Thank you for your suggestions ladies.

Sorry I haven't responded, I was having computer troubles. So... First, my son is doing Pre-Algebra this year. He will likely go into Algebra 1 before summer break. So no Maths will not be an issue for him. His struggle with formal curriculum was with writing (penmanship). In elementary school my son has not had to do a great deal of output because he was incapable of doing so. Because of his AS his doctors would not listen to me when I told them he had a vision issue. They simply told me it was his AS. After 6 years of Occupational Therapy which did help in some areas, just not writing, we were told that our son would never learn to write beyond a kindergarten level. At which point we insisted on a Vision Specialist. After 12 weeks of Vision Therapy he went from Kindergarten level writing to end of 5th grade writing and a diagnosis of AS and ADHD to just AS. Every ADHD behavior just melted away. Why are we using Apologia? Because it works... it is a great springboard for him. Because it is young earth. Because it is "Christian" without the beating you over the head methods I've seen in other "Christian" science materials .Because it is conversational and gentle. Because we've gone through several science spines and he was forever saying, "Mom, I wish they didn't always assume millions of years." and other such statements. Because TED Talks only come out once a week and they aren't very systematic. But probably the biggest reason is that it is not an overload of writing requirements that I've seen in so many Jr. High/High School level science text. But I am open to other science spine suggestions for tandem or additional resources or something that is young earth but more rigorous with input but not so with output. He has read extensively in science so I doubt that I will really find a college level input Jr. High level output curriculum.

Wow. Thanks for all the great responses. So yes, I was confusing AP and Honors. As far as his English credit I was thinking we’d use the entire series of Magic Lens Level 1 including the literature. We will also be adding more literature then just the three books offered in the level including Shakespeare. As for Math (not his good subject) we planned on adding supplemental material outside of MUS probably Life of Fred. Latin… I don’t know how I did it but the Latin was supposed to be for my younger son. Ds already finished this Latin program. We are doing Spanish as his Foreign Language. Ugg this is so much work. I planned to have ds do both Traditional Logic 1 & 2 in a year so it would be 1 credit for both books. I’m thinking we can fold in the Digital Art classes with Art Appreciation class. As far as the outside classes are usually 8 weeks for an hour. Some of his classes are 1.5 hours. He has about an hour a day of art work outside of class as practice for each class (I didn’t count any of that time as it isn’t seatwork). He’ll be doing a class in oil painting, sketching for reference, acrylic painting not really sure as the art center hasn’t posted their offerings yet. He usually takes 2 classes every 8 weeks. These classes are usually populated with patrons 16 and older. He is usually the youngest in his class. He will be taking a portfolio class in the spring. He keeps 3 to 4 sketch books a year. I do like the idea of adding in field trips to art museums and writing about artists/paintings. The school of his choice asks for our state requirements plus a humanities course in both art and music. I think they ask for a 4th social studies courses as well.

