What does your day look like with accelerated 5 year old?

[SierraNevada]

So this post copies the seven year old one- but I'm interested in revamping our day for our five year old. He is quite accelerated- working 3rd to 4th in most subjects, except maybe early second for handwriting. His greatest love is science. He detests our current math program- but still likes math. So I need to salvage that enjoyment and change courses. Help me design time and subjects for a boy who loves to move, accelerates quickly, and has a stubborn streak the size of Texas.

[mom2bee]

What is your current math program that he hates so much?

[SierraNevada]

Ixl.

[Embassy]

My current 5 year old is my most active kid.  She spends about 3 hours total, but a good part of that is not at a desk.  Read alouds, educational games, exercise, and DVDs are included.  Because she is my youngest, I work with her in little stints throughout the day.  So I may do 20 minutes on math and then she goes off to play.  Later we will do something else.  The only things that take longer than 20 minutes are activities, games, etc.

 

As for your math issue, have you considered using math games to teach concepts?

[sunnyday]

So you're sitting your little guy in front of 3rd and 4th grade IXL with no instruction and he's getting upset over it?

 

I saw in another thread that you plan to switch to SM and LOF and BA 4A? Did you already do the pre-assessment for 4A?

 

I don't have a profoundly gifted child but I do have little ones who love to learn. At 4.5 my daughter is an avid reader and loves to plow through some Singapore Earlybird and some random kindergarten worksheets and some IXL pre-k and K. She looks over her brother's shoulder as he does Singapore Intensive Practice, and corrects him. :p She takes an abacus to bed to play with addition. Still, I wouldn't dream of imposing formal studies on her at this point. She's so little. Likewise, my son displays an incredible depth to his number sense at 7. The way he explains addition or sees patterns in numbers, it blows me away! We're still working at Singapore 1B, and IXL 1st and 2nd, and will be for a while. IMO, holding back and letting the child's interest drive you can't hurt, but pushing until they break down can.

[hellojwolford]

Sounds like my son.  Our day starts out with a discussion of what we should do that day.  I make a list and he chooses what order to do things in - that way he feels he has more control over his life.  He even plans for breaks.  Often, it's 15 min of Bible followed by 30min of Singapore Math 5a (he loves math).  Then he gets dressed, writes some music, and plays legos.  We have 30 min of fun reading broken into 15 min blocks with some games of tag in between.  For 15min we read something just a bit above his reading level aloud together. And for 30min each day we do either science or history (SOTW).  His writing is integrated into his history or science using IEW.  And grammar with Grammar Island (MCT) is sprinkled in here and there.  He practices violin and piano somewhere in between.  And there's soccer practice, church events, and as much park time as we can get.  I found that sitting for 15 - 30 min is all he can do right now, but there is a lot of teaching that can be done on the go.  My son is an auditory learner, so we practice math facts on the swing set, talk about grammar while playing catch, discuss what caused the fall of Rome while cooking dinner.  

HTH

[pushplaylearning]

My 5 DS is at a second grade level on most things. He is using Mammoth math. He has a love hate relationship with it. I think it's becoming too repetitive, and for the first time, I started cutting out some of the problems. This has made my DS happy.

 

20 minutes on MM

10 minutes on abacus

10 minutes writing with ease

5-10 minutes on spelling on a customizable app using webster spelling book as our word list

10 minutes BFSU science

10 minutes of grammar

20 minutes in logic, preprogramming, and memory work using a variety of apps

10 minutes on Spanish

10 minutes on Chinese

 

Lots of reading. He is really into learn to draw videos on YouTube, and I don't limit this activity. That is pretty much our normal day or ideal day. Ironically the summer was filled with ideal days, while Fall has been a bit more relaxed. I always make sure math, logic, reading and spelling get done but everything else fell to the side recently as I have been distracted (guilt free) with my own projects. I did get back on track today. Go me!

[lewelma]

When older ds was 5, I spent 20 minutes per day teaching him to read by snuggling up on the sofa, and he did 15 minutes a day with his handwriting.  My dh read to him for 1 hour at night, and he read in bed to himself every night for about 30 minutes. That was it.

 

We did play math games while walking to activities - like estimating and adding etc.

He did like to watch documentaries (science and history)

He did start the violin

 

He also:

played with lego

baked

drew a bit

did some crafts

swam

played with his friends

built forts

talked

played games

went to museums

 

I know that this is not what you are looking for, but I also wanted to you know that you do not *have* to start formal education early just because your kid is smart.   See this thread for where this son is at, at age 13.  He did not use a formal math program until 6 3/4  http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/490568-changing-focus-our-journey-in-realigning-priorities/ . 

 

I don't think that delaying formal education until age 7 has hurt him in any way.  Clearly it depends on the child and what he/she wants/needs; but you don't *have* to ramp it up for a 5 year old.

 

Ruth in NZ

 

[boscopup]

Last year, my 5 year old was only slightly accelerated (math), and we did about 10-15 minutes each of phonics, math, and handwriting. Then we did read-alouds directed at him (I also do family read-alouds). Once he was done with school, he could go play in the sandbox while I worked with his older brother another couple hours.

 

Next year, my youngest will be 5, and I plan to do roughly the same thing with him, except that he's more accelerated (he's reading and writing now at 4). Because he likes school and likes working independently, he may do more like 20 minutes for each of those subjects. We'll see. He also has big brothers to tag along with in science and history, though he may wander off during history if it doesn't excite him. :) This child probably could accelerate quite a bit, but I'm largely not teaching him much new right now, because I don't want him to burn out. He LOVES school work right now, and I want to keep it that way! You do have to be careful at these young ages. I've actually slowed my middle son down a bit in math, even though he could go a little faster. He's liking math right now. He'll have plenty of time to accelerate later if he needs to. Obviously, I don't stop my kids from figuring out new things on their own - in fact, I encourage that. By not pushing ahead, they have more time to try to figure these things out. My youngest could be doing daily phonics lessons at his current reading level, but I'm letting him do the easy parts of the phonics books that he already knows, and then I watch when he discovers new things about words on his own, and he owns the phonics he's figuring out. Same thing with math... He's just starting to pick up on addition and subtraction. I'm letting him play around with it and figure it out. He's sometimes blurting out math facts that he's figured out on his own, and he's more likely to remember those because HE did it. :) At the preschool/K age, I find that my kids learn a lot more from figuring things out on their own than from curriculum.

 

Now I haven't had a child that was asking for *challenge* at that age, so if yours is, that's fine - give him challenge! Just be aware of the burnout issue though. Some kids will ask for a challenge, but still aren't mature enough to handle it. In general, I try to match the input to my children's ability level and match the time spent on school work to their age-level. So I don't do more than an hour in K (not counting read-alouds). I think the kids are better served at that age going outside and doing imaginary play (playing in ditches, what have you :lol:). Or for a science-loving kid who reads, hand him a pile of library books, some experiment books, some nature study books, etc. Let him go outside and find something in nature that he'd like to read more about. Let him watch how the ant colonies work. Let him watch the catterpillars crawling on the trees (our oak tree was *covered* in them recently - gray fuzzy ones - very cute!). At that age, my kids loved to find a pine cone, then bring it inside and "wash" it to watch it close up. Then when it dried, it'd open up again. That was neat! There is so much they can do without any official school work involved. :)

 

For your math issue... Switch to a curriculum where *you* teach and discuss. It will be a lot more fun.

