We are scaling back.... sort of. And I need your reassurance.

[Jen in PA]

I am coming to the realization that less is more for dd6. We began our new school year in July, and things have gone very well. Too well, if there's such a thing. She flew through the end of the 2nd grade level math/spelling/grammar that we were using and is loving Minimus, which we just began. In fact, she willingly works ahead in math and begs to do extra Latin, so no problem there:001_smile: She is reading the books I assign (mostly listed as 5th and 6th grade reading levels) and completing simple book reports. She is doing narrations on history and science. And she is complaining that she is bored. Really bored. And we looked ahead at what I had planned to move on to in spelling and grammar (the Flash Kids books for 3rd grade), and I just don't see the point. In fact, I had been using this series because she seemed to need so little review and reinforcement in these areas, and they are inexpensive and I never felt guilty for skipping large chunks as necessary. So we are dropping formal spelling for the time being and I'm going to pull grammar out of what we are doing in Latin. I'm going to stop limiting her to 20 minutes of math per day and see where we end up, even if she decides she's going to keep up the rapid pace with Singapore . I'm going to keep up most of what we are doing in history, but hand over more of the reading to her. And science is such a big problem because she gets so frustrated by anything she considers to be too simplified (if it doesn't have tiny type and lots of tables, she labels it "not a real science book"). I didn't want to push ahead too far since she isn't ready to produce detailed lab reports, so I'm going to let her read at the level she prefers until her output catches up to her input in this area.

 

I just keep thinking that she is going to hit a wall, at least in one area, but she just keeps zooming ahead. She is wearing me out! I'm not sure that I'm looking for advice or just airing my thoughts in a safe place, but if you have btdt experience with a child like this, please tell me that it will all turn out ok!

[silvermine]

With my son, I try to make the things he doesn't enjoy much really, really short and non-painful. :D He really wants to read and such, but he doesn't want to work at it all day. So each day we spend 5 minutes (10 max) on phonics, or spelling or whatever we're working on. Just a little bit every day. Same with writing -- he's a bit of a "typical boy" in that he's really not interested in writing at his age (6.5yo), so I require just a teensy bit each and every day. And I'm seeing *tons* of improvment and he's not bored at all. (In fact, when he got ear the end of his phonics book, he begged for 4-6 lessons a day so he could be done! :D)

 

For the things he likes, the only thing that limits it is my time and patience. :D He can read *very* simple things, but he'd rather hear "G is for Google" or some neat thing about slugs or space. So we read a lot. And we do experiments that we can do at home without poisoning his little sister (and with another baby on the way I have *got* to come up with a way to do more interesting things with little ones around...). Lab reports can wait. Really. :D I know the scientific method is great, and mentioning the different parts (what do you think will happen? That is a hypothesis. How would we test it? That's the method. What's the control?) will certainly help understand how science works... but really, just reading and knowing more is not a problem. My mom is a scientist, and I'd be shocked if I learned much science in school at all, because I already made her explain it to me years before we got to it in class. (Or read a book, saw it in a show, etc..)

 

More exposure doesn't hurt. And there's no reason you have to follow the same "rules" of having a certain kind formal writing assignment just because she's doing physics. ;)

 

If she does a year of math in a month, then you have more time to play with all the neat ideas that typical math curricula never get to. There's tons of neat patterns and ideas that are shoved aside because there's no time in a typical class. (That's the sort of thing they expose you to in a good math enrichment class).

 

No one was ever hurt by reading about quantum mechanics when they were 9. ;) In fact, just like foreign languages, I tend to think that the earlier and more often you're exposed to things, the better you will understand it and the further you'll eventually go with it.

[OHGrandma]

Now sounds like a good time to add in music lessons, that usually requires more effort. And if it doesn't require more effort, then you also have a musically talented child! We also added swimming & skating lessons at different times.

[Jen in PA]

Now sounds like a good time to add in music lessons, that usually requires more effort. And if it doesn't require more effort, then you also have a musically talented child! We also added swimming & skating lessons at different times.

