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Books about homeschooling high/profoundly gifted children?


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I'm wondering "aloud". I know about books by Lisa Rivero and David Albert. Any other books out there written by a parent of a homeschooled highly/ profoundly gifted child?

 

Any books by a homeschooling parent written while the child is still young? (i.e. has not finished K-12?)

 

If someone writes a book about a younger homeschooled highly/ profoundly gifted child, what information will be helpful to the reader? What would you like to know about the family and their learning choices that will be helpful to you in your own journey?

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Thank you Donna! Is this the one?

 

If someone writes a book about a younger homeschooled highly/ profoundly gifted child, what information will be helpful to the reader? What would you like to know about the family and their learning choices that will be helpful to you in your own journey?

 

I'd love everyone's thoughts on this too!

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That probably is the correct book. I have a copy of it somewhere. It presents a view of her family's life and dealing with having PG kids and effects on figuring out that she and her husband likely are too.

 

Really, I am no longer interested in the books that deal with young kids anymore. I have lived that part and learned more than I ever wanted to about both my kids and me in the process. If someone were to write a book that deals with the issues of older kids, say ten and up or even better teenagers, that I would love to look at.

 

The issues of multi-potentiality and perfectionism are the things that are causing the big problems in my house right now. How does a child choose what to spend their time and energy on and the melt-down that occurs when not everything can get done? What about social relationships and how the intensity of thought and emotion cause conflict because peers just aren't there? And the desire to hang out with other people that 'are interested in the same things I am' when your child is 13 and the other interested people are college age? (And your 13 year old is a girl and the college age people may well be male.)

 

These are the things that cause me stress right now. I don't care about which math book to use or which novel to read. In five years none of that will matter. I am much more interested in navigating the social and emotional issues. If you were to write a book about that... I would definitely buy it.

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Thank you Jenne. I appreciate your feedback!

 

I do wonder though whether it would be helpful to others just beginning the journey to know about the challenges and mistakes and choices (of course, the successes too) of other parents just a couple of years ahead of them and not say, ten years ahead or already done with homeschooling.

 

The books I've read all focus on the kids from K-12, detailing the ups and downs along the way, giving a "where-they-are-now" snapshot that is of course, very useful. But I haven't found any that focus on the K-5 or K-8 stage. I am curious to know whether providing more details about the earlier years will be helpful/ interesting to anyone walking this path?

 

I'm not sure if I can write such a book (and mine is an only child so I don't know how useful such a book will be). However, the idea has taken hold of my mind and in order to contemplate beginning such a project and to consider its viability, I feel a strong need to research books by others.

 

The issues of multi-potentiality and perfectionism are the things that are causing the big problems in my house right now. How does a child choose what to spend their time and energy on and the melt-down that occurs when not everything can get done? What about social relationships and how the intensity of thought and emotion cause conflict because peers just aren't there?

 

This happens with younger kids too but usually, on a different level vs tweens/ teens. Would it be interesting to anyone to learn how our family or someone else's copes with such things? I'm not considering a book about 2E kiddos though so I'd need to draw that line somewhere.

 

Again, just wondering aloud. Not even sure if I should contemplate such a project when most of you will probably get all you need to know from forums/ boards like this one. :)

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[The books I've read all focus on the kids from K-12, detailing the ups and downs along the way, giving a "where-they-are-now" snapshot that is of course, very useful. But I haven't found any that focus on the K-5 or K-8 stage. I am curious to know whether providing more details about the earlier years will be helpful/ interesting to anyone walking this path?/QUOTE]

It would be very useful to me :001_smile:

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Even if there were another book out there similar, it would be different enough from the book that you would write to be worth writing another book.*

 

I made a mommy's brag blog. *I periodically upload pics of homework. *I feel like I'm strewing inside his zone of proximal development. *Not exactly strewing because that's an unschooling word and we're schooling. *I'm scaffolding the output skills inside his ZPD, teaching him what he can do with assistance that quickly becomes what he can do unassisted. Ok, *Fine. *I'm pre-schooling.