[blondeviolin]

My 5yo is nearly six and could be accelerated much beyond his current curriculum. But, he's not asking for it and I'm not pushing it. Hes already at that awkward stage where he would be an older K, but seems like first grade. Giving him curriculum much further than that would be difficult for him to relate socially to his friends who ARE in K in some ways. My oldest didn't care or notice, but this guy does.

[La Texican]

Texas has lax homeschooling laws, doesn't require minimum days, and only requires five subjects- grammer, spelling, reading, math, and citizenship. Kindergarten is not mandatory. My kid is about to turn six (past the school cutoff) so he's old for grade kinder.

 

For school I'm requiring one oral narration a week, which I write down in the language arts notebook and he copies one sentence from the book which has to be correct, proper sized lower case, correctly placed capitals, and a punctuation mark. That's for reading day.

 

He has a spelling book from his great-great-great grandfather (my grandmothers grandfather) that is phonetically controlled spelling lists that covered grade k-12 in a one room school house. He copies each word from his spelling list three times on spelling day. Eventually I'll have him copy definitions, write a sentence for each word, and take a spelling test. This first year I'm having him copy each word three times and calling it good. It's just intro to spelling class.

 

I'm calling World History citizenship. I read a two page spread from the Usborne World History Encyclopedia. He tells me what he thinks the important parts are. I don't correct him. I write it down and he draws a picture and I put it in the history notebook on history day. This is intro to note-taking skills.

 

On grammer day he reads a few pages from grammer Island. On math day he answers Singapore math for a few pages & I write down the answers.

 

Every day he looks for a sentence in a book that fits that weeks WWE theme and copies it. Every day he does some math (usually SumDog video games set on a level he thinks is easy enough, because it's to memorize facts). He has to do WWE and math facts and one other thing on the schedule every day.

 

I have a few extras that some days I'll substitute for his regular work- khan academy, Beast Academy, HWT instead of WWE, a US map tracing book instead of World History, NaNoWriMo jr workbook (which I write his answers for) instead of grammer.

 

 

Every school day I have him do one hour of work. I've read that grade=hours of homeschooling is a good formula. We school year round so I made a deal. The one week on/one week off has worked wonders for his willingness to just get his work done and not waste time. I actually thought about giving him the year off because he is advanced and kindergarten is not mandatory. This is the last year that he can legally take off. This week on/week off seems to be a better plan because it's a sustainable level of learning (180 days is an average school year) & he's not grudging his work because he knows working every other week is a priveledge. He even said, "thank you mom for letting me have a week off". I write down the (scant) academics he freely chooses to do in his off weeks, but I don't even mention work those weeks. I do mention on Thursday or Friday of his school week, if he's dragging his feet he's going to miss his unschool week.

 

JMO the first few things to teach is reading, riting, rithmatic as habits. My kid obviously thinks the first thing to learn is to practice running up the slide and crossing the monkeybars so he can be on American Ninja Warrior when he grows up. He's smart. My husband says my son's a nerd and just doesn't know it yet. I'm just making sure he's developing a habit of doing the work. I started training the habit of doing your work early. I put crayons in his hands and got him marking on paper before he could walk. I subscribed him to Reading Eggs when he was 3. He's co-reading a 7th grade book book with me right now, but he selects Bob the Builder, Morris the Moose, and Dumbo for his own reading. I'm sure you know when you're scaffolding a childs talent in their zone of proximal development some of their work should be at the bottom end of their ability level to develop fluency, some in the middle for confidence, and some work that's a stretch for their growth. I think it's the most important, more important than teaching skills or content, to teach that when it's time to do your work you have to do your work. If you can't do it then ask someone and they'll show you how. You can do it. You have to do it. Everybody has to work. He wrote a cute letter to his dad one time that said, "thank you dad for always going to work and bringing us money." And he told me, "mom. what would I do without you here to cook me breakfast all the time?" He's a rambunctious kid, but when he says sweet things like these it melts your heart and lets me know he's starting to understand how important doing your work is.

[Tanikit]

I take the day as it comes with my now 6 year old. So some days she is keen and can do quite a lot of work and other days she needs more snuggle time and read alouds. She does read to me daily and has since she was 3 years old though how much she reads can vary greatly depending on how tired she is or how keen she is. She also has time when she can read to herself, but if she chooses not to then that is fine too. 

 

Maths we have more than 1 curriculum and she can choose which she wants to do - some of it is easier for her and some is more of a challenge and she adjusts her choices based on how she feels too, though I do have final say. 

 

Writing is a battle with my child - she needs some sort of a routine and I think she needs more handwriting practice too, but I am not sure what she is capable of. For her age her handwriting is very neat, but it is still a strain for her to write much - when she writes without it being part of school it is still mostly lists with no more than about 6-8 words on them. She has only recently started to enjoy drawing her own pictures with a lot of detail (she has been doing this since she was 4 but is showing more enthusiasm now than she used to) so we do this in school too as it is also help for the fine motor and results in less fuss than writing sentences. She still does have to write and a fair amount since I expect her to write for her math as well as anything else that needs writing, but creative writing is never more than 2 sentences at the moment and only once or twice a week.

 

History we use SOTW2 and Science is BFSU.

 

She spends a maximum of half an hour on any one activity, usually 15 minutes and has breaks after every but of school so that I can spend some time with the 2 year old. School lasts about 2-3 hours but about half of this is breaks and snacks and trips to the bathroom and singing songs and irritating her sister.

[Uff Da!]

I hesitate to reply because we afterschool.  During the school year and during the summer, we do a lot of our schooling during meal/snack times (I'm call it dinner time entertainment :)  )  It works with curriculums that can be done orally or with a white board if needed.  I mention it because you said he loves to move and it's a way to utilize time when he is possibly somewhat still.

[kbutton]

My 5 y.o. started some Kindergarten mid-year last year and is kind of straddling K and 1st. He wanted to write cursive right away, but he struggles just a bit with it. He started with Italic handwriting for print, and now I am teaching him to do New American Cursive. The workbook pages are too small for some letters, so I write out handwriting work on paper. This way, I can target what needs work, and I make it go along with his phonics. We spend a lot of time on a cluster of letters before moving on, and I stay with him while he writes. My older son has dysgraphia, and my little guy might. He forgets how to form letters pretty easily, and handwriting has never been automatic for members of my husband's family. Anyway, he likes to write, and I keep it to about a page per day of tracing/writing, and it's about half printing and half cursive (we did much less last year). I emphasize automaticity first (even above getting through the whole cursive alphabet) and neatness second. If he is making the correct motions, then we move on to neatness.

 

He does Miquon math and some Singapore CWP for first grade. He spends about 40 minutes on math some days and less on others. It depends on how intense it is. We use Education Unboxed videos. Last year, we did MUS primer at an accelerated pace (with extended activities), but almost none of it was written. He just played with the concepts. I made number cards so that he could add and subtract with "decimal street."

