How to Tell If Your Child Is Gifted

July 24, 2014 By: Stephanie11 Comments

Deposit Photo

I have a feeling this post may be like opening up Pandora’s box and I want to first be clear that my intention is not to offend parents. Of course, every child has her/her own special talents, the things that make us unique. Right now I’m talking about being academically gifted.

How should I know? My credentials: I have a master’s degree in education, an additional gifted specialist certification, and I served for a few years as a gifted teacher in Florida’s public schools before staying home with my own kids. I spent my summers in trainings about identifying gifted learners. I’ve also been published in the Gifted Educational Press quarterly. Often, other parents will come to me and ask if I think their children may be gifted. So, if you are wondering the same thing, here are some points to consider…

How To Tell If Your Child Is Gifted

A few things to know about gifted learners:

1. What we think of as “smart” is not always the same as gifted. Neither is high-achieving. Getting straight A’s is awesome, but it does not necessarily mean a child is intellectually gifted. He/she might just be very motivated and work really hard- and that’s great too! Actually, sometimes gifted learners do not perform well in school at all for any number of reasons including not being stimulated enough, not liking authority, or knowing the correct answers but simply refusing to do the classwork.

2. Ask yourself, “Does ability match performance?” Often gifted kids are the ones who seem like they are not paying attention, are disruptive and uninterested, but can still get every answer right on a test. Many gifted children actually struggle in school and get bad grades because they lack motivation. On the other hand, some gifted children can earn excellent grades seemingly without even trying, it just comes naturally to them.

3. Gifted children can be socially awkward. They sometimes prefer the company of adults instead of their same-age peers.

4. Making up secret languages or talking in nonsense words on purpose is a sign of giftedness.

5. When I was working as a gifted teacher, in order to be considered academically gifted a child would need to have an IQ at least two standard deviations above the mean. That means IQ test results of 130 or higher.

6. Gifted children very often have a heightened sense of empathy. They hear about global problems like hunger and feel the weight of the world on their shoulders. This can, understandably, be very overwhelming for a young child.

If you think your child may be gifted:

Supplementing academics with fun brain puzzles like Sudoku is a great idea. If your child often completes school assignments much faster than his/her classmates, ask the teacher if you can send in a book of crosswords or math puzzles for your child to keep in his or her desk and do while waiting for classmates to complete their work.
Discuss current events in an age-appropriate way. Find a newspaper article or a website that does not contain graphic pictures and read it with your child. Let her develop her own opinion about it and ask why she feels that way. I utilized Time for Kids this way in my classroom.
It is important to remember that just because children can do something, does not mean that they should. Even if your first grader is able to read the dialogue in Romeo and Juliet, strongly consider whether or not to let him do that just yet. Adult themes in literature are not always appropriate for young children. Particularly graphic or violent scenes in books or movies can very negatively affect those children with that heightened sense of empathy.
Ask your child’s teacher if the text books used in the classroom have accompanying websites that can be used to supplement the curriculum at home.
Journaling with your child can give you some great insights into his or her mind and personality. Use a marble notebook and have your child draw a picture or write you a letter on one side, then draw or write a similar letter to your child on the other side. This also makes a great keepsake!
Connecting with other parents of gifted children also helps. See if there are any private Facebook groups for families of gifted children in your area. Joining them can lead to some lasting friendship and give you much-needed support.

If you need additional resources, The National Association for Gifted Children (http://www.nagc.org/) is a great place to start.

You might also want to check out:

10 Reasons Cyber School Doesn’t Completely Suck

September 19, 2012 By: Stephanie1 Comment

I’m not gonna lie, the first two weeks into our cyber school transition were rough. I was ready to quit a few times. However, we are pushing towards the end of our first month and we are starting to see some more benefits now, so I thought I would share. In no particular order…

1. I don’t have to do a lot of lesson planning.

Of course I look over the lessons before I teach them, but the curriculum is provided for us and the lessons have already been planned. I just need to gather the materials and go. We have gotten to a point where the prep only takes me about 10 minutes in the morning. That time might increase if I had several students or older kids, but for now it’s not taking much extra time out of my day.

2. Sickness doesn’t slow us down.

Last week Nicholas came down with a slight ear infection. It wasn’t a big deal, he just kept complaining that his ear was “fathering” (bothering) him. I was able to call the doctor and get into their next appointment time in less than an hour. He didn’t have to miss any school. He felt well enough to do the rest of his work and it was much less of a hassle than signing him out of a classroom for a doctor’s visit would have been.

