accelerated or gifted...

[Pata]

How did you know? I've read some of the previous threads on this and found the article links very interesting. I have always known that dd was smart, she would reason through things that I couldn't believe as a 2 yo old, makes discipling difficult! This year she has really taken off in school and I'm wondering if we need to have her tested for giftedness. For background purposes, I was accelerated but my dh scores off the charts for IQ. I'm not ready to say that she's gifted, but I think maybe we need to dig alittle deeper into the issue.

 

My dd a perfectionist, working above grade level, has an awesome vocabulary and she gets bored easily. If she thinks your question/work is stupid or below her, she will refuse to answer it. She is constantly making up math problems to stump us(as a game) and she tries to read everything she sees(and doing a pretty good job at it). The other day she told me what she wants school to look like next year, how she wants to learn. She wants lots of activities and no handwriting or workbooks that ask things she already knows! We were doing a narrations of Wizard of Oz, we finished reading it 3 weeks ago, she was able to retell the whole book with details, took about 20 min. So I'm wondering, is this normal for a 5yo? I don't have a point of reference to compare her to.

 

Some more questions, how has having a gifted/accelrated learning changed your approach in school? I am planning next year and don't want to overload her, but I don't want to waste her intelligence. I'm glad that we are homeschooling so that I can tailor the approach for her and her style, but how did you go about doing that? Finally what books did you find helpful in dealing with accelerated/gifted learning?

 

Sorry if this is alittle disjointed, I'm just thinking out loud. Ok, Hive mind, what do you think? Thanks in advance.

[Nan in Mass]

There was a certain awareness, intensity, alertness, curiosity, oddness, and sensitivity that made me know mine were intelligent, not brilliant, just brightish. This is normal for my family, so we know to watch for it. We've pretty much ignored the gifted bit.

-Nan

[nitascool]

How did you know?

 

Usually you just know. Some people say that "everyone" thinks their kid is gifted... but that just isn't true. Most people pride themselves on their kid being brightish. But that is not the same. Hoagies has a list of gifted characteristics to compare. We saw most of the things on that list from a very early age.

 

Some more questions, how has having a gifted/accelerated learning changed your approach in school?

 

Well, we don't just let ds do the grade level requirements that our state sets out. We expect that he does work at his level. Sometimes that means reading Narnia when his counterparts are reading Dick and Jane. We also require more output then the average 2nd grader. Not always as high as his imput though. (But not all parents of gifted kids do this).

 

We expect that if he can read and understand Narnia (a 6th grade level book) that he can give us a sixth grade report on the subject... though we do give allowances for his just slightly above average writing ability. Also we do a lot of exercises in imperfection... to try and teach my son that perfect isn't always best. This has been his hardest lesson I think.

 

We go faster then the average 2nd grader even in his weak areas. We also go deeper. We get off on rabbit trails at times... like when we did the body last year, instead of doing an overview of the digestive track we spent a week on what stomach acid does, and then we ended up looking at what battery acid does... and citrus acid, and ended up spending a day learning about the periodic table and listening to The Element Song.

 

We suspect that our 2nd son is gifted as well, but he has no perfection problems. I think this may be more of a first born issue then a gifted issue, but I could be wrong. We do have a good time figuring out how he learns differently from his big brother though.

 

I'm glad that we are homeschooling so that I can tailor the approach for her and her style, but how did you go about doing that?

 

We started out using WTM suggestions then tweaked them until they fit. Of course we have to do this several times a year. With my oldest, we use the 4 year cycle with the Logic Stage book list, but requiring Grammar Stage output...except in Language Arts which is hs strong area...and Math which is his weak area.

 

Finally what books did you find helpful in dealing with accelerated/gifted learning?

 

We like Sylvia Rimm's books Especially, How to Parent So Children Will Learn, and Keys to Parenting the Gifted Child.

 

I hope this helps. :) Have a nice day.

[Rebecca in VA]

Just have to say that your blog picture of the puppy pulling the toboggan is the cutest thing I've seen all day!

