Not sure what to do with this kid...

[prairie rose]

I have homeschooled all my kids from the beginning but #4 is throwing me for a loop. This child can already write her first (6 letters) middle (6 letters) and last name (7 letters), neatly and legibly, just from her asking how to write it and showing her how a few times. Last night, I was writing out some lesson plans for the older kids and she wanted to be "just like mommy" so I gave her a sheet of paper and pencil and let her sit next to me. She sat there and copied words out of my teacher manual, neatly and meticulously, correcting herself if she formed a letter wrong and trying to sound out the words she was copying. She is doing mental math without any coaching from me (mommy, 3 grown up plates plus 5 kid plates, makes 8 plates altogether) She has fascinations with a variety of things that would probably be considered a bit odd for her age especially how she just soaks up the advanced information. Right now, it's clouds and storms. She can tell you things about weather that even my older kids can't. On our library trips she makes a list of topics she wants books about and I help her find a few elementary level books on the topic. Before her weather fascination, it was the moon and before that it was China.

 

None of this sounds too peculiar for an early elementary school aged child, right? What if I told you she only recently turned 4? None of my older kids were ready for seat work or learning to read until right as they turned 6. They caught on quickly after that but at age 4 or 5 they were really only ready for pre-reading, pre-writing and pre-math activities....things like learning letter sounds, learning to hold a pencil and move it correctly and counting skills. Trying to push them beyond that only produced tears and frustration until they were close to 6. My current 4 year old is pretty much beyond all of that already but based on past experience I'm afraid to start "school" with her too soon. She's still so young in my mind, I don't want this love of learning she has to burn out but she really seems to crave more than what I'm giving her right now.

 

I thought I had this homeschool thing figured out and it would be a breeze with these last two kids who haven't started yet but I really don't know what to do with this kid. Do I go ahead and slowly introduce first grade work to a 4 year old since that's pretty much where she is? Keep working with her informally as best I can until she's 5 or 6? Something else?

 

TIA for any advice you can give.

[Snowfall]

I was like that as a kid and I'm really glad my dad started me in school a year early because of it. :) I loved school. I hated it once I switched from private to public, but that won't be a problem for your dd. I say just do whatever she wants to do right now. If she's not interested in something, leave it for later, but I think you can definitely encourage her interests w/o killing her joy.

[bluemongoose]

I have one of these. We did K at 3yo and we started 1st at 4.5yo and now at 5.5yo we are doing 2nd. And yes, at 3yo we were doing a more formal K level complete with a math book, phonics, art, science, and literature. She loved it, and always asked for more! This was all prompted by 2 things: 1st she asked me at 2.5 to teach her to read. 2nd: She kept asking for schoolbooks and workbooks from Costco when we went shopping together. She begged to "do school", the more formal, the better!

 

I think the only thing you must be careful with is making sure that she stays the driving force. It is easy to get used to, or so impressed with, their ability that you want to continue to press forward. Make sure you pause when they ask to. They need to stay in the drivers seat at this age. If you notice from my age list above, K took a year and a half for us to get through the books we decided to use. At that age she took tons of breaks. That needs to be ok.

 

My next oldest child is 3.5yo right now, and completely different. He is interested in doing school, but not every day, and not for as long, and not with as challenging material. As with his sister before him, I am letting him decide and drive right now. He does school when he wants to and we do lots more hands on materials because that is what interests him.

 

As PP said, if they are ready and wanting to, then give them what they need, don't get caught up on age. My DD would have gone crazy if I had told her to wait until she was K age.

[Aoife]

I have one of these too :)

 

Mine taught himself the alphabet and letter sounds by 2 from watching the talking letters factory and being read to. He would memorize whole books and could recite them to you word for word. He could count to 20 from going up and down the stairs counting with his big sisters. He knew all of his shapes and most of his colors by 2.5 including things like octagons :lol: he began begging me around 2.5 to teach him to read and wanted school books like his big sisters had. I started off just getting him some workbooks from sams club and walmart but her poured through them and wanted more and more. So this year we started a more formal schooling. Although most of it is K level stuff we are calling it pre-k and we'll start "k" next year when he is about 4.5 years old. He has a voracious appetite when it comes to learning and his favorite part of the day is "school".

 

When we are not doing school he reads a LOT! I decided today would be a light day and so we watched some dinosaur documentaries on netflix and right now as I type this he is over in the rocking chair with a pile of library books plugging away.

[Aconnolley]

Your daughter sounds very much like mine academically. She is the youngest of three. They are each about 2 years apart. When she was 2 1/2, she started bringing me the flashcards and readers that her siblings had used and asking me to teach her. I did work with her when she asked, but I never pushed. She was reading really well before she turned 4.

 

I provided workbooks for her because she loved them so much. She went through tons of store bought workbooks and Abeka K4-1st phonics books and is currently working on 2nd grade this year. She also frequently picked informational books at the library. She loves to learn. I always figured that she was just trying to keep up with her siblings or maybe get more of my attention during school time. :confused: I think though that she is just being her. :001_smile:

 

She is finally officially a kindergartener this year. I have debated on whether to actually require anything of her as far as school. She has learned so much by thinking that it was just fun and I hate to stifle that love of learning. At the same time, she loves checking things off her list like her siblings and feeling that she is one of them now. :001_smile: I do actually schedule her into the day as far as school goes now, but I am trying to be careful not to push her. She usually asks for more than I give her. This year we started FLL, which she loves, some handwriting practice, and Math Mammoth 1st Grade to add to her phonics and spelling. She does science and history with her brother and sister and some computer games etc.