 

We use A Beka phonics (it was familiar to us already), but I don't use the workbooks. I use the handbook for reading, and he learns and marks special sounds in words we have written out for handwriting or on the laminated phonics manipulatives I made. Sometimes we do them on the whiteboard. I also dictate some special sounds to him that he can spell as well as some words. I don't expect him to be able to spell everything, but we talk about phonics patterns, and we'll use only a couple of patterns at a time so the words are related. We do this about once per week as it's fun but taxing. It seems to increase his phonemic awareness greatly (he has some possible auditory processing issues). He reads Bob books and some Level 1 readers. I am for about 20 min. per day for him to read. His fluency and stamina are coming along, but he had an incorrectly made lens in his glasses that was slowing him down for several months.

 

I am trying to use FLL, but it's pretty repetitive, and he makes mental leaps far outside the script. I am trying to introduce the concepts without following the script, and I am hoping to do better about the narrations.

 

He does science with his brother, and we try to do that in blocks of time once per week or every other week. We'll do a bunch at once (Pandia Press R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey). He'll do it all day if we keep it moving.

[kbutton]

My 5 y.o. started some Kindergarten mid-year last year and is kind of straddling K and 1st. He wanted to write cursive right away, but he struggles just a bit with it. He started with Italic handwriting for print, and now I am teaching him to do New American Cursive. The workbook pages are too small for some letters, so I write out handwriting work on paper. This way, I can target what needs work, and I make it go along with his phonics. We spend a lot of time on a cluster of letters before moving on, and I stay with him while he writes. My older son has dysgraphia, and my little guy might. He forgets how to form letters pretty easily, and handwriting has never been automatic for members of my husband's family. Anyway, he likes to write, and I keep it to about a page per day of tracing/writing, and it's about half printing and half cursive (we did much less last year). I emphasize automaticity first (even above getting through the whole cursive alphabet) and neatness second. If he is making the correct motions, then we move on to neatness.

 

He does Miquon math and some Singapore CWP for first grade. He spends about 40 minutes on math some days and less on others. It depends on how intense it is. We use Education Unboxed videos. Last year, we did MUS primer at an accelerated pace (with extended activities), but almost none of it was written. He just played with the concepts. I made number cards so that he could add and subtract with "decimal street."

 

We use A Beka phonics (it was familiar to us already), but I don't use the workbooks. I use the handbook for reading, and he learns and marks special sounds in words we have written out for handwriting or on the laminated phonics manipulatives I made. Sometimes we do them on the whiteboard. I also dictate some special sounds to him that he can spell as well as some words. I don't expect him to be able to spell everything, but we talk about phonics patterns, and we'll use only a couple of patterns at a time so the words are related. We do this about once per week as it's fun but taxing. It seems to increase his phonemic awareness greatly (he has some possible auditory processing issues). He reads Bob books and some Level 1 readers. I am for about 20 min. per day for him to read. His fluency and stamina are coming along, but he had an incorrectly made lens in his glasses that was slowing him down for several months.

 

I am trying to use FLL, but it's pretty repetitive, and he makes mental leaps far outside the script. I am trying to introduce the concepts without following the script, and I am hoping to do better about the narrations.

 

He does science with his brother, and we try to do that in blocks of time once per week or every other week. We'll do a bunch at once (Pandia Press R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey). He'll do it all day if we keep it moving.

[MinivanMom]

It doesn't matter how accelerated my 5-yr-old is, I still keep required schoolwork to what I feel is developmentally appropriate for a 5-yr-old.  For us that means 45 min of required seatwork max.  I break it down to 15 min of math, 15 min of phonics/lang.arts, and 15 min of reading aloud.  It doesn't matter how advanced the math concepts are, we only work for 15 min.  It doesn't matter how high a reading level, I only require a 5-yr-old to read aloud for 15 min at a stretch.  Just because the level of materials is advanced doesn't mean that I need to require a larger amount of time or increased output.

 

This doesn't mean that my 5-yr-olds have only worked for 45 min.  They are free to pursue their passions and interests in the remaining hours of the day.  For oldest dd - who was reading at a 6th grade level at age 5 - that meant hours of reading literature on her own, writing stories, and playing intensely with her toy fairies.  For oldest ds - who was intensely interested in science - that meant hours of playing with blocks and legos, reading lots of science books, and lots of time exploring the natural world in our own backyard.  For dd5 - who is accelerated in math, but just learning to read - that has meant hours of playing with blocks and legos, lots of math doodling (she fills notebooks with math problems), and lots of time playing with her dolls.  My children haven't been quite as accelerated at the ages of 2-6 yrs as I hear some parents on these boards describe, but they have just exploded between ages 6-10. 

 

If my 5-yr-old "hated" math or schoolwork in general then I would be taking a step back to look at the big picture.  Five is too young to be burned out already.  Five is the time when you should be just starting to explore your interests.

 

[SierraNevada]

So you're sitting your little guy in front of 3rd and 4th grade IXL with no instruction and he's getting upset over it?

 

I saw in another thread that you plan to switch to SM and LOF and BA 4A? Did you already do the pre-assessment for 4A?

 

I don't have a profoundly gifted child but I do have little ones who love to learn. At 4.5 my daughter is an avid reader and loves to plow through some Singapore Earlybird and some random kindergarten worksheets and some IXL pre-k and K. She looks over her brother's shoulder as he does Singapore Intensive Practice, and corrects him. :p She takes an abacus to bed to play with addition. Still, I wouldn't dream of imposing formal studies on her at this point. She's so little. Likewise, my son displays an incredible depth to his number sense at 7. The way he explains addition or sees patterns in numbers, it blows me away! We're still working at Singapore 1B, and IXL 1st and 2nd, and will be for a while. IMO, holding back and letting the child's interest drive you can't hurt, but pushing until they break down can.

As for not dreaming of imposing "formal studies" on her at this point - just realize that most all Americans send their kids to pre-school and at five they enter K. So my child, if on that track would be in a learning environment for at least three hours a day. This helps a kid work up and adapt to the longer days that will be ahead. Just because he naturally learned the K-3 curriculum on his own, and with very little effort, is no reason, to deny him the necessary skill of learning how to learn. I expect that he learn the skill of learning. And this takes an incremental work up to it, time wise over the years.  Believe me, the child's interests are driving. And until you have a PG kiddo, it is hard to comprehend how that works. No, I am not sitting him down for hours in front of ixl with no instruction and just letting him cry it out. I teach, we use those problems for a workbook, and it started out as something he loved. But the repetition has got to him, and not he hates it, which is why we are changing tracks. He still loves math.

 

When older ds was 5, I spent 20 minutes per day teaching him to read by snuggling up on the sofa, and he did 15 minutes a day with his handwriting.  My dh read to him for 1 hour at night, and he read in bed to himself every night for about 30 minutes. That was it.

 

We did play math games while walking to activities - like estimating and adding etc.

He did like to watch documentaries (science and history)

He did start the violin

 

He also:

played with lego

baked

drew a bit

did some crafts

swam

played with his friends

built forts

talked

played games

went to museums

 

I know that this is not what you are looking for, but I also wanted to you know that you do not *have* to start formal education early just because your kid is smart.   See this thread for where this son is at, at age 13.  He did not use a formal math program until 6 3/4  http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/490568-changing-focus-our-journey-in-realigning-priorities/ . 