For my blog I tried to grab just examples of his progressing abilities. *Somebody on a forum said to make an educational portfolio you don't grab the best of their work you grab samples at intervals so that you can look at it and kind of see their progression over time and be able to visualize it's pace. *My blog link's not in my siggy. *I'm not sure that someone would really look at my blog and really gain anything from it. *It's not really set up to be informative. *And it's not filled with engaging commentary on my opinions and insights. *Maybe someday I'll polish it up and get it out there. *What I'm really thinking of doing is keep growing it and then someday I'll print it up and give it to my son like a scrapbook. *

So. *There you go. *Find out what kind of book you want it to be, and who you want it to be for. *It should probably be some kind of book and not just a scrapbook. *If you're a good conversationalist you can tell your own story. *I get something OUT OF reading other people's stories even if I don't get something FROM it. *KWIM? *People give advice in books and *homeschool books are useful, obviously, people buy them and use them, so you could make a reference spine. *Hoagies and the Davidson database are great, but I remember when a forum member was trying to make a gifted Wikipedia so that the vast knowledge coming together now about giftedness could be user edited, cross-referenced, and searchable. *I guess that was too big of a thing to do.

 

You could put kind of a formatted chronological overview of gifted issues or gifted development like the James Webb "parenting the gifted child" or that other book "Smart boys" where they lay out how our understanding of giftedness evolved over the generations. *But yours could be how your understanding of giftedness evolved over your own child's lifetime. *Mention who you first read nine years ago (which may not have been giftedness, just plain parenting) and try to remember who you agreed with during different stages of your motherhood. * *Mine would be Ina May Gaskin got me through my birth. *Carol Dweck influenced me early in my sons life. *I'll quit there before I write a book just making this post. *I have a lot of thoughts on writing. *The advice I'm trying to offer here came to me a long time ago from a book called the screenwriters workbook. *It's that different stories have different mediums that display them better: screenplays are told graphically, plays are told through dialog, novels are good for explaining at length what's going on in a character's head.*

 

A huge theme in the gifted forums seems to be perfection, good perfection, achievement of personal goals and excellence in output. *and crippling perfectionism and disappointing outward facing perfectionism (when younger) and disappointing inward facing perfectionism. *So you could look for those threads in your book to try to tie it together.

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That probably is the correct book. I have a copy of it somewhere. It presents a view of her family's life and dealing with having PG kids and effects on figuring out that she and her husband likely are too.

 

Really, I am no longer interested in the books that deal with young kids anymore. I have lived that part and learned more than I ever wanted to about both my kids and me in the process. If someone were to write a book that deals with the issues of older kids, say ten and up or even better teenagers, that I would love to look at.

 

The issues of multi-potentiality and perfectionism are the things that are causing the big problems in my house right now. How does a child choose what to spend their time and energy on and the melt-down that occurs when not everything can get done? What about social relationships and how the intensity of thought and emotion cause conflict because peers just aren't there? And the desire to hang out with other people that 'are interested in the same things I am' when your child is 13 and the other interested people are college age? (And your 13 year old is a girl and the college age people may well be male.)

 

These are the things that cause me stress right now. I don't care about which math book to use or which novel to read. In five years none of that will matter. I am much more interested in navigating the social and emotional issues. If you were to write a book about that... I would definitely buy it.

 

There is a book like that out there, but it is very controversial in the Gifted world. It's called Hothouse Kids: The Dilemma of the Gifted Child by Alissa Quart. I think it's at least worth checking out from the library. Many of the people profiled in the book end up meeting bad ends, because they don't master the social emotional learning part. :(

 

The author basically argues that you shouldn't provide special programs, attention or labels to gifted children at all, because she believes that ends up harming them in the end because they feel so different.

 

I found that thesis really frustrating. You can't just throw the kids in regular ed classrooms and expect them to magically fit it and be all better. But the author was a gifted child in a gifted ed program herself. So there are a lot of parts in the book that ring true, and make you think.

 

Anyhow, it's not another "try this math program/read this novel" book about gifted kids.

