New home schooler to a 7 year old 4th grader

[sgrcn77]

I'm new to The Well-Trained Mind and so far I'm in love with this platform. I will probably start homeschooling my 7 year old , a 4th grader at a home school "school". I 'm looking for a curriculum that will challenge her and ideas to help make her learning experience superior to what she would receive in public school and comparable to the best private school education? Can anyone recommend materials and curriculum? P.S. My gifted 3 year old will probably join us.

[Halcyon]

Have you read The Well Trained Mind? If not, that would be the best place to begin. Are you looking to build your own curriculum (recommended for accelerated kids, especially if they are ahead in one subject or another, but more at grade level in another). What is a homeschool school "school"? Is that like a private school? What is she learning now in math, language arts and history and science? What books does she enjoy?

 

You'll find this to be a warm and welcoming place. Oh, I see you are from South Florida---me too!

[sgrcn77]

I am purchasing the book ( I never knew this was a book !) today. It's a private school started by a homeschooling mom. She is working on typical 4th grade work ( division, Florida history,) I feel like she should be doing more interesting work and plus I want her to do Singapore math.

[Halcyon]

Once you've read the book, I am sure you will be amazed at all the ideas and possiblities! My 7 year old is enjoying Beast Academy, Math Mammoth, writing a novel, Story of the World Ancient History (he is making a notebook of all the things he is learning), Life Science (studying cell structure and human anatomy), memory work (halfway through the US presidents, yay!) and some challenging grammar. Oh, and Latin--he is in his second year and will begin Lively Latin Book 2 in January.

 

Once you have read the book, I am sure you will have more specific questions that people will be able to help you with. Good luck.

[serendipitous journey]

Welcome!

 

The Well-Trained Mind is an excellent foundation, and thorough in its recommendations.

 

For her math, I would strongly suggest looking at the MEP materials if you want something comparable to the best private school. The MEP materials are unusual, but they provide a truly superior maths foundation and may -- almost more importantly -- foster an interest. If she is interested in maths after that, you could try the Art of Problem Solving curriculum/online courses which provide an outstanding secondary math education. Developing an affection for the subject is priceless, in a bright child esp.

 

To crank up her language arts/reading, you could look at the Ambleside Online materials which are excellent for this and designed to be inexpensive, and they have a forum. The designers are Protestant, and the general tone of the forum is Protestant though they are very open and friendly. The reading levels are satisfyingly high, and we are using much from them right now, though I don't know for how long; Button is unpredictable...

 

That said, it might be good to reflect on what would feel "comparable to the best private school" to you. We have friends with a son in Westminster primary school. That seems to me to be an extraordinary education, with a focus on well-rounded students yet with opportunities to excel in any given subject, where the child has many very intelligent companions and also many from influential families. The prospect of failing as compared to Westminster had me gloomy for a while until DH pointed out that: 1. Button would hate it; 2. we don't live in London and 3. we couldn't afford it anyhow. Homeschooling is different to traditional schooling, and has its own strengths and weaknesses. but one cannot trump the elite schools on their own terms (the parents of this child are wonderful people, scientist friends of ours, who considered homeschooling him -- he's apparently very happy at Westminster. So I am not dissing that choice. It is just different to ours, and for many reasons).

 

Would you like to provide the children with an outstanding college prep education -- one that qualifies them for elite colleges? This is one of our goals, though we are not aiming for particular colleges, just a particular level of academic excellence for Button who is very academic in temperament. Are you interested in providing the strong well-rounded aspect of private schools? that is, strong academics; strong sport; high achievement in music/an art? Are you interested in cultivating to a high level your children's particular gifts, perhaps over academic achievement per se? All these sorts of things go on at the best private schools.

 

I don't think you need to know all that right now, but it might be good to think about.

[Dmmetler]

One thing you may find out is that you'll have to give up on some or all of the "Grade Level" if you want to challenge your daughter. My just turned 8 yr old has a "grade level" reported with our cover school for homeschooling purposes and that we use for Math League, Spelling Bee, and similar competitions. Other than that, nothing she does is at her grade level, and every year it diverges more and she becomes more asynchronous. It might be that you need to pull your DD at least partially out of the program she's in, maybe leaving her for things like "Florida History", but doing math on your own, or leaving her for writing, but providing your own literature program, and consider the school to be meeting non-academic needs. We do a co-op that, frankly, is a waste of time academically for my child, but provides her with the classroom experience, the chance to do the stupid shoe box dioramas and present them to the group, and someone to distribute that box of 30 valentines to in February, and right now, that's important enough to her to make it worth taking the time.

 

As far as material, it depends on what you want. For my DD, doing multiple languages (we study Latin and Spanish, and have dabbled in Greek for the last several years), multiple math programs, and lots of reading on different subjects is key. We might use kids non-fiction books designed for 2nd-3rd graders next to a college textbook, and I might print out and have her do a teacher file box activity designed for K-2, but fill in content at a high school level on the cute animal template. There are times when I can easily see her exhausting high school content by age 12--and times when I wonder if she'll EVER be ready to leave home.