 

I was hoping to add piano later this school year:001_smile: I'm currently saving up for a decent enough keyboard, and I have a teacher who would teach my dd and her dd as a pair, and they are both really excited about it. We also began our co-op classes last week, and she is taking writing, math, biology, and art, all for ages 6 - 9, so I imagine there will be some new challenges for her in those areas. I am especially excited about the math class because the focus is on "fun" topics such as fractals, ciphers, topology, etc. that we wouldn't have done on our own, and I may be able to find some new areas of interest for dd there.

 

I am also thinking that I may have dh spend more time playing chess with her -- she really enjoys that (as does he!).

[HSHS]

I'm gonna have my DD write you a reply here. She's fourteen now, so eight years older than DD so here it is:

 

Hi,

 

I was good to read about your DD. I remember being very similar too her when I was her age. Just some advice from my perspective, make sure she is always challenged. I had years and years of school where I didn't learn a thing because I was ahead of everyone else. I regret not pushing myself now because anything I find difficult I give up on immediately because I'm not used to being challenged now. So keep challenging her & let her read a lot.

 

I stopped reading all of a sudden when I was 11 and switching up to secondary school and I really wish I hadn't. It's difficult for me to get into again now. I'd just advise you to challenge her and never hold her back from learning so she's at the level of public schooled kids her age. Encourage her to learn at her own page or learning can be seen as a bad thing. I was lucky that my mum kept teaching me despite my teachers complaining that I was too far ahead. I just wish I'd kept up reading as much as I used to.

 

I'm trying to get back into it now but it's difficult to find your interests again as you get older and closer to college.

 

Good luck to you and your dd =)

[Jen in PA]

I'm gonna have my DD write you a reply here. She's fourteen now, so eight years older than DD so here it is:

 

Hi,

 

I was good to read about your DD. I remember being very similar too her when I was her age. Just some advice from my perspective, make sure she is always challenged. I had years and years of school where I didn't learn a thing because I was ahead of everyone else. I regret not pushing myself now because anything I find difficult I give up on immediately because I'm not used to being challenged now. So keep challenging her & let her read a lot.

 

I stopped reading all of a sudden when I was 11 and switching up to secondary school and I really wish I hadn't. It's difficult for me to get into again now. I'd just advise you to challenge her and never hold her back from learning so she's at the level of public schooled kids her age. Encourage her to learn at her own page or learning can be seen as a bad thing. I was lucky that my mum kept teaching me despite my teachers complaining that I was too far ahead. I just wish I'd kept up reading as much as I used to.

 

I'm trying to get back into it now but it's difficult to find your interests again as you get older and closer to college.

 

Good luck to you and your dd =)

 

Thank you so much for replying:001_smile:

 

I suppose that one of my concerns is that I will challenge her too much, and that will turn her off to learning. But that fear is just seeming very unrealistic at this point in time, and that's why I am making the changes I have planned -- I am starting to feel that she needs to set the pace. She started K a year early, and I have always been comfortable with that decision -- I just need to wrap my brain around the possibility that the acceleration can and will continue at a pace I didn't foresee. I was accelerated in several subjects all through school, and graduated hs early, but dd's strengths seem to cover every area, and that is why she is such a delightful challenge for me as a parent!

[HSHS]

DD was reading from a very, very young age and I never pushed her to do anything, I always followed her interests and let her go through at her own pace (more often than not a lot quicker than I would have gone through it with her xD) but I didn't homeschool her as a child. That's just DD's opinion of what she would have liked her school to have done for her, I suppose. They didn't - at all. :lol:

 

I wouldn't push her. Just going through at her pace she'll hit topics she'll have difficulty with and she'll be challenged by them. She doesn't need to be constantly hitting a brick wall but facing challenges as she learns is enough. Being challenged constantly could turn her off learning, definately. So if you go along as you are now, she'll be challenged as often as she needs to be. I think trusting your DD's insticts are a good idea too. If she chooses to go at a certain pace, always trust that she knows what's best for her and you can always slow it down as you get further into it.