[chai]

This year she has really taken off in school and I'm wondering if we need to have her tested for giftedness. For background purposes, I was accelerated but my dh scores off the charts for IQ. I'm not ready to say that she's gifted, but I think maybe we need to dig alittle deeper into the issue.

 

I haven't found a need for testing. You can get a pretty good idea about giftedness at the Hoagies website. I think that my dd is gifted, but I don't have proof of her IQ. No matter what her IQ, I will customize her education. That means going much faster in some areas and deeper in others. What do you want to gain through IQ testing?

 

 

Some more questions, how has having a gifted/accelrated learning changed your approach in school? I am planning next year and don't want to overload her, but I don't want to waste her intelligence. I'm glad that we are homeschooling so that I can tailor the approach for her and her style, but how did you go about doing that? Finally what books did you find helpful in dealing with accelerated/gifted learning?

 

I think that the WTM approach is a good one to use with a gifted child. You can go into great depth in history and science and let your child direct how much information she wants. At your dd's age, we focused on history through the year and did all of the narrations, maps and lots of reading. (My dd is not advanced in handwriting, so I wrote her narrations for her.) We took the same approach to science. These are still my dd's favorite subjects.

 

In math, my dd's least favorite subject, we have moved quickly and deeply (by adding supplements), but I've had to slow down sometimes too.

 

DD's best subject is language arts. I haven't done much more than let her read and read. We used FLL, going through it very quickly. We are going at a fairly normal pace in Latin. I plan to begin more formal literature analysis next year, because I would like to push her more in this area. We are also using Classical Writing which can be tailored to your dd's abilities.

 

I usually use curricula that covers multiple grades rather than one specific grade.

[Mommy22alyns]

Well, Rebecca isn't highly/profoundly gifted, but she is accelerated and extremely intelligent. She's my first child, so all of this is new to me.

 

There's no way she could go to kindergarten when she's surpassed almost every grade level guideline across the board already, and is a few grade levels ahead in language arts. So I've set up a WTM first grade curriculum for this school year. One great thing is that I have the freedom to let her go as fast or as slow as she wants.

 

This is quite a learning process for me. I was advanced and accelerated in school, but how do I keep up with a five year old who keeps astounding me? :001_huh:

[kleahey]

A mother, father, and daughter are watching The Sound of Music. The daughter, 26 months, is half paying attention to the film while reading a Berenstain Bears book (she had taught herself to read at 20 months). They reach the "Lonely Goatherd" scene. "Katie, look at the puppets!" exclaims the father. Polite but with a touch of toddler disdain, she answers, "Daddy, those aren't puppets. They're marionettes."

 

This is my parents' favorite story about me. It's also what prompted them to have me tested.

[Donna]

I know my boys (12yo and 10yo) are very accelerated and very bright just like I know my dd (5yo) is gifted. They learned everything I taught them at an advanced rate and now are 3-5 years ahead of their grade levels in all subject areas. She knows everything before I teach it to her or takes a little something I might show her and extrapolates.

 

(For example...I showed her how to blend the letters she had known since 17 months old into words (simple CVC words like CAT) and a month later she asked to read me a chapter of Little House seemingly out of no where. Or I show her how to add multidigit numbers and make a mistake where the ones place numbers are too high and without missing a beat she carries the one and keeps on adding. Or she explains to me the concept of multiplication.) She is musically gifted as well and has an amazing ear. At not quite 4yo, she knew and sang every song in Phantom of the Opera after listening twice and she has always been able to play anything she hears on violin with increasing difficulty as her technique is developed.

 

She is never bored. Even when she is by herself, she is still playing and creating, doing art projects, or writing her own essays on Word Perfect. I do a more unschooling approach with her because of her incredible motivation to learn.