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LaTexican, thanks so much for the encouragement! It's almost as if you read my mind. If I do write it, it will chronicle how our journey has evolved, how I've had to scramble when things I plan for a year become obsolete in a few weeks (sometimes days) and what I do to overcome it. Also, I was planning to give examples of the more creative thematic studies we've pursued to keep our homeschooling fresh and relevant for both mom and son.

 

I'd hate for it to sound like a brag and vent book. And I'm not sure if I could talk about his perfectionism without revealing too much about him. I would like to focus on the things that have worked for us, you know, the kind of things one wishes one knows when one's kiddo is 5 or 6. I want to be honest but not too detailed. The boy will be reading the book too after all (if it ever gets written)! I think it will be the challenge I need right now.

 

I'm really thankful for the support and ideas you've included. :001_smile:

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Well, good, because I was thinking about it some more and I was writing it out on my type pad but I often delete instead of posting. *But if it's helping, here it is:

 

"the hothouse children" *That's a book that could have been better written, just according to the reviews. *Buzz on the net was the author was venting and just told a bunch of horror stories of bad parenting. *(off topic OMG for bad parenting read The Harpies Child blog. *I found that linked in a WTM thread once). *Also read the amazon review that said the review poster was taken out of context, misquoted, and misled as she was one of the ones interviewed for the book. *So it was an opinion book that tried to pass off a few anecdotal stories as valid evidence for the author's opinion. *My dad told me early on, don't believe everything you read in print because anybody can write a book about anything. *You can write a book on anything and you're not an expert on anything. *So take what you read with a grain of salt and remember your book you're reading was written by somebody.

 

 

Another choice is a fiction series loosely based on the characters in your family but more interesting that still deals with many of the same issues you want to explore and discuss. *Janet Oaks books and the Ender's Game books that I read as a kid are good examples of the author exploring their issues and opinions in a straight forward way but through fiction. *If you're smart then probably so was your grandparents and your parents. *Maybe you could put their struggles and your struggles together as if you were all from the same generation and living together. *Also if you see people whose gifted parenting you adamantly disagree with you can make a composite charachter and point out how you see them since it's fiction. *Then a gifted parent could hear your opinions and relax & unwind at the same time. *A fiction about community involvement, parenting, and the PTA. *

 

I think it would be hard to make a homeschool spine just for gifted kids because educational styles are usually not designed for individual talent development but according to developmental theories or based on what education people feel is important. *You could help bring it to the public attention that public schools mostly don't have policy in place to adapt their plan to a gifted child's educational development but who would read it? *Gifted parents, most of whom have found the forums. *You could condense gifted education issues and keep teachers and politicians in mind as your audience. *That would be super useful. *For parents ourselves I keep seeing recommendations for Living With Intensity, and Dabrowski's theories, and Piaget's theories are topping the pop psychology charts along with perfectionism issues. * But those are more conveniently addressed as the issues come up, like in a forum, with links to 1-2 page overviews online describing the theories. *I would feel disappointed if I bought a book that rehashed those. *For one thing anyone I know either has read about them or would rather hear the condensed version than read about it. *May I suggest that you write your story with an audience of teachers and policy makers in mind that explains how you organically ended up with a nine year old taking geometry and how that is "his normal" and tell your family's story in a way that parents of young kids (like me) *can buy a few copies of your book for the teacher, counselor, principal. *It should be an engaging easy read that they can connect with your story and your family and see how your educational choices are supporting your child and how you're a family of people just like anybody else, the decisions you've wrestled with, the choices you've weighed are not the same choices that other people consider. *Let them see that in the context of normal so the policy makers develop empathy and understanding for future parents trying to mediate between the school adapting to provide the child what they need and the child adapting to what the public school has to offer. *Make it a quick and easy read in a nice paperback with typeset that's easy on the eyes but that you come away from feeling like you gained some understanding. *Reach for their heart not their mind.