 

I don't think that delaying formal education until age 7 has hurt him in any way.  Clearly it depends on the child and what he/she wants/needs; but you don't *have* to ramp it up for a 5 year old.

 

Ruth in NZ

Believe me, my son does all those things too. It really doesn't take us more than 1-2 hours a day of doing our school. That leaves more than plenty of time for everything else you can imagine. I feel like just because DS is so accelerated, people are thinking that I must be making him work insane hours to get there. WRONG! He just gets things so fast, and with so little effort, that we really hardly have to spend anytime on school to achieve the level we are at. I know we don't have to start formal education at this age. But one or two hours a day is meant to prepare him for the requirements that will be on him later as he ages. I want to work into things slowly. The majority of our life is un-schooling, but we do do a formal math curriculum, because math seems to be the easiest thing to do in a formal sort of way. Of course you don't have to ramp it up!

[SierraNevada]

It doesn't matter how accelerated my 5-yr-old is, I still keep required schoolwork to what I feel is developmentally appropriate for a 5-yr-old.  For us that means 45 min of required seatwork max.  I break it down to 15 min of math, 15 min of phonics/lang.arts, and 15 min of reading aloud.  It doesn't matter how advanced the math concepts are, we only work for 15 min.  It doesn't matter how high a reading level, I only require a 5-yr-old to read aloud for 15 min at a stretch.  Just because the level of materials is advanced doesn't mean that I need to require a larger amount of time or increased output.

 

This doesn't mean that my 5-yr-olds have only worked for 45 min.  They are free to pursue their passions and interests in the remaining hours of the day.  For oldest dd - who was reading at a 6th grade level at age 5 - that meant hours of reading literature on her own, writing stories, and playing intensely with her toy fairies.  For oldest ds - who was intensely interested in science - that meant hours of playing with blocks and legos, reading lots of science books, and lots of time exploring the natural world in our own backyard.  For dd5 - who is accelerated in math, but just learning to read - that has meant hours of playing with blocks and legos, lots of math doodling (she fills notebooks with math problems), and lots of time playing with her dolls.  My children haven't been quite as accelerated at the ages of 2-6 yrs as I hear some parents on these boards describe, but they have just exploded between ages 6-10. 

 

If my 5-yr-old "hated" math or schoolwork in general then I would be taking a step back to look at the big picture.  Five is too young to be burned out already.  Five is the time when you should be just starting to explore your interests.

Just as there is a large range of what is academically appropriate for a five year old, there is also a wide range of what is developmentally appropriate for a five year old. Not all five year-olds have short attention spans and can only take things in 15 minute increments. DS sounds much like your kids and does a ton of stuff on his own time and as a part of his play. He really only does 10 minutes of handwriting seat-work, and then less than an hour of math seat-work in any given day, and sometimes broken up, if he likes. I don't think 1-2 hours of work (with half of that seat work) is asking anything too much for a typical five year old, let alone a highly gifted five year old.   And I am talking a step back to look at the picture - I realized that over the past month or two, since we started school up, DS has really taken a dislike to his math program, and so I am reaching out to get ideas of what to do. Maybe what I would really like to see is what other moms do with their five year old PG kids - because when you have this insane drive to learn, and work at a high level with little effort and ease, then it is not the same case as other kids. And yes, I am at a loss of what to do. It scares me. It is not the average situation. Most five year olds would rather be watching cartoons that reading about science. I am not trying to force him to do anything. I am only trying to really teach him one important thing (school wise) - and that is how to put effort into his learning. Because when you have never had to put effort into anything, you will crumble when things become harder.  That is one of my main reasons for inducing him to do any formal curriculum right now, because frankly, if I left him to him self, he would still be learning at a rapid rate just through his own reading and such. 

 

To all the others that have just given me a good idea of what a typical day with a five year old looks like, I thank you. 

[SierraNevada]

Double post.  

 

[mommymilkies]

I'm sorry you're feeling defensive. Actually, most if us know how you're feeling. But every child and every family are different. So I'm rather relaxed and it hasn't hurt my advanced 7th grader who had almost zero formal work until ~8-9. She still scores 99th%, she's happy and advanced. There's no reason to help aid them if they want more. Personally, I would not push young children and force anything at this age. I do see people do that and it can kill their love if learning or dishearten them. Gifted children are prone to low self-confidence and underestimating their abilities. So that's a line I try to watch for. I was that kid in school.

 

For my 5 yo, she does:

 

spelling (2nd-3rd grade level) about 20 minutes

Math (not her most advanced subject k-1 level) 10-20 minutes

Logic: 10 minutes

Science reading-10 minutes

Reading together:20 minutes at a time several times a day

Music: 20-60+ minutes a day

 

She also reads about a chapter book a day and is a total nut who plays most of her day. She has soccer once a week for fun. I don't force the subjects. We take time off as needed or adjust when she has a learning spurt. She doesn't like sitting still. I'd say ADD if she wasn't 5. ;)

[La Texican]

I read that book "transforming the difficult child workbook" (not that my kid is difficult, just that it was recommended by somebody whose advice I always love to read). It recommended a method of setting your child up for success. It said the way they get Shamoo to jump for the crowd at Sea World is that they first put the rope on the ground and give him a fish when he swims over it. After a while they raise the rope. Basically they said to make your program something the kid basically has no choice but to succeed at so they start to develop a self-identity as a successful person who listens. That's why I'm only doing three short subjects per day, so he begins to think he's a person who gets his work done. He already knows he's smart. I want him to know he's a worker.

 

I'm sure you've read about perfectionism and the Goldilocks syndrome it's too hard if I have to work at it, it's too much work if it's easy. (It is. It's like riding a bicycle too slowly is much harder than riding at a normal pace.) Need to work on stretching that Goldilocks zone so the kid is a little more flexible on what work is "just right" that they're willing to do. Already the work that your mom would assign has more quality and less quantity than you'll get anywhere else, and is as close to "just right" as you're going to get, kid.

 

We don't have to worry about our accelerated learners getting behind, but you do want to work on evening out the asynchronicity a little. Pacing is another issue. If they don't want to do work that's too hard or too easy, then when will they learn to do work consistantly? Homeschooling is flexible, but homeschooling usually means you do work everyday and that there are things you need to learn to be educated.

 

I also make his schooltime after lunch so if he doesn't want to do his work and digs his heels in at least he got a healthy amount of playtime and the whole day wasn't spent in a battle of wills. This way I don't feel at all guilty about saying, "If you don't want to do your work then you're going to bed until dinner time."

 

I understand the beauty of the child-led and delight driven philosophies, but my husband and I have chosen to go with the discipline and structure route. I agree with the philosophy that says don't make too many rules for children, but dig in your own heels on a few important things. This one hours work a day on school weeks is my hill to die on. It's not much, but I insist. Since that's very clear, I don't have to insist very much. But then again, it's not much work. I want 20 problems done on SumDog, one WWE sentence found and copied, and your one other thing for the day. This is obviously hothousing cooperation, not stamina, skills, or content. I'd tell you why this is a problem now, but the story's long and so is this post.