 

It's a tough ride, but it's worth it!

[sgrcn77]

Yes, I am looking to prepare her for an elite university education. I plan on homeschooling only until the school year is over and then enroll her in private school- unless this is a better choice. Thank you for the information and a question, is MEP better or comparable to Singapore math?

[serendipitous journey]

Yes, I am looking to prepare her for an elite university education. I plan on homeschooling only until the school year is over and then enroll her in private school- unless this is a better choice. Thank you for the information and a question, is MEP better or comparable to Singapore math?

 

That's good information! I hope my post didn't read as implying you hadn't thought about your goals, or that you are unfamiliar with education at the best private schools, or something like that -- I wrote it very late last night and it was extremely stream-of-consciousness!

 

In her case I would definitely suggest Singapore over MEP. MEP is comparable to Singapore in terms of quality, and is better at some things and worse at others; generally I would say superior in real math education, but not nearly as open-and-go, harder to accelerate, and not as good at preparing for standardized tests. I would only suggest MEP if you would continue to be math-educating her at home through secondary school. For going into a private school, Singapore is better hands-down.

 

Also in that case I wouldn't suggest the Ambleside program. You might like the Great Books Junior guides/books, though, _if_ you are looking for language arts enrichment -- you may have that covered!

[sgrcn77]

Well, since you mentioned it, no I don't. It seems that you have a great program for your children. What do you use for language arts?

P.S. I do like the Ambleside program

[songsparrow]

I plan on homeschooling only until the school year is over and then enroll her in private school- unless this is a better choice.

 

I don't know if you have already evaluated the private schools in your area, but I would be sure to ask lots of questions about how they would handle your daughter's needs. Sadly, many private schools are no more well equipped than most public schools to deal with a gifted student. And be sure to consider all of her needs in both the areas where she is accelerated and the areas where she is at or behind grade level (social, emotional, maturity, etc).

 

And while I found WTM to be a good starting place, I did not find it to be the best resource for how to teach gifted learners. I would encourage you to consider going deep into subjects, instead of just accelerating. Watch out for curricula that are "spiraling", which means that they introduce subjects briefly and circle back to them later. I would recommend Singapore Math and also look into the Life of Fred books, which can be a fun change of pace or review. I also like the "Challenging Units for Gifted Leaners" series of books by Kenneth Smith.

 

ETA: In LA, I'd recommend the Michael Clay Thompson materials.

[sgrcn77]

I'm in the process of doing that now. Thank you , each and everyone one of you for the advice and recommendations. I am thrilled and have purchased some material already. The Life of Fred Book is a book that I am adding to the Christmas break list TODAY!

[serendipitous journey]

Well, since you mentioned it, no I don't. It seems that you have a great program for your children. What do you use for language arts?

P.S. I do like the Ambleside program

 

We're reading from a few different places; doing Shakespeare regularly (picture book versions; right now it's Aliki's book on the Globe theater, just a few pages each day); doing poetry -- we do the Ambleside selection in the AM but it's no fun for the boys, each afternoon (more or less!) at snack time I read from Here's a Little Poem esp. for the tot and Where the Sidewalk Ends for the older one and both of them like both of those books; I do Evan Moor spelling at grade level for Button, a bit of MCT grammar, Winning with Writing, and have IEW's writing materials but haven't incorporated them yet -- that's for sometime between January and next September. I'm trying to keep school time shorter than it had been and have dropped Growing with Grammar and FLL -- I tried them both -- and plan to add KISS grammar next year for third grade.

 

For good read-alouds I have liked many of Sonlight's suggestions. -- glad you like Ambleside, too! any other LA stuff that's caught your fancy?

 

ETA -- Button's LA is one of the reasons I think goals are important to hold in mind. The child is very bright, and very good with language, but he was extremely late to become interested in reading (as in, maybe 9 months ago began to see the point of it) and is not a natural speller; he doesn't enjoy most writing. He is extremely accelerated in, and extraordinarily talented in, math. So we spend rather a lot of time on math here, and my goal with his language arts stuff is to narrow the gap btw. his performance and his ability while keeping interest high. I like Ambleside for that reason -- the readings are complex, and the regular narrations are improving his comprehension (I believe). With the Winning with Writing to keep us at least on grade-level in terms of mechanics, and the MCT to encourage him to think about language and how it works, I think we're set for our second grade goals. I will use both the WWW and the spelling programs year-round, so we'll naturally accelerate them gradually.

 

I have seen so many people comment that for K-4, it is important to get the fundamentals solidly set, develop a good work ethic, and give the child a lot of time to be a child. I believe that and am trying to keep it in mind.