I loved her book. I would include "Art of Problem Solving" for mathy older kids. I can't remember if she had Life of Fred in the original book, but that's been a hit around here. NaNoWriMo, Philosophy for Kids by David White, Intelligo Unit Studies, Powerspeak language learning, and Joy Hakim's science books have been favourites around here. I can't remember now if she addressed these points in her earlier volume, but I think what threw me the most in the early days of homeschooling (and still does, quite frankly), is how to balance freedom with structure, how to cope with being a planner in the face of kids who want to throw the plan out the window and go off on tangents, and how to manage different learning styles (especially in the same household). Having a visual-spatial creative kid who wanted big picture first, along with a sequential kid who preferred a lock-step approach, has made it really tricky to teach them both the same thing. How to modify curriculum to meet each of their needs would have been helpful. Spinning your wheels is not an effective strategy! :001_rolleyes:

Start here: http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/Visual_Spatial_Learner/vsl.htm Linda Silverman also has a book called "Upside-Down Brilliance" about the VS learner which is hard to get new, but may be available at your library. I have a 12 year old like this, and coming across these resources was a real eye-opener for me.

Thanks for the info, Teonei -- that's really helpful.

Can anyone who has purchased the WWS books tell me whether I need to buy one student book for each child? Are they consumable? Thanks!

Can anyone tell me whether the student book for Writing with Skill is consumable? Do I need a separate copy for each child? Thanks!

My DS11 loves history too. We were doing SOTW, but he wanted to read ahead on his own, which I allowed. Next thing I knew, he had read all the history books he could get his hands on, and there was really no point in my trying to micromanage his learning with lessons and activities. He now spends hours a day on wikipedia learning myriad facts and events, which he somehow manages to store in his brain and pull together to draw various connections. He is endlessly creating maps showing various empires and scenarios. Now he's into alternative history and participates in an "althist" wiki where various historical events are "rewritten" with twists to the facts. Maybe your son would be less bored if he could just take it and run with it -- perhaps have him do some sort of project to show what he's learned. Just my 0.02 :-).

http://www.fatbraintoys.com/toy_companies/mindware/analogy_challenges_level_a.cfm We used Analogy Challenges for fun and discovered that the SCAT verbal section was mainly in this format, so it turned out to be good preparation. HTH!

Yes, that is a bit of an issue with moving young kids into the AoPS online classes. I enrolled my DS11 in the Algebra this fall, and even though the math was exciting and understandable (although it looks like it gets very challenging very quickly), the workload was daunting and overwhelming. We decided to drop the class for now and finish up his Thinkwell and Life of Fred pre-algebra (at a more intense pace than before, as sort of a "work hardening") and try the Algebra class again in the spring. If you're just using the book at your own pace, then it's not an issue, but the classes (and related readings at a chapter a week, problems, alcumus and challenge set requirements) add a level of intensity that might be more suitable to a high schooler. YMMV

I'm a lawyer myself, as is my husband, but that didn't help us any when it came to negotiating for educational accommodations. My kids were at a private Montessori school and I tried to advance one son into the elementary program a year early. I gathered my evidence (an IQ test, placing him in the 99.9 percentile and various resources on gifted education). They were unmoved by my argument and insisted that his social development would be hindered by his losing his leadership year (the top year of a 3-year age grouping). I also interviewed the local public school (we're in Canada), where I was informed by the principal that, while they would be delighted to have my children attend, they could not offer any accommodation whatsoever until it was time for gifted testing in grade 4. We gave Montessori another year (during which they promised to provide enrichment, but rarely did) and then we began homeschooling. Maybe other jurisdictions or school boards (or even private schools) are more accommodating, but that wasn't my experience. Unless there is a provision in your governing legislation (say, for acceleration or enrichment) that would help you, and that the school is breaching, I'm not sure a lawyer would really help. Having said all of that, I'm involved with some international gifted advocacy groups, and I know of at least one advocate who is trying to suggest that this is a civil rights issue and frame the argument as such. Maybe some attorney will successfully argue in a court of law that failure to educate at all (which is what happens when you already know everything you're being "taught") is a breach of civil rights.

Your son sounds a lot like my DS11. I think he's read just about all of Wikipedia by now, and just about everything else, and he somehow retains and draws connections between this vast amount of information. Since he learns so much stuff on his own, I have found that strictly following a curriculum like Story of the World or Story of Science (we've tried both) to be a bit frustrating. For him, it's better to come up with esoteric things he hasn't thought of. For example, I found Ellen McHenry's "Excavating English" and we went through that. It was a great way to follow up on all of the history reading he has been doing, and it introduced him to a new passion -- linguistics. To be honest, I'm flying by the seat of my pants with this kid. I do have to make sure he's covering those writing skills and life skills, because those don't come as easy to him. My time is probably better spent focusing on those things, than trying to teach him what he already knows. Good luck!

Often those visual-spatial kids who get math concepts quickly but hate to write things down do BETTER when in more challenging math. My son used to make careless errors and do sloppy work until he was accelerated to more challenging work. He's still not great about showing his work, but the careless errors have stopped. I would definitely put him up to Algebra if you've got that opportunity (sounds like a very accommodating school, btw). Lisa Mom to DS 11 & DS 9

Wow, you're going to have quite a ride with that amazing child!

I guess I didn't answer your specific question. HOW do you teach math non-sequentially? Basically, I don't really teach -- I let him explore what he wants to learn himself. I've introduced lots of math books along the way that inspire an interest in various concepts (books like The Number Devil, The Great Number Rumble, G is for Googol, etc.) and he gets excited and goes off to learn more. When he decided he wanted to do algebra, I bought him Thinkwell's online Beginning Algebra course and he does that on his own. Today, he wanted to do some complex graphing of formulas (complex to me, at least:tongue_smilie:), and his dad was home, so they did some problems together. I'm in the background, making him do his Singapore once in awhile, but he really doesn't like it because it's not stimulating enough. Maybe strew some interesting books like that around and let him play with math as much as he wants. Reward him for doing a few exercises of his required math with playing on a site like CoolMath4Kids or something else that lets him jump around a bit and try things out. You can still teach him sequentially, but don't confine him to that.

Your child may be a visual-spatial learner and may need to do math in this fashion. Sometimes, if the concepts are too simple, their brains basically shut down. It's not until they get into more challenging stuff that the neurons fire up. Also, VSL's tend to be big picture thinkers. They get complex stuff, but fall down on the details. My DS9 used to struggle with computation, and his school held him back from the higher math he really wanted to do. Now, as a homeschooler, he does algebra and whatever else he feels like teaching himself and his computation has improved dramatically. I still make sure he's covering the basics by making him work through his Singapore math (doing a bare minimum of exercises, if he establishes competency), but I don't hold him back. I think it would do him a great disservice and probably turn him off of math.

A fun logic game on CDRom is the Zoombinis. My kids love it. There are three separate games. I think it's for 8+, but they've enjoyed it since about age 6.