 

One other thing I found helpful, I read it here, is instead of scheduling your work for the week buy a day planner and write the work you did that day (scheduling backwards). This gives you so much more freedom. You still have the accountability, structure, and schedule, but it's flexible. You want to go run errands with your dad today? Fine I'll write that in the book and it doesn't throw anything off. No need to make it up. That's the beauty of homeschooling, there's plenty of days left in life. If it looks like he's having a less cooperative day, but he hasn't made it a problem yet I can say, "just do your sumdog, wwe, and read a few pages of grammer for your third thing," even if it's not Grammer day. He still gets his structure. He still did his three things like he's supposed to. I showed him that he is a successful person who does his work. A week or two from then (on a more cooperative week) I may ask for a few days of History as his third thing for the day, "because we didn't do enough History lately." In this story he obviously prefers the easy reading of a few pages of MCT grammer to the harder consuming of narrating the article from the encyclopedia of world history. Although he doesn't hate it, that assignment is more work for him.

 

Really not worried about him falling behind in skills or content. Working on developing successful habits! There's really no need for taking a break if it's just an hour. (except bathroom- I read that Tiger mom article too! lol.) If it's much more than an hour then he's grounded to bed until dinner. I'm not setting myself up to argue about it for long.

[Mommy_of_4]

DS just turned 6 and is about a yr accelerated in most subjects. He gets a 20 min. break after we do 3 or so things.

 

Math: 20-45 minutes, depending on how much he daydreams

English: 10-15 minutes

WWE: 5-10 minutes

Phonics: 10 minutes

History: 20-30 minutes

Science: 20-30 minutes

Spelling: 10 minutes

Cursive: 10 minutes

[lewelma]

 Of course you don't have to ramp it up!

I think I have offended you. I certainly did not mean too, which is why I tried to clearly indicate that it depends on what your student needs/wants.  Please know since you are new here, that there have been people who have posted here that *do* think that if your child *can*, then he *should*.  Sometimes people just need to be reassured that very bright children do not have to do the same type of study as students who are much older.

 

Ruth in NZ

[MinivanMom]

Just as there is a large range of what is academically appropriate for a five year old, there is also a wide range of what is developmentally appropriate for a five year old. Not all five year-olds have short attention spans and can only take things in 15 minute increments. DS sounds much like your kids and does a ton of stuff on his own time and as a part of his play. He really only does 10 minutes of handwriting seat-work, and then less than an hour of math seat-work in any given day, and sometimes broken up, if he likes. I don't think 1-2 hours of work (with half of that seat work) is asking anything too much for a typical five year old, let alone a highly gifted five year old.   And I am talking a step back to look at the picture - I realized that over the past month or two, since we started school up, DS has really taken a dislike to his math program, and so I am reaching out to get ideas of what to do. Maybe what I would really like to see is what other moms do with their five year old PG kids - because when you have this insane drive to learn, and work at a high level with little effort and ease, then it is not the same case as other kids. And yes, I am at a loss of what to do. It scares me. It is not the average situation. Most five year olds would rather be watching cartoons that reading about science. I am not trying to force him to do anything. I am only trying to really teach him one important thing (school wise) - and that is how to put effort into his learning. Because when you have never had to put effort into anything, you will crumble when things become harder.  That is one of my main reasons for inducing him to do any formal curriculum right now, because frankly, if I left him to him self, he would still be learning at a rapid rate just through his own reading and such. 

 

To all the others that have just given me a good idea of what a typical day with a five year old looks like, I thank you. 

 

*Gently*

 

I'm sorry you're feeling defensive, but if you ask what other people are doing with their accelerated 5 year olds then you are going to receive a very wide range of responses from those who believe in early, intense academics to those who are completely child-led. Many of the responses you are upset about are from people with profoundly gifted children, many of whom are much older now and achieving amazing things. You asked what their days were like with an accelerated 5 year old and they described their days. Perhaps that is not the approach you wish to take due to your personal beliefs about education, but it does not mean that their children were not gifted. Hopefully it has been helpful to you to learn how many different approaches there are to meeting the needs of highly gifted young children. 

 

If you only want responses from like-minded individuals - and we've all been in a place where we just needed support - then you might want to specify that you want advice from others who believe in early academic instruction or mark your post JAWM (just agree with me).

[lewelma]

And I am talking a step back to look at the picture - I realized that over the past month or two, since we started school up, DS has really taken a dislike to his math program, and so I am reaching out to get ideas of what to do. Maybe what I would really like to see is what other moms do with their five year old PG kids - because when you have this insane drive to learn, and work at a high level with little effort and ease, then it is not the same case as other kids.

 

Just be aware that creating a passion for math is way more important than getting him started with a formal program early. 

 

My son at age 6 1/4  solved this problem without ever even seeing or being taught anything about algebra, and having never seen a formal math program at all.

 

2x + 25 = 5x + 10

 

He told me 'well you just move the 2x over and subtract it from the 5x, and move the 10 over, then you just divide by 3. It's easy."  So I know about PG.

 

I would encourage you to seriously consider having him do some math work that is not formal. I am not saying don't do math, I am saying get rid of the workbooks.  When you study the egyptians, have him build a pyramid, measure it, calculate the ratios, estimate the size of a real one using his model.  This is way more interesting and difficult.  Young PG kids do not need workbooks.  Even ones for accelerated kids need to be majorly compacted.  Ask me how I know.

 

I have described my ds's response to standard math as being asked to proof read a phone book.  Even if you are willing, you. just. can't. do. it.   I think your son is telling you something, and I am very glad that you are listening.  My ds could not do drill. Ever.

 

I have one final point to make and I hope you take it in the spirit that it is given.  A lot of new members who post here think that we will not understand, because no one else in real life ever has. We do understand.  We have children just like yours.  Please know that there is a lot of wisdom here given by a lot of parents whose kids are incredibly talented, including quite a few PG kids.  Even when you don't like the advice, I suggest you mull it over.  I have been shocked over the years at what I have learned from these lovely ladies.

 

Ruth in NZ

 

[StartingOver]

I have two kids so don't have specific times, as I work with them both at the same time. My five year old sits down and reads her Life of Fred, working the problems with help if needed, Does a fact worksheet of addition and subtraction, 2-3

pages of Math Mammoth, and reads aloud from Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading ( She is going back through just to solidify ), and reads a couple of chapters - currently from Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. Then she is off to play until after lunch. When we come back she does WWE 1, FLL 2, and AAS 2. Her brother reads history aloud as she colors, and they do map work together for SOTW. After they are done they do memory work for Lively Latin & GSWL( She is only doing the chants, to learn the words. ), FLL, WWE poems, skip counting, and geography songs.

 

We usually start at 9, and she is done with morning work by 10-10:30 then we come back at 12:30 or 1:00 and done for the day by 2:00 or 3:00. She would probably be done in less than 2 hours, if she worked alone. We are working on her writing stamina.

[sunnyday]

As for not dreaming of imposing "formal studies" on her at this point - just realize that most all Americans send their kids to pre-school and at five they enter K. So my child, if on that track would be in a learning environment for at least three hours a day. This helps a kid work up and adapt to the longer days that will be ahead. Just because he naturally learned the K-3 curriculum on his own, and with very little effort, is no reason, to deny him the necessary skill of learning how to learn. I expect that he learn the skill of learning. And this takes an incremental work up to it, time wise over the years.  Believe me, the child's interests are driving. And until you have a PG kiddo, it is hard to comprehend how that works. No, I am not sitting him down for hours in front of ixl with no instruction and just letting him cry it out. I teach, we use those problems for a workbook, and it started out as something he loved. But the repetition has got to him, and not he hates it, which is why we are changing tracks. He still loves math.