Then I read the post about processing speed being a sign of giftedness. Ugg. I liked the many post that followed on that line. My oldest was labeled HG and his PS and working memory were very low. His PS was 5th % I think and WM was in the 10th %. His tester told us this meant there was likely an LD that his giftedness was masking, he believed it to be ADD. He can hyper focus on things that interest him but things that are less important to him he struggles to focus. As he has gotten older I am thinking it was more of a matter of perfectionism that he had to overcome then ADD. I also have an Aspie who had 2 IQ tests done. His first test score was 70 or 80 (can’t recall now) at age 6 (Nov. baby), yet he was at least 4 grade levels above K in Math, Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts. He could not write above K level penmanship at that time but could answer anything orally well above grade level. The tester who was an Autism psychologist told us that he was just a brat in need of a spanking. And that this would solve all his problems. My son got consistent discipline at that age that also included spankings. So we got a referral for someone else… He was dx with SPD from an OT and ADHD for a psychiatrist. He had major focus issues but no anger issues. At age 9 he was tested again and got a FSIQ that showed that he was slightly above average in 3rd grade. His PS was in the 1st % and WM in the 2nd %, yet some of his other scores were in the 99th % and he answered many college level questions correctly (mostly in Science, Language and Math). He first got a PDD-NOS diagnosis then later that year they decided it was closer to Asperger. Unlike many Aspie my son is very affectionate and has a desire to socialize, but lacks social skills… thus the twice misdiagnosis. So when quark posted… Quoting from the report we received from the tester (what is working memory, processing speed): Quote ... working memory (WMI), ........., is a measure of short- and long-term memory, attention and concentration, mental alertness and mental manipulation. ... processing speed (PRI), ........., indicates strong visual-motor coordination, and attention and concentration. I started jumping up and down in my mind, yelling ooh me, ooh me… this describes what my Aspie dealt with at age 6 and 9. He had attention, concentration, and mental alertness issues. All 7 senses were out of whack for him. He had both hyper-sensitivities and hypo-sensitivities. His tactile, vestibular and proprioceptive awareness was non-existent (he had to move just to stay awake). After 6 years of OT we were finally able to get some traction academically, we spent way more time on life skill in K-3rd grade then we did academics. So he made little progress in acceleration in say math but we did focus on writing, holding a fork, not walking into walls, going to the grocery store without crying, learning to do chores, ect. He also had visual-motor coordination issues. At age 11 I finally found a Vision Therapist who would go to bat with our Insurance and basically told them that she would go to court on our behalf when we sued them for forced ADHD meds when he doesn’t have ADHD (she didn’t mention we’re homeschooling). He had Convergence Insufficiency (a visual tracking issue) that we had been trying to get at the very least diagnosed for years. After just 12 sessions of Vision Therapy his attention went from that of a Nat to that of an average 11 year old. His writing (penmanship) went from beginning 1st grade skills to end of 5th grade skills without having to do any writing remediation. We plan to have my oldest tested again in the next few months so that he can qualify for an online gifted program he is interested in next year. Apparently the scores need to be less than 3 years old to count. We plan to test my second again before High School to see if he will need and IEP for High School. I suspect that his PS and WM will be significantly higher after having had VT. I have two other children who are working globally above grade level. We haven’t had any issues that have required their testing. But with what I know now they are likely gifted as well. My 3rd son has developed some eye strain issues and will be going to see our VT soon, I suspect it will clear up his minor processing issues we were seeing last year.

Then I read all those posts about what Accelerated means and got to thinking about that. And decided to comment on those posts. I started coming to this board when ds was 3 looking for answer. So I started coming here with accelerated in mind as in my child was doing things above grade level. Some of it was me actually teaching things that were out of level per his request and some of it was me holding on tight as he pulled me along. At 7 we noticed a big gap in his Language skills and his Math skills. So we went in for his math issues to see what was going on. He was not retaining anything to do with math. One day he could do it the next day it was gone. We went to a psychologist because our doctor believed it was a behavior issue which it was not. So testing was done. Now that he’s in high school this year I direct more of my questions to that board…he is accelerated only in the areas he desires though he has the ability to be much farther than he is across the board, he lacks motivation to do so. We use “gifted†or AP materials at grade level mostly, except math (the bane of his existence) which is just north of average.

So I spent all this time... about 1.5 hours reading this thread... some interesting stuff. I had so much to think about and some things I wanted to comment on. I was just going to pop on and comment on the title of the original post. haha. Basically, I was going to say that I don't often use "gifted" IRL but do on gifted/accelerated forums. I used it a bit more when my oldest was 3-5 years because I was trying to find my place as a parent of a strange little alien child. He’s now a strange alien teenager who is wildly different and yet much like that precocious little 3-5 year old. Around 6 my ds found that being socially accepted was more important to him then informing others of his interests. We formally tested him at age 7 and he was identified as HG/ADD but he fits PG/underachiever descriptions much better. He tends to interact socially with PG individuals best. But he is my most socially aware child and can appear to fit with just about anyone. I don't really have a problem with the word, but have been told I am bragging and that using gifted to describe my son is not right or rude or whatever... by the same people who are talking non-stop about their child's great gymnastic, music, karate or honor roll achievements. I have noticed that public schooled parents are more likely to use the word describing their own child and occasionally my child. And have had a couple parents ask me how my child could be gifted if he isn't in PS (as if being in the gt program was what made a child gifted). My most bizarre conversation about being gifted was not about my own child. Last year when a woman at our local hs art class was talking about her PS ds who was “profoundly gifted†and a "genius" her words and his well laid out plan for his life. An hour and a half later she told my poor husband and I how his IQ was 130. I almost fell out of my seat and I literally had to bite my tongue not to correct her. There were quite a few other women listening in and it was obvious that several found the one sided conversation a bit distasteful. I asked later why they seemed not to enjoy her brag (as they had bragged about their children’s x, y, z on occasion), and they all basically said two things, one was too much information and the other was they felt pressured to compare their homeschooled child to her public schooled child. Nearly every mom didn’t doubt her statement that a child with and IQ of 130 was a “geniusâ€. This made me curious so I decided to look into the GT rates in my area. The average IQ in my area is 90 and out of over four thousand primary students only 50-60 students are in the GT program. Kids in the program have to have performed at least 2 standard deviations above the mean or scored 95% on a standardized test. When further looking into this I found that 100% of the PS kids in the GT program were no more than 2 standard deviations from the mean. This means a potential for scores in the 115 range to 144. There were in 2012 some MG kids but no PG kids in our local PS. I guess it made a little more since to me after this… as she was comparing her son to our average PS child 90-100 IQ kids…and even when she was comparing her kid to the other GT kids her son was on the middle to high end of the kids in our local PS. Our Middle School has a few more identified as gifted, the range is about the same. There are no gifted classes for high school (just honors and AP classes which are achievement classes).