 

I love the fact that she already knows how to read. She has spent many hours enjoying books and that wouldn't have been possible without her learning early.

 

I think that providing opportunities for your daughter is completely different than pushing school work on her. If she is wanting to learn, why not? I haven't regretted starting early with my daughter. Much of it happened informally anyway. In her case, I think that it would have been wrong to hold her back because of her age. kids are all so different.

 

Angela

[Tracy]

You need to sign up for the Accelerated Forum and other gifted lists to start. I really like TAGMAX.

 

Also, I recommend that you read Creative Home Schooling, which is all about homeschooling gifted kids.

 

I think the only thing you must be careful with is making sure that she stays the driving force. It is easy to get used to, or so impressed with, their ability that you want to continue to press forward. Make sure you pause when they ask to. They need to stay in the drivers seat at this age.

 

:iagree: And I would also like to add that you need to be conscious of what they call asychronous development, meaning that these kids will be at different levels in different areas. My Grasshopper also has beautiful handwriting, but she doesn't have the stamina to do the volume of work you would normally expect out of someone that is at her academic level. She can read at a 3rd grade level but she can't write what you would expect from a 3rd grader. So you have to be very careful to select curricula that will allow you to accommodate that asynchronicity. And that is one of the reasons that you will find the gifted forums helpful. There are some programs that people here will rave about that you will find generally don't work well with an advanced child.

[kmacnchs]

You have 3 others - are YOU ready to do something more formal w/her? If you are, I say go for it! If not and she is not frustrated with the informal, start formal stuff whenever you're ready.

 

That being said, my 4yo is doing 1st grade work and my 3 yo is doing K work(see my siggy) so I OBVIOUSLY do not see anything wrong w/formal work before regular ps age suggests...

[prairie rose]

Thank you very much for all the replies. I guess I've always kinda wondered in the back of my mind if she was gifted but refused to say it out loud. I'm used to working with learning disabilities, oldest had hearing problems that developed into language problems, second oldest is dyslexic/dysgraphic, third oldest is pretty normal academically but is oppositional/defiant. Dd #4 was speaking in full sentences with advanced vocabulary at 15 months...I just said she didn't have the same problems as my older kids had with hearing and ear infections and she hears us schooling all day which accounts for the vocabulary. She could write her first name by 3 and could read a bit. Now at 4, she can write her full name, could probably read anything if I took the time to teach her and loves doing math. I have her doing MEP year 1 as her school. I just attributed all her seemingly advanced skills on her environment. All her life she has seen us do school so I just figured that's where her interests came from. Sigh, but I guess you all are right, a typical 4 year old wouldn't have the memory or intense interest that she does.

 

I've got the asynchronous development down too...it happens in kids with learning disabilities too. My dyslexic child is a super smart kid but struggles with writing and language arts subjects. So he's ahead in most every subject except language arts where he's behind and math where he's about average. I guess I know what to do with her...it's just at the opposite end of the spectrum to what I'm used to working with.

 

I guess since I am around here quite a bit...I could post a siggy so you guys have a better idea what I'm dealing with. :) I will check out the Accelerated forum and the other websites and books suggested. Thank you so much.

[MissKNG]

Hang on for a fun "ride"!:auto: Definitely check out the Accelerated forum.

 

My K4 student is actually doing 1st/2nd + grade stuff and she is a very aggressive learner. I would go at her pace whether it be slow or fast (probably fast - LOL!).

 

If she likes science, check out the Magic School Bus books (picture books, chapter books, readers) - they are a HIT with my science buff.

 

Singapore Math is also great for the "mental" aspect. My big girl is thriving, she just finished 1a.

 

BUT, I do set a few limits...like I only do official school (like stuff listed in my signature) 3-4 days a week or else I get burned out. I do more crafty/RA stuff on the "non" school days.

 

ETA: I like checking out blogs with kiddos near my big girl's age/ability to see what they are doing as well.

[Kendall]

My 6th is that way. Like you, I just wasn't expecting it. My other 3/4 year olds were quite content to play most of the day but not this child. I also, am busy with others, but she was insisting on doing school. We started Alphaphonics and Miquon Orange before she was 4(she is doing MEP 1 now. I did let her "drive". If she didn't want to do it that was fine, I certainly had plenty of other things to do! The one exception occured after she had been doing Alphaphonics for about 5 months and she didn't want to do it any more. I required regular short times - she read 3 words some days, it was really a very token amount of work that was 5 minutes or less! I could tell the work wasn't too much for her and she was too far along in learning to read to quit, she just didn't want to be interupted. After about a month of this she voluntarily increased the quantity and quit complaining about it.

 

One thing I did with her was to pull out the logic games like Rush Hour, these stretched her brain and yet were age-appropriately hands on. The thing I struggled with (and still do) is passing her older siblings. She answers their questions when they aren't getting it (which is how I dicovered she knew all of the sounds). So far it isn't a bragging I know the answer attitude, it is more of a I can't hold this answer in any longer attitude. Enjoy her! Kids like this are really fun to teach. I can stop reading a book to explain words meanings to her and she eats it up. The others don't want me to stop reading. Memory work is another way to challenge an advanced little one. Put poems etc on an mp3 or tape and let her listen on her own. We haven't been able to afford this, but music lessons is another way to challenge a bright young one.