 

I was a gifted kiddo myself. My experience, in and out of public and private gifted and mainstream classes, strongly colors my feelings about educating these kids when they're little. I want different for my kids. While they might not be PG they are bright and I feel it's my place to get them passionate, engaged, and working at a level that challenges them -- to get them experienced with the joy of tackling something meaty and accomplishing something worthwhile.

 

So what I see you saying is that he has moved through a lot of math content. He's completed 3rd grade IXL, you have flipped through 4th grade Singapore and are confident that "he knows this". But knowing it isn't the same as...how do I put this...reveling in it. Playing with it. PLAYING with it! Math is about playing, with numbers and patterns and concepts.

 

If I had a kiddo that age at that level of skill and interest, I would have Beast Academy 3A (I am sure he already knows his shapes and areas and times tables, but I highly doubt he's played with these concepts to the degree that BA prompts them to be played with) and Singapore IP and CWP for somewhere in the 3s or 4s, just lying around the house. Plus the whole Life of Fred Elementary series starting with Apples. And then I'd invite the little guy to explore them. I understand you want structure, but this is how structure has looked in my house before first grade. "Hey, now is a great time to do some learning, how about math? I think this page looks fun, or we could just read a chapter in LoF." The child completes the chapter of LoF and begs for one more, or just wanders off; or he/she flips through the workbook until a page is deemed sufficiently interesting, with or without my introducing new ways to think about things with manipulatives. Basically, I decide the subject and suggest the timing, they determine the content (to a certain extent) and the depth of engagement -- kind of like with mealtimes. My job is to make the meal, theirs is to eat it, and emotion need not enter into it on my part. Kids won't starve, and they won't atrophy in learning, as long as delicious juicy entrees are sitting before them on a regular basis!

 

I see you fretting about where to go when your son has mastered arithmetic, but I assure you, your son hasn't mastered arithmetic yet. There are PhDs in math that haven't mastered arithmetic and counting. (Sophomore year, all the physics majors' faces fell: "Here, I thought I knew how to count, but I got to Discrete Mathematics and realized I couldn't count at all!") There are depths to plumb, and joy to tap along the way. Have fun with the journey, start really tapping all the resources like SENG and Hoagie's, look ahead at what's to come in terms of math for the gifted student (Alcumus, math competition problems, etc.) and good luck!

[2smartones]

I have two boys, three years apart.  A 5 year old day for the older looked COMPLETELY different than a 5 year old day for the younger.  My older is a very driven kid who (usually) loves school work.  He'd work all day long and beg for more.  My younger is just as accelerated (or perhaps slightly less so), but he's the type who leap frogs everything.  They're quite literally the Tortoise & the Hare!  The younger likes to play, play, play, and then he'll decide to "play school" by learning several chapters at once in all subjects over the course of a few hours.  After that, he'll play for a couple of more days before doing the same thing again.  He's extremely (over the top!) creative and constantly on the go.

 

Both of my boys have a love/hate relationship with IXL.  We use it as a tool, but not as our entire curriculum.  Sometimes they'll sit in front of it all day doing one skill or ten skills, but usually the focus on other things (like Life of Fred... which they both love!).

[Dmmetler]

At age 5, we were deschooling to some degree, because my DD had come out of PS K (she'd been early admitted at age 4), where the teachers accommodated her by handing her books and worksheets. She'd racked up a lot of AR points, reading a ton of easy books for her (Boxcar Children and Magic Tree House, mostly), done the Saxon worksheets for 1st and 2nd grade math, done a 2nd grade LA workbook and worksheets, spent a lot of time doing 3rd and 4th grade practice software on the class computers, and learned to hate school.

 

When we came home to homeschool, I didn't want to push her, so I let her set the lead. She didn't want workbooks or anything that looked like the software she'd done at school. She did want to study dragons, so we read a TON of folktales and folklore and myths and legends, went to visit people from different cultures and hear their stories, spent a lot of time in the museum of Asian culture in my area, and made maps and charts about where dragons lived and what they had in common. She was fascinated with language, and loved Song School Latin and Greek, plus similar materials in Spanish, and a little bit of Hindustani and Hebrew from DH's co-workers. We discovered logic, Primary challenge math, and she did eventually do most of SM 1A-3B. We played with legos and manipulatives. And we had fun.

 

At 6, for our official first grade, it was still mostly playing and oral, but she really grasped on to math, and, mid-year, right after turning 7, she decided she wanted to go on to Algebra. Now. We finished SM through 5B and did LoF Fractions and Decimals. She discovered the "Painless" series and Danica McDaniel. She started demanding more formal work.,

 

 

At age 7, for 2nd grade, she started LoF pre-algebra and Key to Algebra in earnest, got involved in a lot of contests, and school jumped to being several hours a day. She took her first online classes, and started moving to doing more online things, and was invited to audit a college zoology class.  School started regularly lasting past lunchtime.

 

At age 8, she's more independent than I'd like. She's doing AOPS Pre-Algebra and LoF Algebra, mostly on her own. She's working on the high school levels of Mathletics and Uzzingo, Cambridge Latin online, Mango Greek, and Duolingo Spanish. She's taking two online courses for literature and history. She's working with a college biology professor on a field study and e-mailing her mentor regularly with questions. She's sitting in on her 2nd college zoology course (not for credit). And she's doing formal school, by choice 6+ hours a day. Officially, she's a 4th grader.

 

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not sure if it matters what you do at 5. My DD effectively had two K years-one relaxed and taking her lead, one formal and structured-and she still, despite that major mistake at age 4, has ended up very, very accelerated and working at a high level, with strong drives and interests, and discovering a passion early. So if your child loves formal school, go for it. But don't stress if DC decides that IXL just isn't doing it, either. It's OK to spend a year picking daisies and pestering Daddy's co-workers about dragons. PG kids aren't PG because they're accelerated. They're accelerated because they're PG and they end up accelerating to get the level of content they need-and that happens even if, at age 5, you spend the year picking daisies and talking about dragons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Greenmama2]

I think I have offended you. I certainly did not mean too, which is why I tried to clearly indicate that it depends on what your student needs/wants. Please know since you are new here, that there have been people who have posted here that *do* think that if your child *can*, then he *should*. Sometimes people just need to be reassured that very bright children do not have to do the same type of study as students who are much older.

 

Ruth in NZ

I started the seven year old thread, so I understand the need to ask. At five though we were still officially unschooling. That included plenty of academics because DD requested them. Technically we are still unschooling as everything "school" we do is something DD has asked for. Unschooling as a lifestyle suits our family a lot better than an structured approach, however I have found that DD needs clear cut time set aside in order to get the seatwork done that *she* wants to. This is something that has developed for her between six & seven so it's still new for me - hence needing to see how others approach it.

