How do you handle a gifted teenager? Is homeschooling them a good idea? Should you be doing something else? It’s always hard to homeschool kids, but homeschooling gifted kids can be even more stressful.
I know the challenges of homeschooling gifted children. But you can be confident that homeschooling is a great environment for ALL students, whether they are gifted or not. It’s the best academic preparation, because they can learn at their level in every subject. It’s the best social preparation because the environment is safe and supportive, with people of many ages – just like the real world! And homeschooling is the best preparation for a career, because it encourages specialization and each student’s unique gifts.
You can do this! It may be hard, but you have what it takes to succeed. We are not just “care givers” of our children. We are “love givers.” THAT will make the difference!
If you do your job well, your children will become well-educated. Unfortunately, that sometimes can make teenagers feel like they are “smarter” or “better” than someone else. It’s a challenge to convey encouragement about their good efforts, without encouraging them to become prideful. The Bible equates “being wise in your own eyes” with evil that should be shunned.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD and shun evil.
This will bring health to your body
and nourishment to your bones.
Proverbs 3:7-8
I’m not sure if this is just a “phase” that children go through. I know that age comes with wisdom. As you get older and learn more, you start to realize how much you DO NOT know. That humble wisdom may be the wisdom that comes with age.
Teach your children to be wise, but teach them not to be wise in their own eyes.
I love the promise at the end; health and nourishment! As a nurse, I love to see promises of health!
In this article you can see how a normal homeschooled teen can apply to college and shine link diamonds!
“Home-schooled college applicants rely on essays, interviews”
“Ary is home-schooled, so when she fills out her applications, she won’t have all the traditional transcripts or teacher recommendations that most universities require. Instead, she will rely heavily on essays and interviews to show college admissions officers that she’s a bright, highly motivated student who has a passion for music, sailing and animals.College admissions offices are increasingly adapting their policies to accommodate the growing number of home-schooled students like Ary, who don’t have typical applications.” - Ventura County Star
Now is no time to panic! Keep educating your kids, and they will be able to SHINE when it’s their turn to apply!
It is sometimes difficult to encourage men to help with household chores. As the only woman in my home, I knew we needed to work together. Of course they would need cleaning skills for adulthood. More importantly, though, they were the ones making the mess! It was simply a matter of Justice.
That's me herding my three men!
Sidetracked Home Executives: From Pigpen to Paradise by Pam Young and Peggy Jones has some great ideas. For years, instead of nagging, I would simply hand my men their list of tasks on cards. Finish the cards, done for the day. Now, you have to understand that this is how my kids functioned best. It is the same personality characteristics that made them like an assignment sheet rather than having me tell them their assignments. They liked to see all the work up front first, so they knew the list wouldn’t get longer and longer as the day went on. Since it was a good fit for us, it was a great sanity-saver during our years of homeschooling.
I was cleaning the house the other day and something became very clear to me. Yes, my children are no longer home to make a mess. However, they are no longer home to help me clean, either! It takes me FOREVER without their help!
“Dear Lee,
This is where I need your insight. I know we talked much about how much time my daughter spent on different subjects to justify awarding a credit. If you could simply give me a yardstick of sorts. How much time would warrant a credit or a partial credit.”
To determine a high school credit by counting hours, most books recommend:
75-90 hours is 1/2 credit
120-180 hours is 1 credit
The hours are how many hours the student spends in total, including time spent reading and doing assignments. When I estimate high school credits, I usually just guess and estimate how much time the student spends. Add up all the experiences you are planning, and see if you have 75 hours or more. If you do, then call it 1/2 credit. If you don’t, then say it’s a supplement – they can add it to other music and art experiences to make up their own credit. If it is 120 hours or more, then you can call it a full credit. By the way, we LOVED the “How to Listen to and Understand Great Music” course, by The Teaching Company, www.teach12.com. I know they have one on the Symphony as well, by the same teacher.
I hope that helps!
Do you have a homeschooling high school question? Send me anemail!
Sometimes I have a “sad day.” Those are days when I am faced with Romans 3:23:
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Those are the days when I recognize a small or large problem with my now-grown children. Did I really forget to teach them that sleep is important? Have I failed them completely because they throw out Tupperware instead of washing it? “Sad days” are a good time to reflect a bit, fast, and pray. “Sad days” are usually followed by a promise from the Lord.
