Am I doing enough for my almost 8 y/o advanced girl?

[momsuz123]

My second grader was in ps last year, and we started hsing this year. She loves to learn, loves any school, but loves hsing the best. She has always been "ahead" of her peers but now that we are hsing, it seems like her rate of learning is accelerated. Does that make sense? I sometimes am wondering how to challenge her more and keep her going. She wants to be challenged otherwise she gets really bored. We pulled her out of a private school after 1 semester because she hated how bored she was. I was wondering if anyone use Aleks? I feel like if I had more time to teach her, she would love that. I just don't have that time. With reading, she just reads a lot. Any ideas on how else to challenge her or supplement her schooling without always needing me to do it?

[Dmmetler]

Just keep going and hang on for the ride. I had a similar experience when I pulled my DD out after K from a private school. I'd had the thought in the back of my mind that I could go broader, do more art, music, science, history and so on, and sort of wait for the others to catch up, because I LOVED her private school, but it didn't work-instead she jumped ahead, by a lot. It took most of last year to get her to a level where she's really challenged, and even then she moves in spurts, and then settles.

 

MCT LA, Logic and thinking puzzles, enrichment math, lots of writing and drawing, SL book lists (and other book lists), VP history cards, and lots of languages have all been hits with my DD-but even with that we're still doing mostly 4th-9th grade material with a child who would normally be in 1st grade based on age, and who would have been in 2nd had she continued in private school.

 

The other thing I've found that works for DD well is that when she needs a break, she needs a break. She did a big math spurt this fall, jumping through a lot of material quickly, and about mid November really seemed to just be worn out, so I suggested taking a break during the holidays, which she jumped on. Now, a week into it, she's writing a lot, drawing a lot, creating elaborate stories, and generally being very creative. If it's like our last one, I'll come back and discover that she's jumped ahead in almost all areas when we get back-and she'll be READY for formal schoolwork again.

[adrielle.martin]

It is never wrong if you DD is excelling and is in such a speedy momentum, just maintain it at that rate, the learning rate of people reduces with age and this is the best time to harness all of it.

[momsuz123]

It is never wrong if you DD is excelling and is in such a speedy momentum, just maintain it at that rate, the learning rate of people reduces with age and this is the best time to harness all of it.

 

I am okay with keeping it at this rate, she is not. Even today she asked me when is anything going to get a little hard so it can be more fun. I feel like I am barely teaching her sometimes because I just start to turn the page and introduce something and she is saying, "can I just get going, I want to do it..." then she does it right.

Any thoughts?

[boscopup]

First, don't expect to take a year to finish a curriculum. ;)

 

Second, you may still be finding "where she is". She probably has some holes in her knowledge that you have to fill in order to get to where she is. I had to do that with DS last January when I pulled him out of school. He was doing 1st grade math at that time. Less than a year later, we're doing 4th grade math, and we're now going slower (ie, not 3 grades per year :D). I just had to find where his brain was ready to be, and fill in the holes along the way. Yes, he had taught himself or figured out a lot of concepts, but not everything he needed to know. You will soon learn how to condense lessons, do multiple lessons in one sitting (white board teaching is VERY helpful for this!), etc.

 

Now that we've gotten to where he is, it's a lot easier, and I don't feel like we're going at breakneck speed. We're still going faster than the recommended pace, but it's not as fast as we were going.

 

Remember that in school, she was being majorly held back. Now she's able to go, go, go!

[momsuz123]

First, don't expect to take a year to finish a curriculum. ;)

 

Second, you may still be finding "where she is". She probably has some holes in her knowledge that you have to fill in order to get to where she is. I had to do that with DS last January when I pulled him out of school. He was doing 1st grade math at that time. Less than a year later, we're doing 4th grade math, and we're now going slower (ie, not 3 grades per year :D). I just had to find where his brain was ready to be, and fill in the holes along the way. Yes, he had taught himself or figured out a lot of concepts, but not everything he needed to know. You will soon learn how to condense lessons, do multiple lessons in one sitting (white board teaching is VERY helpful for this!), etc.

 

Now that we've gotten to where he is, it's a lot easier, and I don't feel like we're going at breakneck speed. We're still going faster than the recommended pace, but it's not as fast as we were going.

 

Remember that in school, she was being majorly held back. Now she's able to go, go, go!

 

Thanks, I really think this is where we are at. I agree, I am sure there are some gaps, like subtraction, she can do it, but not the best.

[acurtis75]

If she's eager to learn don't hold her back. Before I found this forum I was always worried about moving too fast or accelerating too much. After spending some time on here I've realized I was really holding dd back and boring her. There's nothing wrong with skipping levels when necessary to find the proper level that is challenging without frustrating her. For us this year it's meant skipping FLL 2 and www 2 and moving straight to 3, ditching spelling workout altogether (we were going to accelerate but I bought C & D and she looked at the lists for both and could spell all the words before we started the book) and completing almost 2 years worth of math curriculum in the last few months.

