It's alright to be Bright

The British National Association for Gifted Children, is gearing up for their annual conference.   In conjunction with that event, they hold an annual campaign called It's alright to be Bright.   They released a science fiction themed activity guide for this year that has some fun looking projects.  It's available as a free PDF on their website here.  On the same page you can access the previous year's activity booklets as well.

I've shared this post:

 Learning ALL the time

Is My Child Gifted? Freebie

Current freebie at Currclick.

Is My Child Gifted?  Helping Homeschooling Parents Identify and Understand Giftedness by Paula Vaughn.

Critical Thinking Co. Freebie

I've had family visiting for over a week and while it was a great visit, the rest of my life went on hold.

Here's a quick post on a current freebie.

The Critical Thinking Co. is currently offering 3 free downloads.  Here is the link.

Schultute - 1st day of 1st Grade

Schultute are German and it's the special package you get on the first day of first grade.  They stuff theirs with school supplies and candy.  We stuffed ours with maps and snacks.

I got this idea from Wondertime magazine which is no longer being published.  The small cutting instructions are theirs.

First I painted a sheet of white poster board in a way I thought he'd like.  I used another blank sheet as a template following the magazine's instructions.

We homeschooled last year, but this first day of first grade feels more like our intro to homeschooling.  Our school district has a lottery for their magnet and fundamental (read better) public schools.  Last year we didn't get anything in the lottery and decided to homeschool until first grade when there's eligibility for the county gifted school.  This year we made the lottery for the gifted school but decided against going.  It was a hard decision as there's no guarantee  we would make the lottery in any future grades however, the school is a ways away.  It would 3 hours of round trip travel every day.  The school is only 18 miles away but with driving to the bus stop, waiting for the bus, doing the bus route, getting to school and then reversing the process it would be an extremely long day for a 6 year old, who is not very mature for a 6 year old at that.

Not having the option to see friends during the week, do sports or any extra activities for older Toad as well as younger because of the long  schedule made the decision to homeschool an easy one for us.  We really appreciate the flexibility that homeschooling offers.

 It's going to be a great year!

Our Homechooling Style

Most homeschooling families have a curriculum style.  Some are linked to just one product such as Moving Beyond the Page or some are a philosophical style such as unschooling.

We're one of those families who fall into the catch all style of eclectic.  What eclectic homseschooling means to us:  we use whatever curriculum suits our educational needs at the time and we're not wedded to one philosophical approach so above all we're flexible.

Part of that flexibility stems from the fact that we haven't found just one approach that for us is 'just right' as Goldilocks would say.  Some of the constant chair switching is due to older toads widely divergent skills.  Some subjects he's at grade level (kindergarten), some he's above.  This being our first year of homeschooling, I had a behind the 8 ball feeling for our first several months before I felt like I got a handle on his needs.  These reflections are based on that juggling.

Charlotte Mason - I love the authenticity of the Charlotte Mason approach.  NO readers - real books.  No nature shows on TV - go out and explore nature.  We're a secular family so we rely on that authenticity in a secular way.

Classical - I'm drawn to the intellectual rigor of the classical style.  However, as I describe older toad as Spock with anger management problems, he's not that interested in people; especially historical people.  We will be incorporating more of this approach into the future of our core subjects.  The Well Trained Mind approach to this is great in many aspects but very weak in the arts so we'll take that rigor in the core areas on our journey.

Montessori - Having a kid with sensory issues I really appreciate the sensory nature of Montessori learning.  However, I find the sensory approach harder to implement moving into the 6-9 curriculum without the expensive 'real' Montessori materials.

Unschooling - My kids are so young I think unschooling at our house would involve 5 courses.  Art - the one subject of value.  Projectiles - paper airplanes and sports equipment.  Teasing and Torture - of each other or the dog.  Trash - both collection and hoarding perhaps creatively.  Yelling - there's so much of that going on sometimes I audit this course myself.  I don't consider this a well rounded curriculum so I organize more than this.  Thankfully the toads find learning fun and are ok with more direction.  We'll see what the future brings.

Unit Studies - We did a lot of this.  The nice thing about unit studies is you can customize the subject, customize the level, use the learning style that works for you and do it all relatively inexpensively.

Waldorf - Waldorf education involves beautiful, well made, healthy materials.  I try to incorporate these principles into their art supplies especially but most of the rest does not speak to my toads' brand of creative play.

So that's our eclectic style in a nutshell.  Please comment on your style.

Update 8/18/12

Richele at Under the Golden Apple did a great post called, The Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Methods, regarding various styles with resources.  Here's the link  and below is her button.

National Parenting Gifted Children Week

National Parenting Gifted Children Week begins today sponsored by Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted.  The direct link to the 2012 week is here.

We're making education choices for the fall and the announcement made me reflect on what gifted means in our house. There's been a lot of chatter in the gifted press this year about gifted kid's potential and promise.  Are schools doing enough to turn these kids in to the next world leaders, Nobel Prize winners, and 21st century innovators?  I'm a product of a 'gifted' system.  I received two, count them two, years of gifted services in middle school.  I'm now a SAHM and homeschool educator of my kids.  I don't consider my two years of gifted services or 8 years of university wasted even though I'm not making world news headlines.  I'm just a 'gifted' mom trying to raise two 'gifted' boys.

Older toad is freaky smart and younger toad has not been tested but statistics say he's well above average just by being related to his brother.  So they're gifted but what does that mean?  For us that's just normal.  They don't seem exceptional since they've always been our kids.  We don't have imaginary 'normal' siblings we compare them to.  We joke older toad is Spock with anger management problems but he hasn't become that, he's always been that way.  Spock was a perfectly normal half Vulcan/half human kid since he was the only one.

Gifted + Intensity = Welcome to life at our house.  We don't need educational pedagogy to tell us about overexcitabilites, positive disintegration or asynchronous development.  We just need a family road trip.  Cue trip to Kennedy Space Center; two adults with graduate degrees trying to explain advanced physics to a 5 year who is so geeked out by all the absolutely amazingly cool space stuff he can't remember to eat his snacks and devolves into major tantrum enough for public head turning because he can't share with a 2 year old.  That may not be 'normal' for many families but the only thing special for us in that story is Kennedy Space Center.

Normal for most people is what they're used to, normal is what we all do, normal is comfortable.

Since everything is more at our house, gifted just means my kids are more normal.  They may or may not go on to do publicly acknowledged amazing things like the leaders of 'gifted' education would like to see.  I just hope they will be grow up to be exceptional human beings who happen to be gifted.

Healthcare Guide to Gifted Kids

The Gifted Homeschoolers Forum has produced a new Healthcare Guide to Gifted Kids.  To access the guide on their homepage click here.  Older toad has his next well visit in July and I'll bring in a copy to our pediatrician.  Hopefully it will add to the conversation.