MUS only goes up to Calculus (they must have added a level while I wasn't looking) so we'd have to change to something else and I never went past Geometry in HS and Stats in college, so it would have to be self-taught or online... I was wondering what to use after Calculus. I don't even know what type of math would come after this. Trigonometry maybe? My son will be doing Algebra II in 9th grade, Pre-Calculus in 10th and Calculus in 11th but that means he will have to come up with another Math for his senior year. Which would be better to take an online High School Class, a DVD program at home, or do college online classes. And any suggestions as to what has worked with your STEM kids as my oldest is on a Fine Arts track I will have to figure it all out for my second STEM boy.

My second ds will be going into 7th grade this year. He devours History books like they are cookies. In History he has already read Story of the World 1-4, every book on SWB’s list of History books for K-8th grade and every other history book in our children’s section of the public library. And he could tell you more than you would like to know about just about every era he has studied. At the end of last year he started reading (for fun) Ancient History of the World. We just let him read it… no writing required. He’ll be reading Ancient History of the World again and doing the Study Guide this year (exactly what I will be requiring of my 9th grader) and Medieval History of the World next year. When he gets to high school he is required to do three years of Social Studies. I don’t really want to make him repeat so what should I do with him for history? I was thinking maybe US history. He read the entire History of US in 6th grade so I would need something a bit more advanced. Any Suggestions?

My second ds will be going into 7th grade this year. He loves Science. He has Asperger. For him it plays out in his love of Math, Science and History. He's a fact Hover and Science is his all-time favorite subject. But I have been holding him back from high level science courses because of the writing requirements. He is finally at a place where he can handle the writing level. He can do the reading and writing requirements for a full chapter of Elementary Apologia in about 2 hours + an additional 30 to 40 minutes for experiments. So I am looking at accelerating him in Science. His desire is not so much to skip materials as to do it more quickly. In Science he has been using Apologia which I am very happy with. He wants to finish up Zoology 3 and then start General this year. Zoo 3 is well below his comprehension levels but just about right for his current writing skills if we use the Notebook. I think he could easily finish Zoo 3 and General Science in a year or less. He wants to complete all levels of Junior High/High School Apologia in 5 years. I'm not really sure if this is possible but his plan (not mine) is to do Physical Science/Biology in 8th, Chemistry/Physics in 9th, Marine Biology/Advanced Biology in 10th (probably going into the summer), Advanced Chemistry in 11th and Advanced Physics in 12th. Is this doable? Have you had any science lovers do this?

My second ds will be going into 7th grade this year. He loves Math. He is not emotionally mature for his age so while academic acceleration seems to be his desire he is not ready to deal with outside settings which require maturity. He is also slower at fine motor skills and is an average 12yo boy who would rather be running and climbing trees then writing. In Math he has a few more chapters of MUS Zeta (his teacher got sick of school before finishing and needed a break). His writing skills have kept him back but he has finally gotten to grade level in writing skills. We are looking at him finishing Geometry by the end of 8th grade. But our state requires 4 years of Math in High School. This would only leave Algebra II and Pre-Calculus for High School. So do I have him start taking college level classes his junior year? He would not be emotionally mature enough for a college classroom setting, but he could probably meet the demands of the academics if I could find an online class. What would you do/ have you done in a situation like this?