 

A problem my DD had when she was about 9 and for the last few years, with it only recently getting a bit better, she would argue with my mother (don't ask xD) and her brain would be going that quickly and have so many different things to say at once that she would lose her trail of thought. When she calls me and has things to tell me too she often has to write a list or save them in the drafts of her mobile and I'm normally on the other end of the phone writing everything down. xD But her brain moves that quickly and can go off on another trail of thought and she'll forget what else she has to say. She also likes to be able to immerse herself in other stuff and call me later so writing it down means she can forget about it until she needs it and it 'frees up her brain'.

 

DD is also good across almost all subjects apart from science:

 

:willy_nilly: < --- an impresion of DD right now after looking at a physics book. So I know what you're going through. If you ever have a question for my DD, you're more than welcome to ask and she'll write up an answer for you. Her writing's normally a bit unorganised when she writes informally though because other things pop into her head as she's writing and she hates going back to edit it when it's not for an exam or something. Just bear with her if she answers anything for you. :D

 

Jo

[Jen in PA]

Thanks again -- to both of you!

[HeidiD]

I am coming to the realization that less is more for dd6. We began our new school year in July, and things have gone very well. Too well, if there's such a thing. She flew through the end of the 2nd grade level math/spelling/grammar that we were using and is loving Minimus, which we just began. In fact, she willingly works ahead in math and begs to do extra Latin, so no problem there:001_smile: She is reading the books I assign (mostly listed as 5th and 6th grade reading levels) and completing simple book reports. She is doing narrations on history and science. And she is complaining that she is bored. Really bored. And we looked ahead at what I had planned to move on to in spelling and grammar (the Flash Kids books for 3rd grade), and I just don't see the point. In fact, I had been using this series because she seemed to need so little review and reinforcement in these areas, and they are inexpensive and I never felt guilty for skipping large chunks as necessary. So we are dropping formal spelling for the time being and I'm going to pull grammar out of what we are doing in Latin. I'm going to stop limiting her to 20 minutes of math per day and see where we end up, even if she decides she's going to keep up the rapid pace with Singapore . I'm going to keep up most of what we are doing in history, but hand over more of the reading to her. And science is such a big problem because she gets so frustrated by anything she considers to be too simplified (if it doesn't have tiny type and lots of tables, she labels it "not a real science book"). I didn't want to push ahead too far since she isn't ready to produce detailed lab reports, so I'm going to let her read at the level she prefers until her output catches up to her input in this area.

 

I just keep thinking that she is going to hit a wall, at least in one area, but she just keeps zooming ahead. She is wearing me out! I'm not sure that I'm looking for advice or just airing my thoughts in a safe place, but if you have btdt experience with a child like this, please tell me that it will all turn out ok!

 

It WILL all turn out ok! :)

In my experience, kids like this are EASY to homeschool - they basically teach themselves.

I don't want my kids to wear me out, so I encourage them to work independently from an early age. I have goals in mind in certain skill areas (mainly math and composition skills) but am not committed to any particular program exclusively. I let them choose whatever language they want to study, provide math and science material for high school, and the rest of their education consists of reading widely, with an emphasis on areas of particular interest to them. Objectively, their achievement scores and SATs are very high, and the eldest, who is 18 now, got multiple college scholarships, so any niggling doubts I had in the past about the effectiveness of this approach to homeschooling have disappeared. A couple of the kids have extreme vacuum cleaner brains and mysteriously seem to absorb information through their pores, but the others I think are just typical smart kids. At present, my 6 yo does some math each day, reads a couple of pages aloud to me from his Hardy Boys book, does a Sequential Spelling lesson and reads a few books of his own choosing for science and history each week. That's all. I might start Minimus when he's 7, but only in a casual way, and maybe do Nebel's science with several of my younger kids together.

I agree with you - less IS more. Kids seem to learn rapidly if their overall environment promotes learning, and especially if they have access to a lot of reading material. So if you feel like cutting back or combining subjects, you can do it without worry. I'm certain there will be no deleterious effects. In fact, you will have less busy work to track, and your child can spend more time on the things she enjoys - a win-win situation.

:)