. I keep looking for other materials, though, because I keep thinking HWT cursive looks so "smooshy!" LOL
  22. My older son was also assessed by lexile as a 5th grader when he entered K at 5y,2m last year, so I just went through this. :) We found FLL to be WAY too easy/boring for him, even skipping around and heading quickly into the back half. We then tried lots of other models through our charter, but none were ideal. Since then, though, I"ve decided to try Language Smarts (through Critical Thinking). It only goes through D/3rd grade (which comes out in July), so we're trying that. Since your son is just starting out, you may want to check out the earlier levels. (There are lots of samples on the website.) I also found that we really had to work on handwriting our K year. DS was a better writer than most Ks, but he often got frustrated b/c he was in higher level materials that required more writing than his little 5 year old hand could handle. FLL helps this in terms of not requiring much writing, but I didn't think it got handwriting up to speed nearly quick enough for kids like these who need it faster. On the other hand, i would strongly recommend starting SOTW. This was by far DS's favorite subject. Mine would read the chapters on his own, and then we would review, do the map work (extremely simple for a GT 5 year old), and enjoy the projects together. Plus, it opens up a HUGE assortment of related literature that you can get from the library. By starting a year "early" in K, you can take as long as you want to enjoy the extra reading and projects, too. We get so many books that we've drawn this out and covered less than half of AW this semster.
  23. I am very late on this, but I have one more suggestion to add to the pile. My oldest learned to read on his own at 2 with the Step-into-Reading books (the ones you can pick up at any bookstore for $3.99). He was a Thomas-aholic, so we would read the books over and over, and then he would "read" to himself before he went to bed at night. He soon had it memorized (which some parents think is reading, but isn't), and soon after that started recognizing the sight words in other contexts. It wasn't anything special we did, but by 3 1/2, he was reading Magic Treehouse. Since Step Into Reading has books on most popular characters, it's easy to find something that interests each child. Likewise, my 25 month old is already able to read the first basic scholastic phonics books. Since I'm homeschooling my older and my little one doesn't get nearly the same one-on-one time with me, I have to give credit to Leap Frog letter factory! It's the only tv "show" he'll watch, and he requests it over and over and over. He knew all of his letters around 18 months (probably from our fridge magnets and other toys), and now knows all of his phonics and several sight words, too. My mom is a reading teacher and just laughs because none of us adults can take credit, and we're not using any of the packaged reading programs. Just expose them to lots of letters, phonics (Between the Lions and starfall.com are great free phonics resources), and reading, and when they're ready, they will really take off!
  24. Our older son was in the same boat at 3, reading MagicTreehouse when he started preschool. What we quickly learned is that 1) if we were concerned about pure academic core learning, there was plenty of time to enrich the day after school, and 2) there are SO many important skills they get in a preschool classroom that are different than what we do at home. The time they spend in the social structure with their age peers is invaluable at that age, and if you're in a good program they may also learn fun things like sign language, spanish, religion or social concepts, etc. Our preschool teacher was also extremely helpful in helping us find things to work on. While mine was reading to the class and doing 1st grade math as a 3 year old, he would not have been able to hold his own in a kindergarten setting with handwriting and other fine or gross motor skills. He had to work on zippering his coat all by himself, putting the straw in his own juice, etc etc. Our teacher was the first one to push us to get him IQ-tested so she recognized his gifts, but she also worked hard to make sure he wouldn't falter if he accelerated later on (which would be our only recourse but for homeschooling). There are many many things to learn at that age besides reading and math, and IMO great preschool teachers who've seen kids at that age year after year are our best resources. I love the suggestion to hire a college student or other caregiver who can take her to enrichment activities. We've done it all: dance or sports, art, music, zoo camp, nature activities, theater,.... IMO they get much more in those programs than in any regular-classroom acceleration. Oh, and for what it's worth, I also highly recommend letting them start kindergarten in a regular classroom before homeschooling/accelerating. Our public school fought to move my son out of kindergarten into a 1st/2nd grade accelerated combo class after place-level-testing him, but there is so much wide-eyed excitement at starting kindergarten at a big school that we wanted him to experence that. I sat in on the upper classes' open houses, and there was very little of the joy that you feel in a kindergarten classroom. While my son was miserably bored and ready to get out very quickly, I was glad that he didn't feel he missed out on all the excitement that the other 5 year olds in the neighborhood were anticipating by starting there. Now, he would have to accelerate at least 2 years if he went back, but I think the difference between 1st and 3rd is negligible compared to K vs 1st.
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