This year my eldest son will be entering 9th grade. He plans to go to Art School upon graduation. So we are leaning his education more toward the arts. There aren’t any examples of Art leaning students to go by and we still have to meet the min. requirements. The state requires 4 units of English & Math, 3 units of Science and Social Studies, 2 units Fine Arts, 1 unit Economics and Financial Literacy, ½ unit Health and Phys. Ed. plus 5 electives (at least one being a foreign language). So this is the plan I’ve set out for him for the year. I’m thinking this will take him about 5 ½ hours per day to complete. English 1 language arts 1 unit- Magic Lens 1 (a complete gifted program) but we will add in some Shakespeare. Math 1 unit- Math U See Algebra 1 +Honors Science 1 unit- Apologia Physical Science Social Studies 1 unit- Ancient History of the World + Study Guide Art Appreciation 1 unit - Annotated Mona Lisa + Art Classes (he takes 6 or more classes a year). Phys. Ed. ½ unit– Workout Journal, Physical Education for Homeschoolers plus lots of activity Health ½ unit- Facing the Facts, What the Bible Says about Healthy Living, (and something on Drug Awareness) Latin 1 unit- Latina Christian 1 Logic 1 unit- Traditional Logic 1 Foreign Language- Switched on Schoolhouse Secondary Spanish (this is not considered a hs level course but I think SOS Spanish 1 would be too difficult for him not sure how to place this on his transcript) My son plans on going into the Art Industry He’s not sure on his art path yet but he plans to use computers in his art process. So he is also doing some computer classes. Computer Classes- Coding ½ unit –Codecadamy Typing – Typing for Kids (I’d like to turn this into a ½ unit class but not sure how) Digital Art 1 unit– Serif DrawPlus Starter, Art Rage 2 Starter, TwistedBrush Open Studio So after all this work I do have a few questions… Does this look like a well-rounded freshman year? Am I missing anything? When I get around to writing the transcript how do I show that some of his classes are AP level work? I know that Magic Lens 1 is AP and I plan to add extra to MUS Algebra 1 to make it AP also. The Art Appreciation will be far more then what is required in our local PS. Would you consider Ancient History of the World as an AP if you fully use the Study Guide? Or would I need to add more to make it AP? I know that Apologia Physical Science is not AP… he’s not planning on a STEM career so we’re ok with General Science studies. Our state science requires one physical science class, one life science and one other advanced science. Will Biology cover the life science requirement? Thank you.

His typing skills are on par with his writing skills... so that would not fix the issues.

So here is the deal. I picked up History of the Ancient World and Study Guide for my oldest son to do next year for 9th grade. I was still figuring out what we might do for my 6th grader who finished SOTW 4 two weeks into the school year. This boy devours history. He's watched every YouTube, Amazon and Netflix History program/documentary I've been able to find. He's read quite a bit of the 1,000 children's history books at our local library. I'm a bit reluctant to let him loose in the adult section just yet. After skimming SWB's book I felt he could handle the content. So how much output would you require of a 6th grader doing HotAW in terms of the study guide? We will def. not be doing the map work IV exercises (he is not artistic and this would cause a lot of frustration and tears on both our parts). His writing (putting pencil to paper) skills are slight below grade level due to a vision impairment and sever fine motor delays. He can now write about 1 wide rule page worth writing in a day plus his daily penmanship practice page. We have writing for his English program, about 1/2 a page two to three times a week, plus min. writing in science each week maybe a full page in a week. There are three sections of questions in the study guide. We did the first chapter questions orally and he had no issues with understanding the material. So I guess my big question is how much writing would you expect from a child who basically just learned to write at the beginning of this year? How much would you do orally? Do any of you have other ideas on how to prove mastery? He is not big on the AG projects for the elementary level material. And it isn't my desire to slow his sponge brain down, just to show the state should they ask, that he has mastered the material.