[lewelma]

Skip, skip, skip. Go at her pace, not the pace set by a curriculum. You must be creative and daring to challenge an accelerated learner.

 

My ds LOVES math and is working on the subtraction tables, decimal to fraction conversions, and almost through the AoPS intro Algebra book at 11. He is obviously doing many levels concurrently. In writing, he spells like he is in elementary school, organizes like he is in middle school, and composes sentences like he is in highschool. So... I work with where he is at. Elementary spelling, WWS for writing, and Killgallon High School for sentence composition.

 

Don't be afraid to tailor the program. Most all material has a review section in the first month. Use that to cover the entire year of material you skipped. Give her challenging material, and then shore up the weaknesses when you find them. My son does not know standard notation which will come up in his college level science soon, so I will just take 5 minutes to explain it and move on.

 

Do not put your child in a box. Give her the best of home schooling - a personalized experience.

 

Ruth in NZ

[Bang!Zoom!]

I think what is inside your original question is that your daughter is a self-paced learner and is somehow "waiting" for instruction or direction on what to do.

 

If you can show her independent study steps of learning, just one thing at a time..it may be very helpful.

 

If you were to sketch out lesson plan steps, could she put them in the right order? She may be old enough to draw up some of her own (which will only fuel her more honestly).

[PenKase]

I am okay with keeping it at this rate, she is not. Even today she asked me when is anything going to get a little hard so it can be more fun. I feel like I am barely teaching her sometimes because I just start to turn the page and introduce something and she is saying, "can I just get going, I want to do it..." then she does it right.

Any thoughts?

 

My girl just turned 8 yesterday and it's been like this since we pulled her out of ps last year. For the most part I've let her run with it because I've seen how imposing myself on her can really slowed her down. She wants at it all on her own without my input or interpretation of material. She needs to be able to think and live with her ideas for a while before coming to me. At first, We fought thooth and nail until We came up with a deal; when she needs help, she is to come and ask. Otherwise, she goes with the flow and comes to me when she has questions and/ or is ready ti discuss ideas. At eight years old, she exercises logic more than I've ever seen in a child. I check up on her and ask her questions whenever I am unclear about her process. She will gladly explain anything so long as I am not trying to teach her. I've had to meet her where she is because I found myself getting in her way. Above all, trust has come to play a major role in my approach to educating this child. She may not have known who Geroge Washington was until a recently (from her current obsession with Liberty's Kids), but she can name almost anything you would ever need to know about periodic table! This child would have withered away in public school.

[lisamarie]

I think what is inside your original question is that your daughter is a self-paced learner and is somehow "waiting" for instruction or direction on what to do.

 

If you can show her independent study steps of learning, just one thing at a time..it may be very helpful.

 

If you were to sketch out lesson plan steps, could she put them in the right order? She may be old enough to draw up some of her own (which will only fuel her more honestly).

 

:iagree: She sounds like my DS who is for sure a self educator. He is going bonkers at school this year because his teacher takes a week to teach a concept and DS wants it in one session. Last year when I tried to teach him math, he got so upset. Finally I said if you can read the lesson and do the math and get above a 90%, I won't bother you unless you have a question. It worked great for him. He loved it. I think finding her curriculum that she can do independently would go a long way--we switched from SM to saxon just so DS could do it on his own. I opted for CLE-LA for the same reason.

 

 

The other thing I've found that works for DD well is that when she needs a break, she needs a break. She did a big math spurt this fall, jumping through a lot of material quickly, and about mid November really seemed to just be worn out, so I suggested taking a break during the holidays, which she jumped on. Now, a week into it, she's writing a lot, drawing a lot, creating elaborate stories, and generally being very creative. If it's like our last one, I'll come back and discover that she's jumped ahead in almost all areas when we get back-and she'll be READY for formal schoolwork again.

 

Very interesting. My DS was burnt out on math this summer so I said he could take all of August off. Sept hit and he started going to school and the math is super easy for him. By October he was telling me that I need to make him do saxon math every day at his level. Guess a 2 month break was enough for him. :D

 

I am okay with keeping it at this rate, she is not. Even today she asked me when is anything going to get a little hard so it can be more fun. I feel like I am barely teaching her sometimes because I just start to turn the page and introduce something and she is saying, "can I just get going, I want to do it..." then she does it right.

Any thoughts?

 

Stop trying to teach her everything. Seriously. Pick a couple subjects to let her do on her own. Focus on the ones that you care the most about to teach her and let her self educate on the others for a while and see what happens. If she's anything like my DS, she will do very well with it.

[Truscifi]

You've gotten some great advice already. As to the question about ALEKS - we looked at it for ds but wound up going with EPGY instead. It is similar, but more affordable and seems more comprehensive to me.