3. We get to have cool stuff to ourselves.

We’ve been going to the playground a few blocks from our house 3 or 4 times a week and every time we’ve been up there so far, we have had the whole park to ourselves. It’s our own personal playground basketball court and baseball field. I’m all for social interaction (and we are getting plenty, no worries) but unsupervised older kids at the park over the summer are kind of a pet peeve of mine.

4. The school has given us more flexibility.

We have been given permission for “asynchronous instruction,” meaning we are excused from the live learning sessions and can now work at our own pace, although we are welcome to sign-in to the live sessions with the teachers as we want. Also, the computer is starting to keep track of Nick’s strengths and weaknesses and change the lessons accordingly. There have also been a few optional lessons starting to pop up here and there, which really eases the load when I feel like he already knows a subject well enough and we can skip those.

5. It holds me accountable

This is not meant in any way to bash traditional homeschooling, but If I’m being honest, I know that if I had gone the traditional homeschooling route and planned my own kindergarten curriculum this year, it would not have been nearly as intense. Speaking just for myself, I probably would have done a letter of the week, a few activities to go with each letter, some calendar math, and a simple addition & subtraction along with some craft projects. I would probably have an “oh well, no big deal” attitude if he decided not to work particularly hard one day and our work didn’t get done. I would probably skip days that we had other activities planned. Sometimes I resent the “big brother” aspect of it, but having to sign in to the online school every day and complete a minimum of our math and language arts activities really does keep me accountable and make sure there is plenty of actual school work getting done.

6. It’s affordable

Yes, we have gotten some unexpected backlash from traditional home schoolers about this aspect of cyber school. Our taxes (and yes, theirs too) pay for a TON of books, computer software, CD’s, DVD’s, instruments, maps, globes, and other manipulatives as well as a desktop computer and a printer to be delivered to my door. It’s included in our school taxes so we don’t have to pay extra, but my son gets his very own materials that don’t need to divided among an entire group of kids, as they would in public school. We have them right here in our house so we can skip ahead, watch a video again, repeat a song on a CD, or do another workbook page if we are on a roll. We have our textbooks to refer back to anytime we want.

7. We make our own schedule

We still get to participate in activities like our Mom N Me program and the Community Bible Study (CBS) we just joined this year. Some days we are totally finished all of his work by 9am, today we got everything done while Abby was at preschool after we came back from CBS. We usually don’t have homework, so when daddy comes home that time is reserved for family time. (Although once a week or so I have left an easy and fun activity for Nick & Eddie to do together because Eddie wants to be involved too.)

Yesterday it rained all day and we stayed in PJs and alternated between school work and Disney movies for the whole day.

It also helps to take a break for snacks or physical activity whenever he needs one. I could see his behavior escalating out of control very quickly in a general education classroom without frequent (and I mean VERY frequent, as in less than 10 minutes apart) breaks.

Not to mention, we plan to move twice within this school year, so it allows for stability because he won’t be bouncing around different schools all year.

8. The special services are included and convenient

There have been several years when we have paid out of pocket for various therapies. Nicholas still needs occupational therapy, but instead of me having to drive him to an office and take money out of our health savings account, my son has and IEP the right as a “public school student” (because cyber schools are considered public charter schools) to have a therapist work with him right here in our house and it’s already covered by our school tax. He also has a certified special education teacher who calls me throughout the week to check in and see if I need any help. I have no special ed experience outside of working with gifted kids, so I appreciate her insight. Also, I can always blame stuff he doesn’t like on the teacher. “I know History isn’t your favorite, but your teacher said it’s very important that we get this done today.” 😉

9. It allows me to gain insight into the way he learns

I like seeing my son interact with other teachers and therapists because I’m smart enough to know that I don’t know everything and someone else might have a better way to reach him. I like having a professional community for bouncing ideas around and seeking advice. I also like all of the computer games and songs that are part of the online curriculum, they really seem to strike a chord with Nick.

Plus, he doesn’t have to sit completely still like he would in a general classroom. Today he was playing with Lego’s and seeming not to pay a lick of attention while I was reading him our art text.
“Henri Matisse used bright colors and people weren’t used to seeing that in art work…Are you listening?..They called him a ‘wild beast’ because of his crazy painting style…Can you put down the Lego airplane? Come stand near Mommy, you have to look at this painting…He used lots of different kinds of lines….You can’t hear me read when you are making that noise…” and so on. But guess what? When we got to the assessment questions at the end of the lesson, he got them all right. And when he had to draw a portrait inspired by Matisse’s, he did that well too. He was concentrating really hard and kept putting his foot up on his desk to see how he should try to draw toenails on the person he was sketching. (See #5, because ain’t no way I would have been doing a lesson about Henri Matisse if I had planned my own kindergarten curriculum) It got in that little noggin somehow, go figure.