At five we had no daily routine although I was trying desperately (&unsuccsefully) to insert some Waldorf style rhythm to our days. We did have a weekly schedule revolving around DDs dance classes, violin lessons and drama classes. That year DD did EPGY maths whenever she felt like it (which was often), SM whenever she liked (far less often), Mathletics (also whenever) ate up all the BFSU I could feed her and listened to as many read amours as her then 1 year old brother would let us get through. None of those things happened on any daily schedule however...

[Megbo]

My older son will be 6 in January and is in kindergarten this year. We haven't done any testing, but he's reading at a middle school level (or higher?) and is a year or two ahead in his weaker areas. We started some "official" school work when he turned 5, but this is all pretty new for us and it's helpful to see what other kids his age are up to. :)

 

On a typical day, we spend the morning reading on the couch. We take turns reading aloud, then Ds reads on his own while I read some picture books with Ds3, get some housework done and make lunch. Our morning reading includes ancient history, science, poetry and novels from a list I've compiled, but the rest I leave up to him. He's into pirates, shipwrecks, criminals, con artists, detectives, spies, WWII and feral children right now, so he keeps it interesting ;). After lunch, Ds and I spend an hour (or a little more) on some written work.

 

 

Edited August 19, 2017 by Megbo

[quark]

Just as there is a large range of what is academically appropriate for a five year old, there is also a wide range of what is developmentally appropriate for a five year old. Not all five year-olds have short attention spans and can only take things in 15 minute increments. DS sounds much like your kids and does a ton of stuff on his own time and as a part of his play. He really only does 10 minutes of handwriting seat-work, and then less than an hour of math seat-work in any given day, and sometimes broken up, if he likes. I don't think 1-2 hours of work (with half of that seat work) is asking anything too much for a typical five year old, let alone a highly gifted five year old.   And I am talking a step back to look at the picture - I realized that over the past month or two, since we started school up, DS has really taken a dislike to his math program, and so I am reaching out to get ideas of what to do. Maybe what I would really like to see is what other moms do with their five year old PG kids - because when you have this insane drive to learn, and work at a high level with little effort and ease, then it is not the same case as other kids. And yes, I am at a loss of what to do. It scares me. It is not the average situation. Most five year olds would rather be watching cartoons that reading about science. I am not trying to force him to do anything. I am only trying to really teach him one important thing (school wise) - and that is how to put effort into his learning. Because when you have never had to put effort into anything, you will crumble when things become harder.  That is one of my main reasons for inducing him to do any formal curriculum right now, because frankly, if I left him to him self, he would still be learning at a rapid rate just through his own reading and such. 

 

To all the others that have just given me a good idea of what a typical day with a five year old looks like, I thank you. 

 

I didn't respond earlier because honestly, I feel like I really screwed up when kiddo was 5. And I had no idea then he was PG and that I should be doing things differently. So what we did when he was 5 will look like a disaster waiting to happen...and luckily it was averted because I wised up the year after that.

 

I understand it can be scary. It can feel as if you need to really buck up and teach them everything now and instill hard work NOW. Or even if you don't want to push, you worry they will become underachieving slobs despite your best efforts to balance nudging with being pulled along. That's what it all is about...that elusive balance and how to achieve it.

 

Reality is though that your kid IS working hard. He is teaching himself by reading as he does and that IS hard work. It was a light bulb moment for me to realize this. I always thought hard work for homeschooling/ afterschooling meant sitting at the table all the time doing hard problems and WRITING them all out in neat lines lol. How could he be working hard if he is just reading right? Or how can he be working hard if he's just staring into space? Well, of course, not everyone who daydreams is working hard but I guess I'm just trying to say that whatever advanced stuff your son is doing on his own does take effort on his part even if it seems effortless to the parent.

 

OP, you are definitely ahead of where I was when son was 5. What you might need is just some variety of math resources...and if that sounds like what might be best for your son right now, look into LivingMath.net (the booklists) and some problem solving books like the Singapore CWP and the MOEMS series by George Lenchner. Watch The Story of Maths on YouTube and fold tons of origami. Try an AIMS or TOPS science (TOPS science usually includes a lot of math) activity book or two. Give him one interesting puzzle a week to solve (e.g. logic puzzles -- I have some links in my siggy). Really, curriculum is okay and all that but for a math-loving child, the best gift you can give him is to introduce him to problem solving. They can be real-life money or time problems too. There's a book called Good Questions for Math Teaching that I sometimes used with kiddo when we were doing whiteboard math together.

 

You could design one math-themed week a month where the bulk of math studies every day is a different math activity, then just take 10-15 mins each day that week for one other subject that you feel is important for him to do daily.

 

For e.g.:

Monday: math documentaries/ you tube videos like Numberphile or Vi Hart or anything else you can find online that is developmentally appropriate with related discussion + 10 min of spelling

Tuesday: origami folding (you might have to help with creasing) and related geometry discussion + 10 min of grammar

Wednesday: mental math strategies (and why they work!) + 10 min of spelling

Thursday: online math games + living math reading/ math history or biography + 10 min of grammar

Friday: make your own math board game/ math card game (this might require measuring, drawing, cutting, writing etc) or an activity that requires learning proportions/ measurements (baking!!!) -- a solid grasp of measurements will be very helpful later when he is learning more advanced science

During mealtimes or car rides: "I'm thinking of a number" games, practice mental math, etc.

 

You can get back to the usual curriculum the other 3 weeks.

 

Does this address some of your concerns? I do hope so. Good luck!

[quark]

I have described my ds's response to standard math as being asked to proof read a phone book.

 

I'm being tongue-in-cheek here quoting Ruth (sorry Ruth!) but proofreading a phone book might actually turn out to be fun! :) It reminded me of this Smith Number video by the Numberphile guys (and Dr Copeland, the physicist interviewed, mentions my username somewhere in there too, happy me!).

 

http://www.numberphile.com/videos/smith_numbers.html

 

See that look of pure pleasure on Copeland's face when he's describing the nature of Smith numbers? That's the feeling about math that I wanted DS to have after our homeschooling debacle when he was 5. Happy to say that I think we've achieved that look many times over now. :) The video should be accessible and fun for most gifted 5yos with basic addition skills. There is some multiplication and prime factorization mentioned and a smart kindergartner might be able to grasp the meaning with some help (that is if s/he isn't already a whiz at those things).

[imagine.more]

My son T-rex is 5 and would be in Kindergarten this year. He's reading at a 4th grade level.

 

We start our day around 9am with calendar work. He moves around the stuff on our felt calendar board and then does his Calendar notebook. He fills out 2 laminated pages with the time and date and day of the week. He uses a wet erase marker so I can erase it at the end of the day and we can do it again :) Then he fills out graphs with the weather and day of the month with a pencil. The pages are ones I found from a blog and they're made for 1st graders I think.

20 minutes Catholic Heritage Curricula's 1st grade faith program.

20 minutes Singapore 1A math 1-2 exercises at a time because he loves it and is flying through it. 

10-15 minutes First Language Lessons 1

15 minutes Spelling and Handwriting

20 minutes History (SOTW: Ancients)/Science (Nature Study)

10 minutes OPGTR (we're nearing the end)

Then we incorporate read-alouds, independent reading, review, and fun learning stuff into the rest of the day just like I did with preschool. 

