Homeschooling the Gifted Child
Factors to Consider When Choosing Homeschooling vs. the Classroom
Aug 3, 2009
In an ideal world, the gifted child would be given a tutor or private teacher within a school setting so he could experience the richness of both environments. Unfortunately, most often, the parent will need to make a choice between a traditional school setting and home schooling.
Reasons to Teach the Gifted Child at Home
Because she learns at a rapid rate, she will quickly outpace her classmates in a traditional classroom setting. If she becomes bored, not only will she not be learning at the pace she could be, but she may well become disruptive and elicit behavioral challenges to the teacher.
Approximately one million children are educated in U.S. homes today. In many instances, the school systems available in these communities have limited or no public programs for the gifted. While private schools are available, they are very expensive and may or may not be within a commutable distance to the home.
Being able to tailor the school work to the child’s pace and ability is a huge advantage of home schooling. Also, having a motivated and interested parent teaching the child is often much more stimulating than the alternatives. If a parent is available to work with the child on a full time basis, this would be ideal from a cognitive developmental standpoint.
It is not unusual for a child to be able to accelerate learning by two or three grades when she has one-on-one attention and can pace herself accordingly. Boredom and disruption can be minimized by the fact that the child will never have to sit and wait for the others to catch up.
Some Potential Drawbacks to Homeschooling the Gifted
Social interaction is another opportunity for the child to learn and develop. In a home situation, the availability for this interchange is much more limited. The parent needs to create opportunities for this interaction on a frequent basis. This may involve signing the child up for craft classes, sports, dance or other more purely social events.
Encouraging the child to develop friendships in the neighborhood, taking frequent field trips with other children and finding other gifted children in the community are some ways to counteract this issue. Educational activities like book and science clubs, specialized camps involving a keen interest (i.e. space camps, baseball camps, etc.) can go a long way toward satisfying the need for socialization with other children.
First Steps for Educated the Gifted Child
Reading up on the homeschooling phenomenon, curriculum planning, and accessing community resources are equally important. If the parent can locate others who are homeschooling gifted children, this can be an extremely valuable learning experience to visit and work with these families.
There are some requirements by state regarding standardized testing, to ensure that the child is keeping pace with his peers. With respect to the gifted child, testing should not be a problem if the parents have a well-rounded curriculum. Most probably, the child will outperform the others at his chronological grade level with ease.
Explore the public and private schools in the local area to determine the options available. This might entail making site visits and developing a list of pros and cons to the options identified. To start the information gathering process, visit Hoagiesgifted.
Parents should be aware that if homeschooling does not work out for the family or a parent needs to return to work for financial reasons, the child can move transfer into a school at any logical point. Combining both homeschooling and classroom schooling may be a good answer to suit the needs of some families.
In summary, research the possibilities in the local area, visit others who are homeschooling, research requirements and give homeschooling a try if it makes sense. If needs change, the gifted child can transfer to a traditional school environment.
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