He is far exceeding my expectations in Phonics, Music, and lately in Art. He’s doing well in math too, but like I’ve said before, I do think this math curriculum is way too easy.

10. I get extra time to be nosy and controlling

I’m already hearing scary tales about bullying and exposure to inappropriate language and adult subjects from other friends who have kids in school. I realize that I can’t keep that stuff away from my kids, but I like being there to explain that we don’t use that word, or no, that’s not what that means. I like knowing where they are and who they are interacting with and what they are watching and listening to. I like knowing what Nick is learning and seeing where there might be gaps I need to fill. I’m not ready to hand over that responsibility to someone else, and I don’t have to. 🙂

Linking to Serenity Now.

Diary of a Reluctant Homeschooler: Week 1

September 7, 2012 By: Stephanie2 Comments

Our first week of cyber school is over & I feel a little better.

I’ve learned a lot.

Week 1 Review of Kindergarten Homeschooling

For one thing, if you call it cyber school instead of homeschool, traditional homeschoolers are much less likely to get mad at you. Who knew there was a whole other mommy war battle going on between those who chose to educate their kids at home via online charter schools and those who do it without those resources? I’ve gotten quite a few rude comments via Facebook & email about how other people’s tax money is paying for my kid’s education. Really? We’re not accepting Welfare over here, we pay school taxes too. My personal stance on the issue is that if we are already paying for it, we might as well use it. Why wouldn’t I use a “free” (again, my taxes paid for it just as much as anyone else’s) award-winning, standards-based curriculum or computer?

Interestingly, the only negative feedback has come from traditional homeschoolers. I get it (sort of), they’ve fought hard to keep the government out of their kids’ education and they are cheesed that they have to pay for their own curriculum on top of the school taxes they have to pay. Sorry, guys. That’s your choice, just like paying for tuition at a private school would be. I’m sticking with what I know, which is public school and how to teach it.

We also have quite a few friends who traditionally homeschool who have been very supportive, so that’s helped soften the blows quite a bit. Many of our friends who have enrolled in public schools have expressed an interest in cyber schooling after they saw the curriculum we received.

Eddie and I have both been extremely impressed with Nicholas’ progress and performance this week. We’ve completed all of the math and language arts lessons and he has demonstrated mastery on every task. There is no way he would do that in a gen. ed. classroom. He even asked to do extra work last night when Eddie came home.

There is a lot of overlap in the subject areas, which is nice, I guess. They did identifying shapes and colors in math at the same time as color words in language arts, for example.

I like the language arts curriculum a lot, but in my opinion, math is too easy and the other subjects are WAY too hard.

Nicholas has a documented learning disability in math. He tested in the .04% range. He has only gotten one answer wrong this entire week. Either I’m the best teacher in the universe (which is entirely possible 😉 or it’s just too easy. That’s awesome for us, but if your child is on or above grade level, I can’t imagine using this math curriculum. However, I did see on the school’s Facebook page that some of the kindergarteners are starting with first-grade materials, so maybe that would be an option.

History is ridiculous. In the very first lesson we had to learn about the earth, then all of the continents, attributes of each continent, as well as complete a paper that detailed famous structures that were located on the various continents like the Great Wall of China, the Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon, etc. That was ONE lesson. In Kindergarten. Sheesh. Luckily, we only have to do history twice a week.

Also, history is different than social studies in this curriculum, so on that same day, we had a completely separate lesson about the Pledge of Allegiance.

Art was equally as intense. We were observing the features of an oil painting of Henry VI as a child, then comparing and contrasting it to a sculpture of a cowboy riding a horse. In order to do that, first, the lesson took us through the various aspects of a realistic portrait, then sculptures, then we had to learn about abstract art just for fun. Then there was a test. My poor kid had to take a test about Henry VI on the first day of kindergarten. Twice. He only got a 60% the first time, so he had to redo it. (The school policy is not to let you move on until you have an 80% or higher.) How dare he not know enough about English royalty by age 5. Clearly, I have been slacking on my motherly duties.

Apparently, the curriculum writers for art & history have never met an actual 5-year-old boy, or else they would realize that their audience has the attention span of a fly on crack and plan accordingly.