Okay, so here is what I would do... from a been there done that mom. My son has Aspergers. He was/is so smart but really struggled to read. So learning to read meant a lot of hard work on both our parts. In retrospect I wish I'd gone with my instinct because I was sure he had a vision issue and his doctor said he didn't. At age12 ds was still having serious writing issues though he was reading well above grade level. We took him to see a Developmental Vision Therapist. He has Convergence Insufficiency the doctor told us that she had never seen a child with CI so badly who could read. After therapy he more then doubled his reading speed and his writing has improved by 6 grade levels. Looking at what you have written about your son I would be looking into this. My son has 20/20 vision but still had tracking issues. A regular pediatric ophthalmologist can not diagnose tracking and other issues you would have to go to a Developmental Ophthalmologist. There are other issue that could be going on besides Aspergers and I find that I need to be diligent to make sure we're not missing an issue that isn't an Aspie thing. He told me often that it was too hard, from a kid who really tried to learn it. So we dropped the program with all the bells and whistles. We used leapfrog fridge phonics magnet set (lower case only at first), they didn't yet have the cvc set I used with my last two. I got all the leapfrog videos too (I think they are all on Netflix now) for him to watch at his pleasure. I dropped any phonics program until he could consistently tell me the sounds of the letters. We played with the Fridge Phonics for about a month and I quizzed him often as we were out and about. We talked about how every animal makes a sound, just like every letter makes a sound. At Walmart we'd point out the big W and sometimes I'd say to ds look at that big "w" (sound of whish). Sometimes we'd ask what does that big letter say. We watched each video at least 5 times before beginning phonics. We did the alphabet song lots with the sounds rather then names. Every where we went we pointed out the letters in the environment. We said, "Look at the letters all around. We humans sure do uses a lot of letters to make so many words" about a million times before it clicked. I went to the Dollar Tree and bought sentence strips (the ones you can write and rewrite on) and a matchbox car. I taped one sentence strip to our chalk board so that we could work on blending (you could just tape it to the wall). We chose to use Phonics Pathways because it is the simplest program to uses ($35 for a K-4th grade phonics program is extremely cost effective as well). Some of the other programs just have to many components, colors, pictures and distractions for Aspies. So in lesson 1 of PP the child reads blends of sa se si so and su. So before doing the first lesson the child needs to know all the basic sounds... the sound of all the vowels a, e, i, o, u and the consonants b, d, f, g, h, j, l, m, n, p, r, s, t v, w, z. Did you notice that not all the consonants are in this list? c, k, q and x are not taught at the beginning of blending because they have more then one sound or an odd rule and I thing g is toward the end (g is a hard one because it has both hard and soft sounds). I would make sure he knew each letter sound. Then I wrote out sa on the strip and drove the car over the strip and read sssss aaaaa then he had his chance. We would try to drive faster sss aaa then finally sa (with dd we used a unicorn instead of a car). We only used lower case letters, no capitals. We'd do this through all the blends. So for a week or so we did sa, se, si, so, su races. Then a week of the ma, me, mo, mu... then we'd do a week of mixed sounds. We adjusted as needed and sometimes did more and sometimes less. When we got through all the blend pages doing this game and I knew he could make these blends I got the book out and we read these pages in the book. I think the first 20 lessons or so. You may be able to do this with other programs if you modify. Before going to the CVC words we did the blending race again. We spent 15 min. two to three times a day doing the game.Even at this slower pace he was able to complete the program and learn to read at 4th grade level before the start of 4th grade. I did notice that when we went to the book he slowed down even though he did know all the blends. We ignored the writing prompts because my ds has fine motor delays.

The boy is 14 and according to her this is his plan not her plan... she went on a few minutes about how expensive MIT is going to be and how he was working on developing an app for Apple to pay for it.

This kids school district is the same as my kids are slated for... so I know that 98% of elementary students are on the breakfast/lunch program, they met only 12 of the 26 indicators that are required to continue operations. 30% of students leaving 8th grade have a juvenile record. They are basically a failing school that in allowed to continue only because each year they're score is improving. At the rate of improvement in 10 years they will be a passing school. I feel bad for all the kids in that ten years though. I know to be a part of the gt program (a once a week pullout) in 4th grade you have to have a state test of 90% or IQ score of 128. In the Middle School they have honors and advanced placement (no gt program). To take Honors or AP classes in high school you have to have B's in 8th grade (doesn't matter if you had honors or basic classes. I have looked at the work offered in each grade level 4th-6th for the gt pull out and the honors and AP classes for Middle School and it just looked like busy work to me. For example, in the 4th grade gt math pull out at the beginning of the year the worksheets given (no books) the students were expected to be able to do 123 x 23 and 5/30. They still had to do their regular math work 4 x 8 2/8. I don't know if this is really gt, I just know it wouldn't be enough of a challenge for my children at that grade level. My not gt in math son was able to do these problems in 3rd grade. They don't have pre-algebra before 8th grade and it's just one class of 15 kids or less out of 300. So this kid is probably at the top of his 9th grade class. I guess I tend to compare my kids skills/levels with a different population then our local PS.

