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Emotional breakdowns in your kids


Purple Sage
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My youngest is 10, and was in a GT school until the end of 4th grade last year, when they tested him and said he needed to be in 6th grade. We brought him home and he is doing a 6th grade curriculum, and most days are great, his output amazes us...but maturity wise, the expectations of the work are so high for a 6th grader and he is not quite there!

 

We use the K12 curriculum and he does great on tests etc, but the volume of writing is completely overwhelming some days....do you let them do some stuff orally to keep them from melting down or what is the recommendation for how to keep him loving school like he does now, without completely burning him out!? :confused:

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I learned from wise ladies that input should be ability based and output age based. Writing is an area where I am particularly sensitive to this, as younger students generally became exasperated. I would forego requiring all of the writing output until your child is ready for it.

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I've found that the way to deal with input/output discrepancies is to accommodate the relative weakness as though the child had an LD. For example, I am using K12's English A (6th grade) with my 3rd grader. He is not physically capable of doing the writing that's required. So he dictates and I type. Same with math. He's doing Thinkwell Prealgebra but he uses a whiteboard instead of paper and I generally will copy problems for him.

 

K12 tends to be heavy on written output--to the point that it frequently becomes busywork. You don't have to have your child do every last thing that is indicated. K12 seems to work best when you take what works and leave the rest. Of course, if you're using a VA, that changes how much flexibility you have.

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Thanks. I will definitely take that concept of input based on ability and output based on age into consideration. The curriculum is very busy to say the least! I love the LA and literature components of K12 though. We are in a VA but for the junior high level we are pretty autonomous and because he is GT we get to kind of tweak the curriculum to work for us, I just fear that in making accommodations I don't expect enough of him and don't want to fall into that!

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I learned from wise ladies that input should be ability based and output age based. Writing is an area where I am particularly sensitive to this, as younger students generally became exasperated. I would forego requiring all of the writing output until your child is ready for it.

 

:iagree:

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I learned from wise ladies that input should be ability based and output age based. Writing is an area where I am particularly sensitive to this, as younger students generally became exasperated. I would forego requiring all of the writing output until your child is ready for it.

 

:iagree: I know several other families of GT kids that tried accelerating their kids with K12 and found the content was still too low and the output (busywork) required was too high.

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:iagree: I know several other families of GT kids that tried accelerating their kids with K12 and found the content was still too low and the output (busywork) required was too high.

 

We do a lot of modification with the science because the info is too basic, but the rest of it seems to be working for him. Of course, the "write a research paper" (2-3 pages on your own topic), for this morphed into a power point presentation with more than 30 slides accompanied by a 7 page typed paper about the differences between Greek and Roman mythology! The information he is capable of processing sometimes makes my head spin! He is not highly gifted in math, just slightly above average, so PreAlgebra A is working for him at 10, however, we are concerned about the PreAlgebra B next year as it seems like it is simply a repeat, may see about zipping through that so he can hit Algebra. The great thing about K12 is that as soon as they finish a course, in our VA module, they get the next one! That has worked really well for our older son and he will be finishing with K12 this year for 8th grade and going onto something called GOALs academy with a module design for high school and concurrent enrollment.

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I don't know what GT or the K12 program is, but my DS HATEs writing. In fact, i found that most of the reason why we were having problems when we first started stemmed from his inability to keep up with the writing. He loves homeschooling because he can still express his knowledge without writing. Our math is on the computer so he can type in his answers. I use a workbook and 5 minute math once a week because i read a study that children who write their work learn better. I basically wanted to make sure he can do it. His language arts is all writing because he needs the practice but he also gets a lot of oral work. We have a good mix of oral vs written competency and it seems to work well. i like that theory of input vs output tho, i had never heard of it.

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Don't 'fear making accommodations'. I've been making accommodations for my Aspie dd since way before I even knew she had Asperger's. And let me tell you, last semester, when she was in public school (but now is home), she did wonderfully! She was ahead of most of her peers! Don't fret the accommodating - your son will learn so much better when he's NOT stressed. By the way, people with Asperger's Syndrome tend to have terrible handwriting only because it's so difficult for them. Which, then stresses them out during tests, etc. Having my dd do tests orally or on the pc gets better grades for her than if she has to handwrite something. HTH!

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We modify when necessary, especially in areas where ds is ahead educationally but not quite there physically. Writing has always been a challenge for my 10yo and I don't want to stop his mind from soaring because his fingers aren't strong or behaving the way they should. Don't be afraid to modify; it's a wonderful bonus of homeschooling!

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Oh boy, do I ever know where you are at... we've been experiencing some real frustration with our VA this year. As a result, we decided to not re-enroll for 2011-2012. Let's just say that since we made this decision, my criteria for completing an assignment has been radically altered. :tongue_smilie:

 

Just make sure that whatever accomodations you make, you do not alter what gets turned in for their progress evaluations, and that you, the teacher, and even the head of school (possibly) are all on the same page for what is expected of your son (at least, based upon what THEY actually see... whatever doesn't have to be put in front of their noses, make whatever radical accomodations are needed, while ensuring your child "gets" the material, but whatever work actually must be turned in, make sure it is done the way they expect... even if it means something that would normally take one day, takes 3-5!)

 

I'm pulling my children out of a VA because the attitude has shifted to, "If s/he can handle a 2 year acceleration, they should be able to handle the written work as well." (Yeah, that was in a GT conference... I was gobsmacked... nothing like expecing a 7yo's written output to be that of a 4th or 5th grader!) So, I really, really, encourage you to talk to your DS teacher before making any assumptions.

 

And, beware, sometimes the head of school will make changes to what you thought was your child's ILP... this happened to my eldest. We were supposed to back down an acceleration in English (complete the course over two years instead of one, making sure that he was really "getting" the material, being able to take his time and do it well, etc.). Well, the teacher was on-board, but mid-year we were told that no, he *couldn't* complete the material over two years, he *had* to finish it in one... that's been a blast (yes, I am being really, really sarcastic).

 

My youngest in K12 (who is now coasting in math, because it's all of the "easy" stuff), is finially ahead progress-wise, but even with his 2-year acceleration in math, still received "N"s, and constant auto-reminders, because we weren't making "adequate progress." Of course, I have loads of documentation about the Math+ curriculum being the culprit. His issue wasn't the concepts, it was the program design. We were forced to sit through math for about 2 hours clicking, writing, going back... UGH. It's been awful. For the longer assessments, I would have to go through them, copy down all of the problems (30-40 usually), and then allow my son to work on them for 2-3 days.

 

I can't say we won't ever do K12 independently again (at least for history and LA), but I doubt we'll join this VA again after this year...

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