Not homeschooling but we spend a week or two each summer in Ireland and our favorite places to visit are historical sites so we read up on the places we'll visit. I have also read and enjoyed How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill. My dd and I enjoy learning about the Celts as well and recently watching an older DVD put out by the BBC entitled The Celts recommended to us by a friend who is an Irish historian.

I was annoyed with the flashbacks only because I wanted more new information/show. This whole half of the season has moved so agonizingly slow! Why can't they give us a 2 hour finale!!! I have no idea how they are going to get out of the mess they are in.

:grouphug: Praying for you all.

:grouphug:

I have tried many other math courses with dd, who is good at math but is not passionate about it. We always go back to Saxon and modify it to fit her learning style best. I used a separate geometry course with all my kids…Jacobs. I like to do proofs so make up some for them as well as those in the book. I have them go through Algebra 1 then do Geometry before Alg 2 but give them a couple review Alg 1 problems every day or every other day to keep it in their heads.

If going through with an evaluation, you might consider taking him to someone familiar with gifted children and their possible quirks. I think sometimes those who are gifted have quirks others might see as being on the spectrum when the child really isn't especially if only seeing them for the amount of time an evaluation takes and in an unfamiliar environment. Whether he is or not doesn't change who he is or how you might handle his needs at any given time but there may be people who have experience helping children like him learn coping strategies for the future. Skills are taught through play during therapy sessions for children his age.

Here it is. He has two volumes and I think you can find both on this page.

I usually only casually read while sitting waiting for one of the kids to participate in something or if I have time between patients at work unless I really get into a book and must finish it. I do tend to have a couple books going at once and am often reading something with dd, too. (I love re-experiencing certain books with her.)

My parents did not tell me the number when I was young but when I was considering getting dd tested, my mom said something like, "What do you expect? Of course she's smart. Your IQ is ***."

I probably would have listened...though maybe not for 45 min without trying to redirect the conversation. I know I would have had to say something in response to the comments about autistic children. I work with children who have autism and my boys have a friend who has autism (high functioning but not Aspergers). Those comments would make me angry enough to say something. I would have kept my thoughts concerning her misinformation about IQ and genius to myself.

I don't get the hype either. It was typical Disney with the same generic story and predictable ending. I liked Mulan and Brave better.

What is your schedule like: I work part time on Weds and Thurs with an occasional overflow patient here and there. I school dd all day on Mon. She has a writing workshop on Tues mornings then we school the rest of the day. I leave her work she can do independently or with a little help from dad on the days I work and Friday is our "run around" day when she has lessons and I schedule appointments or my overflow patients (those who I can't fit in my regular work days) or sometimes it is a catch-up day for work we didn't quite finish. Our weekends are generally crazy full. What makes it work: Having a supportive husband who takes over most of the house cleaning and does all the grocery shopping and a lot of the cooking. He is home with dd the days I work. It is getting easier and easier the older and more independent she is. What are your greatest challenges: I love my job but I really love spending time with dd and often wish I could be home everyday. It is challenging to always have to plan ahead for those work days and sometimes I fell like I could do a better job schooling her if we could do it together everyday….I wouldn't need to use some of the materials I use more for ease of use and could cobble together her subjects more myself. I wish we had more time to follow the rabbit trails together and read together. I don't get home until late (work 12 hours) on those two days then have to help boys with homework or go over what dd learned when I am tired from the long day. How do you manage it all: My work schedule does have some flexibility. I can't reschedule patients all the time but if something comes up or I travel, it is possible for me to reschedule patients once in a while. I manage it because I love doing it and I feel it is our best option.

She asked to learn violin when she was 2.5 years old and I found a Suzuki teacher for her right around her 3rd birthday. She was shy with the teacher so started by doing a group class. Her very first group class, she sat on my lap the entire class. She sat on the floor in front of me the 2nd class where she "participated" part of the time and the 3rd class she went to the front row of class and participated the entire class so the teacher decided she was then ready for private lessons, too. She started fiddling right before she turned 5yo because I took her to see "a different kind of violin music" when I saw a poster in the library for a concert not far from our house and she fell in love with Irish music. I bought that fiddler's "How to Play Celtic Music" DVD and she used her good Suzuki training to pick up the fiddle tunes. We found a local fiddle teacher not long after. She still plays classical music. She went through Suzuki books with a supplement here and there until somewhere in Book 7 when all her pieces were outside the Suzuki repertoire. I laughed this weekend when a resident at the nursing home dd fiddled for came over to tell me how much she loved Irish music and who she'd seen play then asked if dd studied "serious" music as well.

I don't think it is a problem to scaffold. Sometimes children have goals but no idea how to reach those goals or do not think ahead to see the big picture. They might not realize if they practice a little every day they will be better prepared for their lesson than if they try to stuff it all in the day before, for example. They might not have the endurance to continue day in and day out toward some future long term goal they have for themselves. Discussion about their goals (helping them focus themselves and figure out what they want), a suggestion or reminder of those goals, assistance with setting up a schedule for practice, or help making a list of things to cover during practice might help them to succeed. I have done all those things with my kids at different times.