We are a bit of a captive audience since we are not allowed to leave our children at the Art Center alone even if they are in class. The class is about 50 minutes long and there isn't really anywhere else to go. Dh kept picking up his book and trying to read it, but she was sort of forcing the one sided conversation. As far as bragging... I guess I could have... but I'm not really very good at RL bragging. I guess I can brag on forums where people will likely never really meet my kids or me. Come to think of it there have been times when parents have gone on and on about their Athletic kid who just won some meet I couldn't care less about. Which I just find really annoying since I hate the whole sport scene (I do like soccer though). I guess this was just the first time someone IRL cornered me about something academic and I never thought of my own children as geniuses so yeah. The IQ score was obtained in elementary school so not a new thing for her. SKL I'd say this family is probably average or slightly below average IQ just from the behavior I observed. Not an abnormal vocabulary or extensive quirkiness going on aside from the long brag. But maybe you are right about my view of high IQ being more really high IQ. As far as Autism comments: I still can't find a balance as to when and when not to speak. My MIL tends to make a lot of rude comments about ds's autism and his "odd, weird, childish and stupid" behaviors. She has no understanding of his differences and doesn't care to learn... so we've both learned to pass the bean dip with her.

Dh and I were sitting at the local Homeschool Art program last Friday (Dh doesn't usually attend). Dh asked if her dd was enjoying the hs art class. She said yes, and then begins talking to us about her precious son who is in public high school 9th grade. We had not asked about her son, and wasn't interested in how great he was doing in Public School. She does public school online at homes with her dd 12, like most of the kids who attend this program and very much unlike the Classical Ed. we have chosen for our children. So I have found discussing their academic progress not really equivalent and not really worth discussing. I tend to talk about my ds's and dds Artistic ability, Girl Scout (dd is one), therapies ds12 is in and other extra curricular activities just as though they were PS moms. So this conversation surprised me a bit. She began telling us how her son is a genius, how he's going to go to MIT and then work at Apple. She spent the next 45 minutes telling us about this boy and his awesomeness which included a very long brag about his very high IQ score (130 adjusted). How he is not Asperger or anything... he's normal not one of those weird Autistic kids. [My 2nd son is Autistic, people just don't understand Autism] I just nodded my head a lot and my husband said, "Oh, that's great, and "Do you thing Apple will still be in business in 4 years?" The rest of the 45 min. were filled with her praise of her son. When we left we both felt a bit odd about it all. We don't go around telling others our children's IQ scores. We might say yes, he's gifted if asked, but we have never told anyone IRL his score. In a forum like this it can sometimes make since to use the number or at least the G,HG, PG, EG & 2E labels to get a better understanding of the child being discussed. My oldest 13yo is PG, my 12 has Autism (the tester said ds is likely gifted despite a slightly above average non-gt score) so we usually say 2E for him, my 9yo and 6yo are academically accelerated, but not tested yet. They are a lot like their older brothers in development so they are probably close in IQ range to my oldest with dd being slightly quicker. So I do know how hard it can be to find people to talk with about your differently developing child. Still, I found this conversation a bit odd. Had she been talking about her 5 or 6yo maybe it would have been less difficult for me to listen to. Dh was perplexed as well. My 13yo ds was sitting there listening to all that was said. I know it can be difficult not having others to discuss your child's gifts and struggles with and so we just listened and didn't leave. I have only one other time spoken with this mother about her dd, who is in the second art class (K-6th) with my own children and had limited the conversation to her artistic ability. I really don't know if this is her norm. or if it was just on her mind that day. Still it felt odd. When we left ds13 asks, is that boy really a genius mom? Or just highly motivated? Ds's IQ is higher then this boys... he is not in the least Highly Motivated and has no desire to be a computer geek/tech. I wasn't really sure what to say. Dh said, "Well, if an IQ score makes you a genius then I guess you both are." Ds, just laughed and said, "Well, I know I'm not. So he's probably just motivated." And we dropped it. As a 5-8yo we got a lot of "he must be a genius" along with "you pushing him" comments (another topic all together). Which we usually said, "He thinks differently then other people, is that what you mean?" I've never let ds think he is a genius, just because he has a high IQ. I guess I think of Rain Man or Albert Einstein when I think of genius. Not a person with 130 IQ or a 14yo who wasn't radically grade skipped. Would you have just sat there and listened? Would you have said something? I let the Autism comment slide... I wonder if I should have said something. I don't suspect she really meant to be offensive. The other women sitting around us had a few raised eyebrows at that... they know ds12 is Autistic.

