Home-schooling?
How do you start home-schooling? Is there a website for this? My son is 4 and I’m considering home-schooling. He’s extremely gifted, and I’m afraid that if he goes to a public school, he’ll fall behind and get lost in the crowd. He already knows addition, subtraction and simple multiplication. He also understands Spanish, German, and he’s really into sign language right now. Any advice?
I’m in Virginia.
April 18th, 2009 at 3:57 am
You should talk with your local school district, they sometimes have suggestions on the best way to home school your kid and will know what laws you need to comply with. I would look on-line for a home school convention in your area - they will have lots of different curriculum’s that you can choose from and you can talk with other parents so it is a good place to start.
April 18th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Homeschooling is the best thing you can do for your child. I homeschool my three children and love it. You can go to the web site for your state and find out the rules for homeschooling. There will be certain rules for how they need to be enrolled and what they should know by a certain grade level. I am in Tennessee so I don’t know exactly what Virginia requires but TN is a good state to homeschool in. You usually can pick your own curriculum. We use ABEKA and love it. If you son is already understanding advanced concepts for his age then I would definetly homeschool him.Good Luck.
April 21st, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Homeschooling is a major, major commitment. It requires extreme discipline on the part of the parents. We homeschooled our children through the 8th grade and really feel it was a great thing to do. Both children went all four years to high school, one was valedictorian, the other was #6 in her class. Both have graduated from college with honors.
One responder to your question mentioned going to the local schools for information. I would be careful about that. Some, though not all, school districts, or individuals within a school district, are very much against homeschooling. There are many other places to get reliable information, so even if you do go to your local school district you should double-check any information provided.
Getting with other homeschoolers is very valuable, but you need to investigate a group prior to joining. Many groups are religious based and may not be open to someone that is not of the same faith or who is homeschooling simply for educational purposes (as opposed to moral reasons).
Take a look at the references below for some additional information.
Good luck. Your child only gets one shot at getting an education and, as the parent, it is your responsibility to see that it happens, not the state’s. I applaud your concern for your child and hope you investigate and prepare yourself so that you will have an enjoyable and rewarding experience for yourself and your child.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:08 am
I’d suggest reading Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling, a nice intro to how to support your child in learning in a more natural, organic way. (I can recommend other books and websites, but this is a good place to start.)
April 25th, 2009 at 7:13 am
I recommend reading up on HS’ing the gifted on Hoagies Gifted:
Also, there’s a great board for those HS’ing gifted kids:
Select the TAGMAX list.
There are many websites about HS’ing. I had to start researching HS’ing when my profoundly gifted son was 4 also. It turned out to be our only option for educating him and our school district was 100% behind us - especially after they tested him for IQ achievement at age 7.
You’re correct - a gifted child, especially a boy, has a huge risk of just shutting down in school - especially early on.
I would first find out his learning style by reading books about it. Cynthia Tobias has a good one. Also find out your learning style if you don’t know already. Then from there, research curriculua. Also, figure out what your budget will be for HS’ing. Some people do it on $200 a year, some, like me in the thousands.
I would search around for HS groups in your area.
There are many HS’ing boards on Yahoo Groups. I would specifically look for the gifted ones, though, or you may come across people who have a hard time believing you when you say you have an issue with this or that.
We’ve used the K12 curriculum for five years now and LOVE it! My son can mix and match grade levels (essential to a GT kid) and progress at various speeds within each course.
If you haven’t had your son tested, I would also recommend you consider doing so…however if you wait a year or two the results will be more accurate.
Welcome to the journey!
April 27th, 2009 at 3:15 am
I would not go to the school district. They would not be helpful when it comes to homeschooling. They will lose state funding if your child is in their district and not enrolled in their schools.
You can contact HSLDA .com They are homeschool legal defense asscociation and have tons of info on their site for every state. There are many different ways to homeschool including filing your own private school affadavit, going with a public school independant study program, private school independant study, online studies, long distance schools, virtual acadamies, you name it. Homeschooling has become more mainstream as most public schools have deteriorated over time. You can not put every child into a box and expect every one of them to fit. It just can’t be done. Until the schools change and update the way they do things the children will continue to be left behind.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
fantastic my 3year old signs hundreds of words and counts and is learning to write!!! not quite as advanced as your little one though, I think you are right he wil have a terrible time in public school they will not be up to his speed and he will become bored and fail there.
there are tons of web sites homeschoolblogger.com will be packed with people who know more than I do so go there and ask some questions
May 1st, 2009 at 10:29 pm
You’ve done a wonderful job so far keep doing what you are doing it seems to be working encourage him and find things that will challenge him.
May 4th, 2009 at 12:01 am
Whew! That’s pretty good. That’s better than most 4th graders.
Just get books and materials and tapes and CDs and such and let him digest them.
Go to the bookstores. Go to the libraries.
May 4th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
here are a few sites to help you if he is gifted in an advanced manner you may want to check out schools for the talented that are more advanced to challenge very gifted children
if he is on the lower side which it doesn’t sound that he is there are programs in public schools designed to help children catch up or keep up
hope this helps
May 4th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Do not go to the local school. They lose money and in your case a child that will boost their test scores.
My 3 year old is advanced, on a 1st grade level now. We are going to hs her too. She has already noticed she is not the same as the kids she attends preschool with. We are also already starting to have issues with teachers and other parents. I don’t see why there is such an issue for me expect my child to have her public education tailored to her, when all the below average kids do. But I digress.
Check out and start from there.
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Good luck