The last thing that I will complain about (I’m not sure why this feedback seems so negative because I’m actually liking it ok so far) is that I don’t appreciate that there is no “opt-out” option for tasks that are already mastered. We have to complete one online lesson to get to the next and I also have to complete a portfolio of completed paper assignments. For one of the lessons I gave him the final assessment first as a pretest and he got 100%. We should have been able to skip that lesson altogether, but we had to spend an hour “practicing.” Pre-tests, people. It would be awesome if there was a pretest at the beginning of each online lesson, it could track progress between the beginning and end of the lesson and also allow for a lot less time wasted completing unnecessary work. If the student demonstrates mastery of a task before you teach it, then you don’t waste time teaching it. Duh.

Even though I might sound a bit grumpy, I really like a lot of the aspects of it so far. I have found that I’m much more patient than I thought I would be and that Nicholas is progressing faster and further in just this week than I would have expected to see in the entire first month. Phonics is his best subject. Who would have thought? The teachers have agreed to excuse us from the required live class sessions on certain days so that we can still participate in Community Bible Study and our Mom N Me program. Also, it is going pretty quickly. So far we have been able to complete most, if not all, of our work by lunch each day. We also got to go to a meet & greet last night with some more people from the school.

It was definitely the right choice for us.

*Update: Here are all of the posts I wrote about our homeschooling experience.

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler

How to Set up a Homeschool Nook

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, A is for A-ha moment!

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, Weird and Overwhelming

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, The Supplies Are Here!

Diary of a Reluctant Homeschooler: Our First Day!

September 4, 2012 By: Stephanie4 Comments

My big guy is in kindergarten!

This year we are participating in one of our state’s online charter schools. Basically, it’s a combination of public school and homeschool. The public school sends the materials and plans the curriculum and I teach him here at home along with some help from teachers over the computer.

First Day of Homeschooling

The days leading up to this morning have been stressful. Poor Nick has been really stressed too, not knowing what to expect. He cried himself to sleep last night saying, “I don’t want to be in kindergarten! I don’t want to be anything when I grow up, so I don’t have to learn!” The school didn’t send the information about his classes until after 9 pm last night and he was required to be in an online class at 9 am this morning. Eddie and I were up until after midnight gathering the materials for the lessons that appeared on his calendar on the school’s website.

Then this morning the computer that the school sent for Nicholas wouldn’t connect to the internet, even though we had double and triple-checked everything last night. Luckily I got the Blackboard session to work on my laptop with two minutes to spare. It was chaotic talking to Eddie on the phone about how to solve the internet issue, Penny screaming, Nick chasing the dog, and Abby playing. I was not feeling so good about this decision.

In the Blackboard session, the teachers introduced themselves and read a book to the students, then they dismissed the kids and I let Nick watch a movie with Abby while I sat through the rest of the orientation. The teachers told us not to worry about any lessons this week. So…we were up all night for nothing. Awesome.

I didn’t want all that work to go to waste, so we did our Math and Language Arts lessons anyway. The teachers said the calendar was flexible, but I’d like to stick to it as much as possible on days when Nick is being cooperative because I’m sure there will be plenty of days when we slack off a little.

I put Penny in her crib and let her cry for a few minutes while I did the math lesson with Nick. He really seemed to thrive with the one-on-one attention and we finished the entire lesson (pulling shapes out of a bag, identifying them, finding shapes around us, completing 3 workbook pages, and an online portion) in under 15 minutes. When I marked the lesson complete on the computer it gave us credit for 45 minutes. I could get used to that.

Altogether, it took us less than an hour and a half to do our online orientation, math, language arts (although I skipped Handwriting because he completed those lessons over the summer), and a calendar session that I’ve added on my own, but when I checked “lessons complete” on the computer, he got credit for 3 hours of school. I feel like that’s cheating, but he did the work and he did it correctly, so I guess that’s just one of the perks. Hopefully, no truancy officers read my blog. 🙂

I like seeing areas of strength I didn’t know he had. For example, I was pleasantly surprised when he reached into the bag of shapes and said, correctly, “That’s a cylinder.” (They were only looking for circle as an answer.) And I also like seeing areas of weakness. He is having trouble distinguishing a rectangle from a square, but other than that he was able to identify all of the shapes and their colors correctly. Go, little dude!

The hardest part so far is writing his name, but as I’ve been working with him I’ve noticed some things I hadn’t seen before. I had not realized that a lot of his slowness comes from perfectionist tendencies (which came as a great surprise to me because of the state of his room!). He will start to write a letter, not like the way it looks, then keep writing the same letter over and over, all over the page until he writes one he likes. I always thought he was distracted because of the way his papers would look when they came home from preschool (incomplete with random letters all over them) but it’s actually the opposite. He is concentrating so hard on writing the letters of his name correctly that he never had time to do any of the other work on the page.