I do have two boys who are not as passionate about their music but enjoy playing. When my dd started playing, I had no idea how she would progress and allowed her interest to guide practice just as I did with the boys. That approach worked well for all my kids. Different kids learn differently and have different interest levels. I didn't have any goals of my own for their music except that they enjoy it. I took years of piano lessons (10 years) and hated to practice maybe in part because my parents required me to practice a certain amount of time every day. It seemed a disruption to the things I wanted to do in my free time like play outside with the neighbor kids or read a book. I wanted my kids to have a different experience with music.

Your daughter may like to try or listen to music from the different "Celtic" traditions (Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, etc...) as they are all different in style and she might find one she prefers. Youtube is great for listening. Summer music camps are great for trying out different styles. You might try www.thesession.org for finding sessions. My dd's teacher teaches people all over the world via Skype if you'd like to pm me, I might be able to help you out with people to listen to as well.

This direction sounds lovely but unless you actually have a local fiddle player with good technique themselves and an ability to teach that technique, it is a very limiting option. Even if fiddle music is the way the child decides to go, proper technique will take them much further than poor technique and poor technique, once learned is difficult to undo. A solid foundation will allow the child to go in any direction. I found a fiddle teacher for my dd when she showed an interest in fiddle music but it was in addition to her Suzuki lessons. If she had learned only from that fiddle teacher, she'd be limited to playing only those tunes with a difficulty and skill level that teacher's technique allowed so all those tunes she now loves to play, with shifting or in "strange" keys or with difficult bowing patterns, might not be accessible to her. Also, she'd not have the skill to later decide to go to classical or jazz music if her interests changed. I did a blog post about some of what I have learned about music and kids almost a year ago for a blog link up (just ignore the "gifted" part of the title because I think much of it applies to a larger audience).

:grouphug: Sending up a prayer for you and your family as you face this battle. The mother of my ds's best friend went through that battle two years ago and is now in remission and doing well. Treatment options are improving all the time.

I could go for that mother of kid in college shower and request donations to a Lowe's gift card so I can remodel his room.

I had a blow up with my parents 19 months ago. Prior to the rift they were very involved in our lives but there were issues that built up (concerning my husband and oldest son) then they said very hurtful things to me and I couldn't take it any more. I didn't speak to them for 16 months, then over Christmas, I began talking to my mother a bit….keeping a distance emotionally but attempting to build some sort of relationship. I have a hard time staying angry. I told my parents they had to accept all my family members or I couldn't have a relationship with them and I thought they understood. I took dd over a couple times to sew with my mom a few times the past few weeks. Last weekend I told them about a performance dd was doing that was very important to her and they said they'd try to make it. Before we had the rift, we traveled to things together but I let them know I couldn't drive with them because dd was spending a day at a school sharing her music and I had to take her directly from the school thing to the performance. My dh even drove separately. I saved my parents seats and watched for them. They came into the venue about 5 min before the concert started. I saw them across the room and waved so they'd see me. They saw my dh sitting with me and I saw them talking with my father acting like he wanted to leave then my mother nodded to me so I knew she saw me but instead of coming to sit in the seats I saved, they sat three rows behind us without saying anything to us. I can't imagine what excuse they might try to make up for their behavior. I am more than a little hurt. I went out of my way to try to make things better with them (when they were initially the ones who said very hurtful things to me and about my family). I am frustrated and feel like it is hopeless to try to fix anything.

I guess remember knowing in 3rd grade because I had a wonderful teacher who gave me my own reading group with another boy and let us read "grown up" books. The one I remember most is Thor Heyerdahl and The Kon-tiki. I remember being so bored previously with reading in school. Phonics was like torture because it was mind-numbingly easy. Being allowed to really learn was like a breath of fresh air and she asked questions that required more than regurgitation of answers. I read voraciously and visited the local library every week for a stack of books. The librarian knew me by name and would hold new books for me. The next year's teacher did not "have the time" to keep the individualized instruction and I remember how horrible it felt to be back to those boring "readers" with their simple questions.

