Home Educating A 'Gifted' Child?

[Bluie]

Hi there,

I am new here and was hoping for a bit of advice. I have spent the whole evening reading this forum and have already had a lot of my questions answered by reading others previous experiences, so thank you

Our son is three years old, and has been assessed for being gifted, he has a very high IQ, speaks three languages and is obsessed with Math. This whole being gifted thing has come as a bit of a shock to me and my husband, and we are only just getting our own heads around it.

We live in the UK and our son is due to start nursery in September, and school in September 2012. There is no 'gifted program' in any schools near us and there is no possibility of him being bumped up a grade. So, we feel that he is never really going to get the attention and education that he needs within the traditional school system.

We have had nothing but negative responses so far from family and friends to the fact that he has the label of 'gifted', people automatically seem to assume that we are pushy parents, and that very much is not the case.

Our friends and family have also been very negative about us considering home schooling. But, I really see no other option.

I am sorry for the long post, I suppose I'm asking a couple of questions.

How do you deal with negativity towards home schooling?

Do any of you have any experience of home schooling a gifted/advanced child?

Thank you for taking the time to read my post

[hscoach]

Don't worry about people who are negative towards your decision to homeschool your son. You know him better than anyone. He is your child; you know what his needs are. I think you should turn a deaf ear to those people and do what is best for him.

The school system will never be able to meet his needs. He will never be challenged enough.

Here are some links where you should be able to ask questions and get advice:

http://giftedhomeschoolers.org/

http://movingbeyondthepage.com/

http://hoagiesgifted.org/

[Bluie]

Thank you very much for the reply and the links you have recommended. Guess i'm going to have to have a tougher skin towards those negative comments

[romacox]

Trust your instincts because moms just seem to have a second sense when it comes to their own children. Don't worry too much about what others think. Most will come around once they see your results, and for the few that don't...Oh well

How do I know? I was one of those skeptics. But I did not feel it was my place to tell my daughter what she should do because she was the parent, not me. So I got involved in helping her, when I saw what it was all about, I became totally sold, and now give workshops at homeschool conventions, provide free online lesson plans, ext.

Did you know teachers are now the biggest influx into the homeschool venue. Their reasons are very interesting. Here is an article giving the reasons teachers are now homeschooling their own children.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Thinking-About-Homeschooling?-Teachers-Are&id=2499296

Here is another article I found on the subject concerning reasons to homeschool
http://homeschoolingunited.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/a-little-something-to-remind-us-all-of-why-we-do-what-we-do/

Feel free to show these articles to those skeptics, and invite them to attend some of the events with you, so they can see with their own eyes.

[i8urchicken]

I know how you are feeling. My child isn't gifted, but I did get the cold shoulder when others, especially family, learned I had withdrawn her from school and was homeschooling her. But she was in 4th grade, and I knew it was for the best, I knew all of the circumstances that lead to her being homeschooled. I was the one that watched her get off the bus every single day with a depressed look on her face, listen to her cry about how horrible the kids & teachers were, do homework 2-3 hours each night, and then force her to go to bed with no family or real kid time just so she could do it all again the next day. My daughter went from a happy child, to a depressed child in less then 1 school year. That changed the day I withdrew her.

So what I am saying here, is what anyone else says or thinks doesn't matter when you know what your doing is the right thing. Our children count on us to do what's right. It sounds like to me, your doing exactly the right thing by considering homeschooling. Go with your instincts.