I've been told that Rosetta Stone is not a good option as it does not meet the High School requirement. Meeting the High School Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 credits is my first goal for him. I would like my son to be able to communicate with native Spanish speaking people as there seems to be a greater need for that at this time. However he has no plans to live in a Spanish speaking country at this time. So our two biggest issues are that it needs to meet the Foreign Language requirements (so I guess that includes a grammar section). And two that it can be done on his own as I only took conversational Spanish in HS and Dh took Spanish 1 & 2 more then 20 years ago and hasn't really used it much other then at the grocery store on occasion. I am not opposed to using 2 programs if they are not expensive and work together well. But one program would be better. Any and all suggestions welcome.

I don't really look at math in terms of the age a child does it, but at what level they are working. So for my children we don't use a calculator until Geometry. And then only with review subjects. If they can't do it first w/o a calculator then they won't use it. They will only use it to quicken the pace for what they already know.

Long story short... I guess I would be considered 2e. I had dyslexia undiagnosed until my freshman year of college. School was torture for me. I know I was different on the first day of class my Kindergarten year and was forced to endure another 12 years of bullying and forced dumbing down. I was told the number score but not that it was in the PG range. The dyslexia made my reading scores much lower and made me have to take LD classes with mostly MR kids who had scores in the 70s. It did a real number on my self esteem and didn't even realize that I was gt until I was an adult.

So I'm looking at 4 credits of English- which would include Grammar, Vocab, Writing, Poetry and Literature for 120-140 hours total 4 credits of Math - Algebra- Pre-calculus 4 credits of History (no geography) 4 credits of Science (maybe only 3) Maybe 1 year Music Maybe 1 year Logic Maybe 2 credits total of Computers Maybe 2 1/2 credits of PE And lots of time for Visual Arts

This has been very helpful... I kind of thought we were over loading the day a bit. The suggestions were great.... here is what we are thinking. Our son wants to meet the Honors Criteria for a high school Diploma, When we started planning they had a different list. I just checked today (as someone mentioned) and it has changed for the better (a little more simplified) . Here are the Criteria Earn four units of English; (Only question is what a reasonable requirement for reports/essays/research papers would meet the four units) Earn at least four units of mathematics which shall include algebra I, algebra II, geometry and another higher level course Earn at least four units of science including one unit of physics and one unit of chemistry; Earn four units of social studies (I didn't realize history/government were social studies the old requirements stated you had to have 3 history and 1/2 gov/civics classes each) Earn three units of world languages (he doesn't care what language(s) he studies, but we are leaning toward Spanish simply because it would be useful) Earn one unit of fine arts; (there are 17 Visual Art classes he could choose from as well which would add an extra 4.5 credits a year to his transcript, he will not likely choose to do all 17 choices, he has no real desire to be a jewelry designer, for instance). Maintain an overall high school grade point average of at least 3.5 on a four-point scale up to the last grading period of the senior year (not sure how to accomplish this as an independent homeschooler who has never tracked grades aside from Math); or Obtain a composite score of 27 on the American college testing services' ACT assessment (excluding the optional writing test) or a combined score of 1210 on the College Board's SAT verbal and mathematics sections (excluding the required writing section). (We'll probably just do this) His career choice since he was 6yo has been something in the Arts, but he also has a strong interest in becoming a writer as well.

