Beginning to Homeschool Our Gifted Kids: Part 3
We started homeschooling Trevor in the middle of his first grade year. Pulling him out of school at the end of January, with a five month old baby Logan and three year old Molly at home, I was both excited and nervous.
Since I was freelancing fulltime, I had a babysitter coming fifteen hours a week, and Molly went to preschool one morning a week. Our babysitter was good with the little girls, but did not adjust well to having Trevor home too. He has always had a lot of energy, and she had trouble looking past his, umm, exuberance, to see his charm.
Worse, she was skeptical about our homeschooling, and vocal about it.
After we chatted on a few occasions, and tried to work things out so we could all be happy – her with the new addition and me able to keep working on a semi-regular basis, I realized that it just wasn’t happening. We stuck it out until May, when her kids got out of school for the summer, but it was rough. Trevor ended up working in my office while the babysitter was there – not an ideal situation, especially when he could hear his sisters outside playing and the weather turned nicer.
And, chaining him to a desk in my office kind of defeated the purpose of bringing him home in the first place.
Once spring hit, we abandoned workbooks and all of the structure I was comfortable with – you know, coming from a classroom teaching background – and I strapped Logan in the Ergo carrier, equipped the other two with sketchbooks, pencils, and pocket microscopes, and we went exploring.
And finally began to enjoy learning and living together again.
Our first year – really a half year – of homeschooling had definite ups and downs as all of us, kids and adult, needed to deschool our way of thinking. And, while there has not been a perfect year yet, I am firmly convinced that making the decision to homeschool Trevor then, and all the kids now, was one of the best we’ve ever made as a family. I tend to have the most trouble when I fall back on my “classroom teaching” ways.
Juggling kids with emotional and intellectual intensities, special needs, and high intelligence with running and home and business, can be extremely exhausting. I don’t always do it well, but I am glad I stick with it.
So, that’s how we began… we’ve got three and a half more years under our belts now, and have changed things up regularly throughout that time. I think our homeschooling is still a work-in-progress, and I enjoy learning alongside my kids and sharing our adventures here.
And about that…
Do you have a story to tell? Questions you’d like answers to? Advice you’d love about homeschooling and parenting gifted kids? Tips and tricks that work for you and your kiddos?
I’m inviting you to share:
- Propose a guest post {see here for guidelines} about parenting and homeschooling your gifted kids for an upcoming Gifted Kids at Home feature. Or, if you’re not a huge fan of writing it all out yourself, but still want to share your story, I have an email interview I can send you to answer, and I’ll post your story.
- Send questions or post topic idea suggestions to me via the contact form with the subject Gifted Kids at Home, and I’ll answer them in a future post.
- Ask for advice – if you’re in the middle of a crisis and want advice on how to help your kids {or you}, ask here in the comments, privately through my contact form, or message me on facebook. If it’s pressing, I’ll post your question on Twitter, Facebook, and other media outlets and get some reader help – or I’ll feature it in a post with possible experts or other parents weighing in.
- Have you figured out some fabulous strategies for parenting your gifted kids through some of the issues {perfectionism, emotional intensity, hyperactivity, nonconformity, OCD, and others} that come along with giftedness? How about homeschooling? Do you have tips for parents of young gifted kids just beginning to navigate this road? I’d love to share those ideas with readers too.
- Finally, link up… Share the stories you’ve written about homeschooling your gifted kids beginning in November. {I’m giving you some time to write a few!} Every Monday, I’ll talk about homeschooling and parenting gifted kids, highlight a few of your links, and then invite you to link up as well. Don’t worry… I’ll keep reminding you before then.
We have some of the most amazing and brilliantly creative readers here at Raising Lifelong Learners… let’s build a community working together to encourage a love of learning in our kids, and hold each other up as we walk this road together.
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