My oldest was born 6 weeks early and had pneumonia. When he was in the NICU, I stayed at the hospital to attempt to nurse him around the clock (he did not nurse well at all until he hit 6 lb. but that's a story for another thread). The nurses constantly commented on how alert he was and whenever I entered the room and spoke to him, no matter what procedure they were doing, he stopped crying and looked for me. He was an early talker (funny to see reactions to the things he said because he was tiny) and an early reader but not so early with motor skills due to low tone from being a preemie. Kinda funny he is now my most athletic kid. My middle ds also talked early but a funny story about him…one day when he was about 18 months old he wanted to go outside on a chilly day with his Poppop and brother. I told him he had to wear a sweatshirt and we battled about it for almost an hour with him arguing and me telling him he could go out when he let me put the sweater on him. Eventually I got it on him and sent him out. He got a few feet from the house, stopped, worked to get the sweater off, threw it on the ground, and ran off to play. It was in that moment I knew I was in trouble, not so much with giftedness but stubbornness. He walked at 9 months. At 10 months, he would only eat food he fed himself and used a spoon to do it. At 2.5 he worked at learning to tie his own shoes until he could do it and rode a bike without training wheels. My dd did everything earlier than her brothers. She would ask to nurse saying "nin" over and over when she was 4 months old. (Her brothers called nursing "ninny.") She also said mama and dada around the same age and other words came not long after. She spoke in clear sentences at 10 months and used words like actually, supposedly, etc…correctly when she was 18 months old plus knew all her letters by sound. She memorized her first book and "read" it to me at 11 months and the first time I realized she was really reading, not memorizing, was when she read a new page of Little House in the Big Woods to me fluently with voices for quotes when she was 3.5yo. With her music, it took her violin teacher sitting me down to tell me what she was able to do at 3.5yo was "not normal" for me to realize she was different from the typical child in that area.

My dd used to write sentences like they were in a mirror when she was 4-5yo. She memorized every word to every song in Phantom of the Opera around the same time but I didn't see it as a waste of time. I think she just memorizes without trying very hard. It has translated to her music now. She also used her Playmobil castle and figures to create sequels to Phantom. She numbered each one and expected me to remember the details of whichever of the (over 100) sequels she decided we were going to play…she remembered them and was frustrated with me if I didn't. (I never got them right except the ones she liked to play over and over.) She spent a year crafting tiny miniatures for a doll house (cardboard boxes taped and glued together) out of anything she could recycle…every little detail that would be in every room of a house...then re-doing pieces as she came up with better ideas. By the time she had her "house" finished, she was done playing with it and our finished basement was full of cardboard box rooms. Heaven forbid anyone discard a box or any other bit of trash, I mean treasure, she might use.

I would suggest renting a violin if she wants to try it out to see if she likes it. I would not recommend purchasing a violin without first hearing how it sounds. Some inexpensive violins are VSO's as others have suggested. I second the not attempting to learn violin on her own suggestion. Learning proper posture and set-up, tuning the violin, and how to hear proper intonation from the beginning are all critical to future success on the instrument. Bad habits are very difficult to break and will limit how far one is able to progress on the instrument.

I have read most of the posts on this thread. It is something I think about a lot because of my own daughter. I don't see the girl as a spoiled. Maybe she would not have been happy with being held back either but she can't know that right now. She only knows the choices she made or that were made for her. The "what ifs" are endless possibilities and one can dream about the happiness that might have resulted. I have read a number of stories about gifted kids who were pushed with both good and not so great outcomes and I have read stories of gifted kids who were not helped to achieve at all with varying results. Choice-making is a gamble either way, sometimes there is no clear right and wrong. I think loving parents do the best they can with what they have. I know as a parent, it is easy to see all the potential these kids have and want them to be everything they can possibly be…to reach their potential. I was there when my dd was young and I hear the same things in the posts of other parents of very young children. "How do I help my child reach their potential in (insert anything)?" There were so many possibilities open to her and I felt a huge responsibility to help her know all those possibilities. She was my youngest, so I had learned a lot by raising her brothers and reading different viewpoints on education and giftedness. I try to give her input into decisions on what she studies and how she spends her time. I purposefully work to give her free time and time with friends (trying to find others who have similar interests). I have to really listen to her, not always simply what she says, but her reactions and body language to know who she is and what she wants. We spend a lot of time together snuggling, talking, reading, and doing fun activities. I also feel the need to prepare her for the time when she will "blend in" more with others doing the same thing because she won't be the youngest…childhood only last so long. I don't always get it right (that should be in the confessions thread, right?) and only time will tell whether I made good choices for this particular child...or my boys either for that matter. Every child, parent, and family situation is so different. Maybe the mom pushed or didn't know how to "listen" to her daughter. Maybe she wanted some sort of validation of herself through her daughter's achievements. Maybe she only tended to the academic needs of her daughter and didn't think about other areas of her life. Maybe her daughter pushed herself and the mom was doing the best she could thinking she had to keep up. Maybe being "the best" or "the youngest doing (blank)" isn't a good goal for which to strive. Not knowing the whole situation, it is difficult to know exactly what to learn from it without placing some judgement on mom or daughter when the causes of the situation could be numerous. Maybe taking some time to "find herself" is not a bad thing. If she decides to then go to medical school, maybe the experience will make her a better doctor because she would have made the decision herself rather than doing what was expected of her. She may decide to pursue another option entirely and find happiness/fulfillment.