I've been working on our highschool plan with my son over the last few months. We live in Ohio and most of the "homeschoolers" around here who do continue into high school age are actually just doing the public school online program. So not much help on what needs covered each year... anyway, here's what we've come up with so far. Grade 9 Math: Geomatry (Math-U-See) Language Arts: (Micheal Clay Thompson) Grammar- The Magic Lens Vol.1 & Practice 1 Vocabulary- Word Within a Word 1 Writing- Academic Writing 1, Poetry: Poetry and Humanity Literature- Search (MCT)+ we have a list of 30 books to read *trying to decide how many need to have papers attached and how many just need to be read and discussed, he won't read them all I'm sure. Science: Apologia Physical Science and Notbook and extra CD History: History of the Ancient World + Study Guide World Geography: Expedition Earth (haven't decided for sure) Logic: Traditional Logic I Computer: Codecademy, Typing course (forgot the name), Power point Shakespear: Merchant of Venice, Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, Henry IV part I, Henry IV part II, Henry V, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear Foreign Language: Art: Homeschool Art Appreciation 1hr per week, Artist study (same time period as history), Art Lessons 3hrs per week, Sketching, Perspective Made Easy on his own, Cartooning & Anime, he will also do a shading book. Work on portfolio Music: Homeschool Music Appreciation 1 hr per week, study of chant and classical music, Composer study Grade 10 Math: Algebra 2 (MUS) Language Arts: (MCT) Grammar- The Magic Lens 2 & Practice 2 Vocabulary- Word Within a Word 2 Writing- Academic Writing 2 Poetry- Poetry, Plato, Beauty, Literature- Autobiography (MCT) + Book list of 30 to choose from (again not sure how much writing we should require) Science: Apologia Biology History: History of the Medieval World U.S. Government: Road Trip USA Journey Across the United States Logic: Traditional Logic II Computer: Codecadamy, Java Script and Flash Shakespear: All's Well That Ends Well, Much Ado about Nothing, Taming of the Shrew, Henry VI part I, Henry VI part II, Henry part III, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello Foreign Language: Art: Homeschool Art Appreciation 1hr per week, Artist study (same time period as history), Art Lessons 3hrs per week, Acrylic painting classes, texture lessons, Work on Portfolio Music: Homeschool Music Appreciation 1 hr per week, study baroque, study of composers Grade 11 Math: Pre-Calculus Language Arts: Grammar- Magic Lens 3 & Practice 3 Vocabulary- Word Within a Word 2 Writing- Academic Writing 3, Opus 40 Poetry-Poetry, Plato, Truth Literature- Book list classics 30 to choose from (again not sure how much writing we should require) Science: Apologia Chemistry History: History of the Renaissance World US Government: Logic: Computer: Codecadamy, Programming language Shakespear: As You Like It, Love's Labour's Lost, Comedy of Errors, Measure for Measure, Henry VII, King John, Pericles, Anthony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Macbeth Foreign Language: Art: Homeschool Art Appreciation 1hr per week, Artist study (same time period as history), Art Lessons 3hrs per week, Oil Paint, Modern Art, Work on Portfolio Music: Homeschool Music Appreciation 1 hr per week, study of jazz, blues and big band, composer study Grade 12 Math: Stuardship Language Arts: One Year Adventure Novel (http://www.oneyearnovel.com/) Science: Apologia Physics History: History of the Modern World Psychology: Logic: Computer: Codecadamy, College course Shakespear: Merry Wives of Wndsor, Tow Gentlemen of Verona, Winter's Tale, Richard II, Richard III, Cymbeline, Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus, Troilus and Crssida Foreign Language: Art: Homeschool Art Appreciation 1hr per week, Artist study (same time period as history), Art Lessons 3hrs per week, water color painting classes, Sculpture, Work on Portfolio Music: Homeschool Music Appreciation 1 hr per week, study of modern music, composer study

When I look at this list I don't thing Honors Reading list aside from 451, Jane Eyre and Pygmalion these all seem like good books for average middle school not honors. The Hobbit - 8-10 yrs The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - 7-12yrs The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - 7-10yrs Jane Eyre - 13-16yrs Out of the Silent Planet - 10-16yrs Animal Farm - 8-11yrs Fahrenheit 451 - 8-12yrs Pygmalion - 13-16yrs That said... my son is attending a PS English Festival for honors 7th and 8th grade students tomorrow and your friends list is a much more aggressive academic choice then the PS honors list my son read. Though all 6 books were good reads I wouldn't consider any one terribly difficult in content or vocabulary. Fahrenheit 451 Graphic Novel I Am David Monster Call My Name is Not Easy Ink Heart Divergent I would not call any of these books especially difficult or strong on discussion points compared to your list. So if you are comparing between PS and HS you will have a big disparity.