 

Honestly this has been a good start but I think DS needs me to ramp it up a bit so I'll probably start doubling up in math and english soon and then we'll also be diving into more in depth science exploration. 

 

[La Texican]

Ooh.. I'd like to see the day/date/time & weather charts!

[La Texican]

and MegBo's booklist. That sounds good.

[La Texican]

also, how would you edit a phonebook? Would you have to compare the phonebook page to an answer key like checking your own work?

[Carpe]

also, how would you edit a phonebook? Would you have to compare the phonebook page to an answer key like checking your own work?

I think it would be making sure the names were in alphabetical order, capitalized appropriately, etc. and that all the phone numbers had the right number of digits. If they had an answer key, wouldn't they just print it instead?

 

Just my guess.

[imagine.more]

Our calendar notebook has these pages printed out:  http://www.mamaslearningcorner.com/kindergarten-first-grade-calendar-notebook/

 

The first two pages are laminated.  The first page is the clock printable. T-rex writes the current time and draws the hands on the clock with wet erase marker. The second page is the one that says "What is today?" "What is the season" and has the ordinal number practice at the bottom. He fills this out daily too. I like these being laminated, it saves paper since I can just wipe it off each evening and it's all set for the next day to use again. I've seen a huge improvement in T-rex's recognition of dates/seasons/months by using this. I've also seen a fantastic more complicated one for older elementary here: http://www.learnings-a-hoot.blogspot.com/2012/08/what-is-original-and-freebie.html

 

 

[8filltheheart]

As for not dreaming of imposing "formal studies" on her at this point - just realize that most all Americans send their kids to pre-school and at five they enter K. So my child, if on that track would be in a learning environment for at least three hours a day. This helps a kid work up and adapt to the longer days that will be ahead. Just because he naturally learned the K-3 curriculum on his own, and with very little effort, is no reason, to deny him the necessary skill of learning how to learn. I expect that he learn the skill of learning. And this takes an incremental work up to it, time wise over the years. Believe me, the child's interests are driving. And until you have a PG kiddo, it is hard to comprehend how that works. No, I am not sitting him down for hours in front of ixl with no instruction and just letting him cry it out. I teach, we use those problems for a workbook, and it started out as something he loved. But the repetition has got to him, and not he hates it, which is why we are changing tracks. He still loves math.

 

Believe me, my son does all those things too. It really doesn't take us more than 1-2 hours a day of doing our school. That leaves more than plenty of time for everything else you can imagine. I feel like just because DS is so accelerated, people are thinking that I must be making him work insane hours to get there. WRONG! He just gets things so fast, and with so little effort, that we really hardly have to spend anytime on school to achieve the level we are at. I know we don't have to start formal education at this age. But one or two hours a day is meant to prepare him for the requirements that will be on him later as he ages. I want to work into things slowly. The majority of our life is un-schooling, but we do do a formal math curriculum, because math seems to be the easiest thing to do in a formal sort of way. Of course you don't have to ramp it up!

I didn't respond to this thread earlier bc philosophically I am 180 degrees opposite of where you are coming from. You have been given very thoughtful replies by wonderful women w/ very special kids that have really forged unique paths for their children to not only excel, but more importantly thrive and love what they are doing. Ruth's (lewelma) projects and math path for ds, quarks posts about learning how to adjust with her ds's pace, dmmeter's dd's projects with snakes (that is dedication.....I can deal with numbers.....but forget the slitherers!), they all have completely different paths, POV, experiences and yet they all have very positive stories to share with important insights. Some may never work for you and your family, but that doesn't mean there is nothing to glean from their btdt experiences.

 

My personal philosophy completely rejects public school/early academic POV. I won't bore you with the details bc you would obviously disagree. However, I just wanted to share that the parts that I bolded are not valid concerns. Simply bc they have to engage in longer academic days when they are older does not mean they have to start gearing up for it when they are younger. Those are really naturally occurring maturation processes. (And my own very limited seat work kids have done nothing but thrive in challenging academics when older.)

 

You definitely need to find your own way and what is right for your kids and family, but don't assume that those following a different path don't know what it is like to have gifted kids or are somehow not providing a foundation that leads their children to the best they can be simply bc it doesn't conform to what you personally think education should reflect.

[SierraNevada]

I didn't respond to this thread earlier bc philosophically I am 180 degrees opposite of where you are coming from. You have been given very thoughtful replies by wonderful women w/ very special kids that have really forged unique paths for their children to not only excel, but more importantly thrive and love what they are doing. Ruth's (lewelma) projects and math path for ds, quarks posts about learning how to adjust with her ds's pace, dmmeter's dd's projects with snakes (that is dedication.....I can deal with numbers.....but forget the slitherers!), they all have completely different paths, POV, experiences and yet they all have very positive stories to share with important insights. Some may never work for you and your family, but that doesn't mean there is nothing to glean from their btdt experiences.

 

My personal philosophy completely rejects public school/early academic POV. I won't bore you with the details bc you would obviously disagree. However, I just wanted to share that the parts that I bolded are not valid concerns. Simply bc they have to engage in longer academic days when they are older does not mean they have to start gearing up for it when they are younger. Those are really naturally occurring maturation processes. (And my own very limited seat work kids have done nothing but thrive in challenging academics when older.)

 

You definitely need to find your own way and what is right for your kids and family, but don't assume that those following a different path don't know what it is like to have gifted kids or are somehow not providing a foundation that leads their children to the best they can be simply bc it doesn't conform to what you personally think education should reflect.

 

Actually, I did come here to learn from other experiences. And I am open minded, and I came because I truly want what is best for our child, and I want to know how other PG kid's parents do it. I don't want to kill the passion, and at the same time, I don't want to let him run so free that he never learns his place. I am seeking that balance and reaching out to see how others have achieved it, or attempted to.  In the past week (have been too busy to respond sooner) I have taken a lot of what has been said to heart. I see a need to turn back to more interest based learning and to let him follow his passions and run with them. Maybe thinking that he was at an age where he ought to start some structured formal curriculum was wrong. I am going to back off for the year (require only handwriting), and just seep in the learning like we used to do before where it was more fun and it kept his passion alive. So thanks for all your many thoughts. 

[kubiac]

Great thread, folks. Enjoying and learning.

[8filltheheart]

Actually, I did come here to learn from other experiences. And I am open minded, and I came because I truly want what is best for our child, and I want to know how other PG kid's parents do it. I don't want to kill the passion, and at the same time, I don't want to let him run so free that he never learns his place. I am seeking that balance and reaching out to see how others have achieved it, or attempted to. In the past week (have been too busy to respond sooner) I have taken a lot of what has been said to heart. I see a need to turn back to more interest based learning and to let him follow his passions and run with them. Maybe thinking that he was at an age where he ought to start some structured formal curriculum was wrong. I am going to back off for the year (require only handwriting), and just seep in the learning like we used to do before where it was more fun and it kept his passion alive. So thanks for all your many thoughts.

I hope you find the balance for your child. Sorry if my post offended you, but you sounded pretty convinced that you already had the answers as far as what you thought he needed to do daily.

 

I'm glad that you are confident enough to step outside your initial comfort zone. I think you'll find the gains greater than if you had plowed forward with an unenthusiastic child.