| Copyright 2006 Julie Shepherd Knapp |
| Copyright 2006 Julie Shepherd Knapp. All rights reserved. |
| about the book |
| The Homeschool Diner's Guide to Homeschooling Special Situations Gifted Homeschooling Early Graduation isn't the Only Option for Gifted Homeschoolers ...or is it? Much depends on the student. by Julie Shepherd Knapp, copyright 2006, 2007 "...I began homeschooling my child this year, and he went thru three years of curriculum! At this rate my child will be ready for college at age twelve!" This is a lament often heard in gifted homeschool support groups. There are several issues that new homeschooling parents commonly struggle with in TAG homeschooling. One of the most basic is the need to re-examine the concept of a standard grade-level content and the associated "scope and sequence" adopted for use in public schools. If you think of grade level content (as presented in school or in a homeschool curriculum) as "the course work that a child needs to have completed in order to graduate", then, yes, a motivated gifted child could very well complete all the grade level content and high school graduation requirements well before the age of 18. But if, instead, you begin to think of the scope and sequence as "what the schools are able to cover with the typical child from ages 5 - 18"... I think you will start to look at your gifted child's homeschool education in a new light. Public school curriculum, and any homeschool curriculum that is sold by grade level, impose an upper limit on the amount of material a student covers each year. Gifted homeschoolers don't need to be restricted by these caps. If you have a very fast learner, a very ambitious student, or lots of available resources for outside learning - your child's 6th - 8th grade curriculum may be on par with what high school students are learning (at least in your child's favorite subjects) but you will be "calling it" middle school. Then, in grades 9 - 12, you will record your child's yearly achievements on your homeschool transcripts as high school credits, even though it may be, in reality, college level. As a homeschooler, your child's achievements are not restrained by the upper limits of the curriculum. Also remember how narrow in scope a public school or packaged homeschool curriculum can be. Adding depth and breadth to your lessons can allow your child to increase his or her knowledge base in each subject. Your child can take off on interesting tangents, explore his or her favorite topics in extreme detail, and study topics that typical children don't have the opportunity or time to tackle, such as multiple foreign languages, music, art, theater, sports, community service, and school-to-work internships. Find productive ways to spend the extra free time, rather than racing on ahead thru next year's curriculum ;-). (Read "What do I do with all this free time?" for more ideas.) So, you see, there is no need to graduate a child early, and send him off to a university at age 11 or even 16... if, thru a combination of homeschooling, outside classes, mentoring, and distance education, you are able to continue to provide a challenging education for him at home. All the things your child learns and all the educational opportunities that you are able to facilitate for him/her before "going off to college" can be considered part of their K thru 12 education - the scope and sequence of your very small, very individualized gifted homeschool. This is, in fact, one of the things that universities find so appealing about gifted homeschool students - their transcripts show a depth and breadth of education that is way beyond what the scope and sequence require. The standard college admissions question, "Did this student seek out the highest challenges available to him/her?", often puts homeschooled students in a much better light than their public school counterparts... because we aren't tied to the mediocrity of grade level content. Now, there *are* gifted students who are READY for college, academically, emotionally, and socially before age 18. An extreme example is Greg Smith At 16 he is a doctoral candidate in math, and is working on his doctorate in Physics, with an eye toward a third PhD, followed by Medical School. He is, as I mentioned, an extreme example... but there is no doubt in my mind that he was READY for college when he started at age 10. If your child is getting to the point where you and your child *do* think that early college admission will be a necessity in the next couple of years -- you should join one or more of the "homeschool to college" support groups (some are listed below). There you will find the latest scoop on admissions requirements, homeschool transcripts, and testing. There are a few established programs for early college admission, check out this list -- Colleges With Early Entrance Progams to see if there are any in your region. This article by Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, Ph.D. -- Thinking About Early College Admission? presents a lot of research which may help with the different areas of concern that parents and students may have. FAQ's about Early College Admission -- this website was created by two young people who went to college early Related Issues: Homeschool 2 college Hs2Coll Conservativehs2c Colleges With Early Entrance Progams "Kids can be gifted and Have Learning Disabilities?" It's true! How to request ACT and SAT accommodations for learning disabilities |