I’m thinking about getting a stamp with his name on it so that he has time to concentrate on other work, then we will focus on his name separately until he has mastered it.

We still have one phonics worksheet to do, but I’m letting him take a break right now. We started at 8:30 and were finished by 10 am. Now I feel a little better about this cyber school thing. 🙂

UPDATE: Here are all the posts I’ve written on our homeschooling experience.

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler

How to Set up a Homeschool Nook

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, A is for A-ha moment!

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, Weird and Overwhelming

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, The Supplies Are Here!

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, Week 1

Diary of a Reluctant Homeschooler: Weird & Overwhelming

August 28, 2012 By: Stephanie3 Comments

Yesterday would have been Nicholas’ first day of kindergarten if he was attending our local public school.

I wasn’t expecting it to be hard for me to see pictures on Facebook of my friends’ kids getting on the school bus with their little backpacks or entering their classrooms for the first time, so it took me by surprise that those pictures made me really sad.

My son won’t ever have that First Day of Kindergarten rite of passage experience. He won’t ever get to ride the big yellow bus, not even if we send him to public school after we build our new house since our land is just across the street from the elementary school.

Homeschool Life_ Feeling Sadness Over the Life of My Kid's First Day of Public School

He won’t know the nervous excitement of meeting a whole class full of new friends or teachers who are even more excited about his learning than he is.

I know that a lot of homeschoolers think public schools are the devil’s playground, but I spent a great deal of time teaching in some amazing public schools with men, women, and a lot of children who I would LOVE to have shared in the experience of raising my son.

Yesterday was also a day of tragedy in our hometown. You probably heard about the shooting of a special needs student at Perry Hall High School in Baltimore. It was national news that hit very close to home for us. We grew up in that area and have several friends who are alumni of that school. Several other friends live in the neighborhood and have children who attend the elementary school.

It was scary and sad. Our hearts ache for the victim and all of the other students, teachers, and parents.

It also brought on a lot of “I told you so’s” from home school organizations in this area. Talk about giving some ammunition to that “devil’s playground” philosophy.

At the same time, I have been very frustrated trying to figure out the school schedule for the online charter school we will be using this year. They have been very unclear about how the process of taking online classes will work on the kindergarten level and it is overwhelming to me as a new home educator to not know our schedule for next week, whether or not we have to take certain classes, and if we do what time those classes will be. School is supposed to start one week from today and no one has any idea what is going on. I have sent emails, made phone calls, and gone to face-to-face meetings, but I still don’t have any answers.

I’m getting very close to wanting to pull out from the online school.

Also, having Nicholas on vacation with my mom last week gave me a glimpse of what life would be like with just my girls in the house if he went to school outside the home. If I’m being honest, it was very appealing. Without my lovable little tornado, my house stayed clean, it was calm and quiet, and I had time to concentrate on my girls and doing things they enjoy, like sitting and reading four or five books in a row. I was much more patient and kind and, with the extra time and attention, Abby is now potty trained!

It stings a little to know that that lifestyle could be a possibility every day if he was at school. Part of me feels like I am cheating two kids for the sake of helping one.

However, I know that this year homeschooling is still the best option for us. It is the best choice for Nick and his academic success. Not to mention that between selling this house, moving in with Eddie’s parents while our new house is built, and eventually moving into the new home, he would be in three different public schools this year if we went with that option.

Private schools are out of our budget right now, plus it would mean an hour and a half commute each way once we move in with my in-laws. That’s too much for a five-year-old.

However, if the online school doesn’t get its act together within the next few days, I’m going to have no choice but to withdraw and go the traditional homeschooling route. I really, really don’t want to do that.

I’m plenty overwhelmed right now as it is between getting this house sold, moving, building the new house, and starting our first (and the way it looks right now, probably only) year as homeschoolers. And, oh, yeah, I still have a nursing infant and a potty training preschooler to take care of.

The last option would be to decide to wait another year and have him start kindergarten next year, but I really hate that idea.

It feels like saying, “Hey, I know you’re supposed to be starting your education and building the foundation for literacy and your entire academic career, but it’s really not a great time for me, so… let’s just put your life on pause for a minute while I get my s**t together, k? You don’t mind being a year behind in everything for the rest of your life so I can take a breather, right?”

I know that there is a very real possibility that he will have to repeat kindergarten regardless of what we do this year, but I want to give him a chance to succeed at the very least. I feel like sitting around and waiting another year assumes that he isn’t good enough, and I don’t want to accept that possibility without giving him the opportunity to at least try.