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I really liked Laura Brodie's memoir of her "sabbatical" to HS her daughter for a year, Love in a Time of Homeschooling. The one thing I didn't like was that I felt it painted a misleading picture of HS because Ms. Brodie didn't appear to have gotten involved in any kind of group HS activities like a co-op, classes, sports, art/music/drama programs, Scouts or 4H troop, etc. I don't know if it was just she lived out in the boonies and there weren't any group opportunities, or whether there were but she didn't feel comfortable with them for some reason (like religion). But since one of the big criticisms of HS is the whole socialization issue, I was dismayed to have Ms. Brodie present a picture of a lonely girl basically cloistered at home with only her mom for a year and happy to return to a B&M school afterwards.

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*I would love to see it. Link?* :)

 

All the amazon book links on the side is because I had this great idea that I buy so much from amzon anyway I could buy from myself and get a little commission (which barefoot books, amway, and other companies encourage) but when I emailed them to find out why my christmas purchases didn't show up in my sales commission they said "this is a commission program, not a discount program.". Fair enough. *I'm going to keep it. *I might later put a little time in it to design a little virtual toy store or something even though I don't really see it being worth the effort. *Anyway it looks good on my page. *Don't bother with the blog posts. *That's one thing I'm going to have to go polish up if I want to show off my blog in my siggy.

 

www. barelyeducational . webs . com

I didn't make a link because it would link you to my mobile site and I like my regular site. *The website just made a mobile version because I don't know why.

 

Beth, I've looked @ your blog before. *Beautiful girls. *Great title. *:)

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I really liked Laura Brodie's memoir of her "sabbatical" to HS her daughter for a year, Love in a Time of Homeschooling. The one thing I didn't like was that I felt it painted a misleading picture of HS because Ms. Brodie didn't appear to have gotten involved in any kind of group HS activities like a co-op, classes, sports, art/music/drama programs, Scouts or 4H troop, etc. I don't know if it was just she lived out in the boonies and there weren't any group opportunities, or whether there were but she didn't feel comfortable with them for some reason (like religion). But since one of the big criticisms of HS is the whole socialization issue, I was dismayed to have Ms. Brodie present a picture of a lonely girl basically cloistered at home with only her mom for a year and happy to return to a B&M school afterwards.

 

:iagree:

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May I suggest that you write your story with an audience of teachers and policy makers in mind that explains how you organically ended up with a nine year old taking geometry and how that is "his normal" and tell your family's story in a way that parents of young kids (like me) *can buy a few copies of your book for the teacher, counselor, principal. *It should be an engaging easy read that they can connect with your story and your family and see how your educational choices are supporting your child and how you're a family of people just like anybody else, the decisions you've wrestled with, the choices you've weighed are not the same choices that other people consider. *Let them see that in the context of normal so the policy makers develop empathy and understanding for future parents trying to mediate between the school adapting to provide the child what they need and the child adapting to what the public school has to offer. *Make it a quick and easy read in a nice paperback with typeset that's easy on the eyes but that you come away from feeling like you gained some understanding. *Reach for their heart not their mind.

 

Very, very good ideas, LaTexican. Thanks again!

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Guest Rebecca Hein

Hello, I am new to this forum. (found it on a Google alert that mentioned my book, A Case of Brilliance.) Anything you want to know about this book? You can contact me directly and/or read a sample chapter on my blog, www.caseofbrilliance.wordpress.com. Stephanie Tolan wrote the Foreword. You can get A Case of Brilliance directly from me, autographed, if you are so inclined. My children are now 17 and almost 19, but the book covers birth-approx. age seven.

 

I wrote the book because I couldn't find one like it & felt I needed to share my journey. Thanks,

 

Rebecca Hein

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Hello, I am new to this forum. (found it on a Google alert that mentioned my book, A Case of Brilliance.) Anything you want to know about this book? You can contact me directly and/or read a sample chapter on my blog, www.caseofbrilliance.wordpress.com. Stephanie Tolan wrote the Foreword. You can get A Case of Brilliance directly from me, autographed, if you are so inclined. My children are now 17 and almost 19, but the book covers birth-approx. age seven.

 

I wrote the book because I couldn't find one like it & felt I needed to share my journey. Thanks,

 

Rebecca Hein

 

I really enjoyed reading your book a few years ago. It was the only one I could find written in the way I was looking for...concrete examples of a person's journey rather than broad generalizations about what a gifted child might be like. Thank you for sharing.

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