 

I don't follow the curriculum. I buy it simply to use as a guideline so she misses nothing. I follow her lead and let her fly. For example... one day, I showed her the meaning of the fraction 1/4 (1st grade level curriculum) and she quickly started drawing her own circles and shading in areas to show me 5/6 and 2/3, etc... She then got really excited and realized that some fractions equal others then started to add fractions with like denominators. I don't know what level knowledge she ended up with but we homeschool so it doesn't really matter. This is our typical type "lesson." For reading we read whatever she is interested in our I find one I think she might like. She loves anything new so we read it. We read fiction and nonfiction, poetry and prose. Sometimes picture books and often novels like Narnia or The Hobbit.

 

We don't do formal history or science at this point but simple through our reading and exploring the world...keeping nature journals, reading myths, looking at stars then exploring the ancient stories behind the constellations, etc...

 

I wish I had been so relaxed when I started homeschooling my boys. I think they would have learned so much more that way.

 

Here are some books I have read that I found helpful...

 

Gifted Children: Myths and Realities by Ellen Winner

Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Lesli and Charles Roth

Guiding Readers and Writers by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell

Educating Your Gifted Child by Vicki Caruana

Nutured by Love by Shinichi Suzuki

Awakening Your Child's Natural Genius by Thomas Armstrong

Creative Homeschooling by Lisa Rivero

The Educated Child by William Bennet

 

I have had my daughter tested. It was very expensive and pretty much simply told me everything I already knew so I didn't really think it was worth it. It did give me numbers but they didn't really explain who my daughter is. At the time I had it done, I was very worried about not teaching to her potential and was looking for the impetus to follow my gut and continue the unschooling approach that had worked so well in her toddler/preschool years.

 

I will eventually use the WTM rotations for history and science possibly starting next year. We will go more in depth on topics of interest rather than jumping all over. I didn't want to start the history rotations with her as a Ker because of the later war topics she would have reached at a tender age (she already has had a strange preoccupation with death since 25 months old and I don't want to bring it into focus again just yet).

[Pata]

Thank you guys! The Hoagies lists help quite a bit. I still on the fence about having her tested. I'm just sorry that I didin't catch this before now. Thanks again!

[Nan in Mass]

You know, I totally sympathize about the disciplining issue! I had the same problem. I used to joke that my children got to do anything they wanted because they made such good arguments. A friend said that it might be difficult now, but that that ability would stand them in good stead as adults. If you think now is hard, wait until they are teenagers. Sigh. : ) -Nan

[Kimber]

I think there are different kinds of giftedness. My oldest, dd10, for example is gifted in logic. It's not obvious to everyone, but if anyone sits and talks to her she has an adult understanding of mature concepts. She can catch logic flaws in movies and books that she reads.

 

My ds5 is physically gifted. He never hurts himself but is one of the most active children I've ever seen. He spends about 30 minutes to 1 hour per day making up songs on the piano for fun. He can mimic many dance moves that he sees on TV. He often speaks in rhyme and hums and sings constantly. He's been humming from birth. He hummed when he was nursed as a baby. It's so funny because he was born the way he is.

 

My ds8 and ds3, I can't tell where their gifts lie as of yet. (I believe everyone is gifted. :) ) They're academically ahead. All 4 of them are by a year or so. But I can't yet identify the gifts of these 2. My ds8 is passing up his sister in music, and he tries to play songs backwards, but he's not driven to play the way his little brother is. He might be gifted in math. He is 8 1/2 and about to start Horizons 4. But even that doesn't seem like gifted to me. He's just started reading for fun, finally. But time will tell.

 

But I ask myself questions like what if one of my kids is gifted in playing the guitar, but never touches one. You can tell from my comments, that gifts for me are closely tied to their passions.

[summer]

Being accelerated or gifted has not in any way changed my approach to anything. In our local public schools, accelerated is basically 1 yr ahead. Gifted is 96th percentile and above. The next district over, gifted is 2 grade levels ahead and accelerated is 1 grade level ahead. So an accelerated child would be in algebra in 8th grade and a gifted child would be in algebra in 7th grade.

 

The only thing that should alter how you teach something is how the child learns, not the speed at which he or she learns. That is my opinion anyway.

[Pata]

Thanks guys, you have really got me thinking about what's best and how to approach things! It's nice to know there is so much wisdom and experience at my fingertips.