No offense to you of that was the choice that you made for your own child, I’m sure you had your own reasons that were perfectly valid for your family. I’m just really having a hard time stomaching the idea of making that decision after fighting so hard for him (and pushing him to fight for himself) for the past four years.

Who knows? Maybe it would be the right choice. I don’t even know if I could pull him out of school right now even if I wanted to, now that he is already registered and in the system.

Why doesn’t anybody tell you that being a mom is so freaking hard? It’s just kindergarten, for crying out loud.

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler

How to Set up a Homeschool Nook

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, A is for A-ha moment!

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, The Supplies Are Here!

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, Week 1

Diary of a Reluctant Homeschooler: The Supplies Are Here

July 31, 2012 By: Stephanie3 Comments

Holy Cow.

When we signed up to homeschool one of the reasons I chose a public cyber school was because the curriculum was already planned and they would send us the supplies for free. (Well, not completely free because we pay taxes, but you know what I mean.)

Home School Supplies for Public Cyber School

Did they ever…

Yesterday afternoon the UPS man rang the doorbell and left 3 huge boxes on our front porch. They were filled with Nick’s kindergarten supplies.

Here are Math and Language Arts

and here are science, social studies, art, and music.

I’m so excited to get to teach again. This is like Christmas for me. 🙂

I was pretty impressed after looking over the k12 Language Arts curriculum. They included tons of well-known storybooks, a separate phonics curriculum (which is an area I felt was lacking when I taught 1st grade in a Maryland public school), magazines, leveled readers, textbooks, teacher guides, assessments, workbooks, and two complete sets of Handwriting Without Tears: one for Pre K that we can use to practice over the summer, and one for Kindergarten, plus the special paper and chalkboard that go with that series. Handwriting was also an area that the curriculum lacked when I was teaching in public schools, and HWT is the system that all of the Occupational Therapists I have worked with recommend, so I was really happy to see those.
Plus, there was a box full of magnetic word work activities, a personal whiteboard, and a standing whiteboard easel, and a DVD.
I was also really impressed with the other subjects.

We got supplies for history, science, art, and music.

I know from experience that many public school teachers are forced to leave science and social studies out of their day because of time constraints, so I’m happy that those will be a main component in our curriculum. When you have a set amount if time in a day and you are mandated to teach 2.5 hours of language arts and 1.5 hours of math, something has to go. In the lower grades, it’s usually science because it takes a lot more time to do an experiment with 20 six-year-olds and then complete the assessment to make sure they understood the concept than it does to read them a chapter in a social studies book. It’s a real shame, especially for curious little guys like Nick who are much more engaged in the hands-on learning that science offers than they are sitting and reading for hours at a time.

The music and science supplies seemed to be ok. They were about what you would expect for kindergarten.

History seemed well planned in comparison to what I’ve taught in other schools. I was expecting maybe a workbook about a community or one textbook, but they sent a map, a globe, several multicultural storybooks, and a DVD in addition to that workbook I was expecting.

I was actually the most impressed with the art curriculum.

I was expecting a kindergarten art curriculum to be mostly learning primary colors, textures, finger painting, etc., but this program looks pretty hardcore. They sent art history books, a ton of prints depicting different painting styles, modeling clay, oil pastels, paint, and a student workbook.

When I was teaching in Prince George’s County, MD we didn’t even have art. It was considered part of my job as a general classroom teacher to incorporate art projects into other subjects and twice a year an art teacher would come into the classroom and do a special lesson for a few combined classes. Those lessons were activities like making a puppet out of a paper bag, so I was pretty shocked to see how intense this program is right from the start.

The one area that did not impress me at all was math. C’mon, guys, math is a core subject and it seemed like the area where they put the least amount of emphasis.

They sent a student workbook, a teacher guide, and 3 small boxes of shapes and linking cubes. I kept opening the other boxes expecting to see more math supplies, but nope, that was it. I am trying to reserve judgment because maybe the online lessons will be amazing, but I’m thinking I will probably have to do a lot of supplementing in this area. Really? No number line, no ten frames, no rulers, no geoboards, no clocks, not even any counters? I’ll make it work, but I would be nervous to recommend teaching kindergarten math with just these supplies to someone without a background in education.

I already own the manipulative kit for Saxton math, so we’ll probably need to be supplementing with that a lot. I would never teach an abstract concept without a concrete example, ever.

Overall, so far I’m really happy with our decision.

I was very impressed that they sent all of these supplies for one student. In the public schools where I worked, I never had individual science manipulatives for each child and there were many times when students had to share textbooks.