A “promise day” is when I hold to the promise in Proverbs 22:6:
Train up a child in the way he should go, and WHEN HE IS OLD he will not turn from it.
Sadly, there is no mention of regular sleep OR Tupperware in the verse. Perhaps that means it’s optional. Perhaps it means that isn’t required at all. Maybe what it means is that our children get to grow up and make their own decisions. They get to choose when to sleep, and what to throw out. In fact, there are a HUGE number of things they will choose to do or not do, regardless of how well we train them in the way we should go. My friends with older children tell me there is yet another kind of day I will face, a “blessed day.”
A “blessed day” is mentioned in Proverbs 31:28:
Her children arise and call her blessed.
I confess. There are gaps in my children’s education. I may have skipped the unit study on sleep. I think I only demonstrated the washing of Tupperware, without actually mentioning circumstances when it is appropriate to throw it away. We have to get used to gaps like that. Nobody can really do “enough” because children will grow up to make their own choices. As parents, we can’t possibly think of everything and every situation that our children may get themselves into.
It’s a sad day. Tomorrow will be a promise day. One day I’ll get to that blessed day. That will be fun!
The FAFSA is a government form you fill out to determine your financial “need” for scholarships. Financial aid is sometimes “first come – first served” so apply as soon as possible in January.
2. Apply to colleges
Every college has it’s own unique requirements and time lines, so check each college website under “apply” or “admissions.” Most students apply to between five and eight colleges.
3. Sign up for college tests
Colleges may want to see the SAT, ACT, AP or SAT Subject tests, so sign up for those tests if you haven’t taken necessary tests already.
The HomeScholar Gold Care Club will give you the comprehensive help you need tohomeschool high school.
Haiti has experienced a huge earthquake. I have such a hard time watching the news when these things happen. I’m a nurse, and it just breaks my heart to think about all the pain the Haitians are experiencing right now.
Seize this learning opportunity with your children! You can read the news reports online. I used to print articles for my children to read so they wouldn’t get some unnecessary exposure, but still got enough information to learn what happened. Now is a good time to locate Haiti on the map, and do some quick research on their history. Discuss the difference between a 5.0 earthquake and a 7.0 earthquake. Discuss emergency preparedness for your family with www.Ready.gov
One of my clients dropped everything to help during the earthquake in the Sichuan Province of China. She and her high school son spent 3 months working with disaster relief. Yes, he was exposed to some things. Yes, it did go on his transcript. That kind of experience is a great source of inspiration for an extremely compelling college admission essay. Most importantly, her teenage son made a real and tangible difference in the world.
As a nurse, I know that the area needs two things right now: essential supplies and money. Food, water, shelter, and medical care cost money. Here is a list of charities I know and trust. You and your children can donate directly to the earthquake relief here:
Many colleges are rejecting women at rates drastically higher than those for men, although engineering is the exception. To keep the student body of a university equal between men and women is very difficult. Maintaining that equilibrium, however, has in the past few years meant rejecting many more female applicants than male ones.
Women have the edge in male-dominated fields, and may yield better scholarships. Men have a general advantage in college admission, and may be admitted more readily. This article recommends that boys emphasize their masculinity and girls consider an engineering major.
Do you think there is a market for a book called “The Worst-Case Scenario Homeschool Survival Handbook”? Maybe not, but I do have a short article that may help, called “Homeschooling without Fear.“ I hope it will help you feel like a survivor.
Six months before I first started homeschooling, I was stricken with severe dizziness, and the doctors did tests to see if I had a brain tumor, or multiple sclerosis. As I lay on my swirling-yet-stationary couch, I wondered how I would be able to homeschool in my condition. But watching the situation in the public school, I was aware that SICK OR NOT, I could still do a better job than they were doing, because my son’s teacher was on medical leave too! I thought a lot about these issues before we even began, and became convinced I would stick it out.
I have never been faced with a truly horrendous situation while homeschooling, and I hope you haven’t either. But just in case, I hope you will remember that there is a way to survive while homeschooling.
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