I know Nicholas is going to do well with the one-on-one attention. He is already making huge strides from the mini-lessons we have been doing over the summer. My husband was watching me do simple addition (with counters) the other day and Nick was getting the concept just fine, but he was very easily distracted. Eddie was commenting how if Nick had been in a general classroom he would have been completely lost because I literally have to stand over his shoulder and redirect him every few seconds. A teacher with 17 other students cannot give that much attention to one child. It’s not fair to the other kids in the class.

Seeing the curriculum is also making me consider cyber school for the girls in the future because, now that I have seen the difference, it seems to be much more in-depth and has a greater potential for real learning.

The one drawback to cyber school so far is that we are required to follow the public school calendar, so I don’t have access to the online classrooms yet.

We’ll see how the reality of actually teaching all of this pans out. We are required to sign-in on the computer and do language arts and math lessons every day, but we can schedule the other subjects however we want. I’m not sure if I want to have a set schedule with every subject every day or do a block schedule so that we can get more in-depth with science or art on days that Abby will be in preschool for a few hours.

Stay tuned.

Update: Check out all of the posts I’ve written about our homeschooling experience!

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler

How to Set up a Homeschool Nook

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, A is for A-ha moment!

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, Weird and Overwhelming

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, Our First Day!

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, Week 1

How To Set Up a Homeschool Nook

July 10, 2012 By: Stephanie4 Comments

I taught elementary school for several years before leaving the classroom to stay home with my kids. Now that we have decided to homeschool I’m excited to break out some of my supplies.

Once we move into the new house, there will be a dedicated office/homeschool room, but for now I need to work with a nook in the dining room. That means bare essentials.

These are what I would consider to be the bare essentials for a primary classroom. (We are about to start kindergarten.)

Each child needs a dedicated work space. I also think they need their own supply boxes because it gives them a sense of ownership.

An alphabet chart, number chart (or hundreds chart for older kids) and a calendar. I also need to add a number line under that alphabet chart.

Keeping a portfolio for each child to assess their progress is really important as well.

A word wall is essential. It’s also a good idea to label stuff around the house, the word “door” over the door for example.

I like to color code my word walls by letter for young kids and by subject area for older ones. It’s also really important to provide easy access to tons of books.

If your children are reading and you would like an easy way to teach them how to select an appropriate book for their level, tell them to open to a page in the middle of the book. Hold up five fingers. Read the page. Every time you come to a word you don’t know put down a finger. If all of your fingers are down at the end of the page, the book is too hard. If none are down it might be too easy.

Calendar math is important for early math concepts like number identification and counting as well as learning days and months and concepts of time like yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I also like to add a straw to a basket for each day of school. Once you get past day ten, you can start grouping the straws with a rubber band in groups of ten, then, as the year goes on, by hundreds. It makes a good visual representation of ones, tens, and hundreds for them.

A great tip is to use a cheap clothing rack as a chart hanger. Commercial chart hangers are essentially the same thing, just a little larger and heavier. You can get a clothing rack at Ikea for $10 or maybe even cheaper at a yard sale, but a real chart hanger will set you back at least $50.

This week (mid July) is a great time to stock up on school supplies because Staples is having their 1 cent sale, which is by far my favorite sale of all time. Crayons, pencils, paper, notebooks folders, etc. all on sale for between $0.01 and $1.00.

So far my kids’ favorite thing about homeschool….clothes are optional.

Diary of a Reluctant Homeschooler: A is for “Ah-ha” Moment

June 22, 2012 By: Stephanie2 Comments

“Do you know the letter A? The letter A, the letter A. do you know the letter A? Here’s the letter A.”

All week long I’ve heard that song from the Hooked on Phonics CD Rom, and I’ve danced around the kitchen with an inflatable A to the Letter People song about Ms. A saying “Ahchoo.” I cut cardstock into curves and lines and we used the Handwriting Without Tears model to make “puzzles” of the letter A. We traced the puzzles with our fingers. We traced them with crayons. We played letter recognition games, we used flash cards. We learned the sight words a, at, and & all. We read about Adam and Eve and the apple. We cut out things that started with a from magazines and pasted them in our notebook.

Thursday night he still couldn’t write a letter A, but I had finally figured out why.

All week long I’ve been trying to teach him by chanting and modeling, “Down, up, down, pick up your crayon and go across the middle.”

Over and over (and over)

Nothing.

Then Thursday, through tears he yelled and screamed as I reminded him for the millionth time to start at the top. “I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE TOP IS!”

Duh. The paper is flat. To him it has no top.

“Start away from you.”

All it took was that one simple sentence.

Silence. The crayon goes to the right spot.

“Now pull. Good! Push. Now pull down the other side. Pick up your crayon and slide across the middle. You did it!”

He did it. Then he did it again and again and again. It was not a fluke. He threw his fists in the air and shouted “I’m so happy with myself!”

Today when I told him it was time for school he didn’t fight me at all. He sat down and practiced and he did an entire practice sheet all by himself for the first time ever. And he did the whole paper in under five minutes. (Normally it would take a solid half hour and he wouldn’t even get finished one line.)

I even think he is starting to understand the whole top and bottom of the paper concept.

It’s pretty stinkin’ adorable, see for yourself.
(As long as you promise not to comment on my very messy dining room table. Creating literacy is a messy job, people.)

Diary of a Reluctant Homeschooler

June 16, 2012 By: Stephanie7 Comments

Back in 2008 when this little guy came into our lives we stood in a courtroom and swore to do everything within our ability to be the best parents we possibly could to him. It was so easy when all he needed was a bottle or a diaper change and there were no other kids to worry about.

But then he went and grew up. Sigh. it was bound to happen eventually, I suppose.

Now we’re ready for kindergarten. Except we’re not. Well, I am, I really really am, but he’s not.

It’s been on my heart for a while, but I’ve tried to ignore it. I know what he needs and I’ve heard professional after professional say the same thing at preschool conferences, IEP meetings, occupational therapy, on the phone with my mom…”The best thing for Nicholas really is a lot of one on one attention.”

How I Decided to Home school my Kindergartner with Special Needs

But I’ve been looking so forward to being able to send him to school and not have to worry about the steady stream of therapy appointments, which could just happen in the classroom. To have time to concentrate on my girls, who have never had my undivided attention. Space for both of us to breathe. One less thing on my plate. I do have a new baby at home and we are in the middle of building a new house, after all.

We have no beef with public schools. My husband went to public elementary and middle schools and my entire teaching career was spent in the public school system.

I would rather send him to a Christian school for faith-based education, but we couldn’t find an affordable option in our area that met my standards and we’d still have the same “he needs more attention than that” issues.

Right now he is testing in the 0.04% range. That means if you put 200 kids in a room, he would be the lowest academic performer. Even if he has the most amazing teacher in the universe, there is no way she/he is going to be able to bring him up to grade level with 17 other kids in the class to worry about.

We thought about another year of preschool, but we were told (and we agree) that it is really just a waste of money when the public school system is free and they have so many more resources that would be available to him.

Then there was the conversation that almost broke my heart…

What would you think about mommy being your teacher and doing kindergarten here at home?

That would be fun!

You know, if we do that you would stay here and have school at home, not in a big classroom.

I like my classroom. I like my friends, but they don’t like me. When I try to talk to them they run away like this (runs around the kitchen island)

After that, I knew I didn’t really have a choice. I sent in the application for our state’s online charter school, k12.

Pros:

One-on-one with me every day.
I can add religious education.
It’s a version of public school, so it’s free and they send you all of the curriculum materials for language arts, math, science, social studies, and art, plus a computer and a printer, and they reimburse your internet expenses. In a few years, they also add music and there are several foreign languages.
I know how to do this, I am still a certified teacher and I have experience in grades 1-5.
He will still have a lot of social interaction at the YMCA, our church’s Olympian Club program, sports, and our Mom n Me group is starting a home school room this year. Plus we personally know 5 homeschooling families and there are many more in our community. It’s very common around this area.
The k12 program has a special ed program and he will be assigned a certified teacher, so even though I will still be the primary “learning coach,” I don’t have to be the bad guy all of the time, which will help with our attachment concerns, I hope.
We can take frequent physical activity or snack breaks, which he really needs to improve his focus.
Nobody will be pushing me to medicate him (Which, incidentally, the doctor refused to do. Yet another reason we love our doctor)
Abby, who we truly believe is gifted, will be exposed to the kindergarten curriculum early.
I can modify the curriculum to fit our schedule and to include his interests.
More time to pursue his intense interests in music and golf
He won’t be picked on for being a slow learner or socially awkward. Adults almost always fall in love with him. Kids? notsomuch.

Cons

But I don’t wanna

Clearly, I am just being a big baby and I need to grow a pair and step up and do what’s best for my kid.

So, home school it is. (Probably. We’ve got the paperwork and done the first phone conference but they need to review the IEP and have one more meeting before we get his final acceptance).

Gulp.

UPDATE: Here are a few other posts I wrote about our homeschooling experience:

How to Set up a Homeschool Nook

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, A is for A-ha moment!

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, Weird and Overwhelming

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, The Supplies Are Here!

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, Our First Day!

Diary of a Reluctant Home Schooler, Week 1