People think that dealing with gifted children is easy. Hah! No way! It’s amazingly stressful!
Hi Lee,
I just got a jolt when I read on your website that a rough conversion from PSAT to SAT is to add a zero to the end. So what do I do with a 14 year old who has a PSAT selection index of 201, average percentile of 97, Critical Reading score of 70, Mathematics score of 61, and Writing Skills score of 70?
~ Amazed in Auburn
To be honest, that was EXACTLY the place I found myself when son was 14. He got an 800 in reading, 790 in writing and math, with a perfect score on the essay. That was the moment I realized that I just *might* have to graduate him early. He is a senior at Seattle Pacific University now, and he’s 20 and headed to law school. Here’s a few things that will help.
- Do you have my “gifted education at home” CD?
- We can also talk on the phone for 20 minutes each week if you are a member of the Gold Care Club.
- Here is my gifted education article in Heart of the Matter Magazine.
My best advice: hang on. It’s going to be a wild ride. God gave you this child for a reason.
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Christianbook.com Curriculum Page
karen says:
This is why curriculum has been difficult for me to put together because both boys are academically gifted. I discovered very quickly that there were gaps from public school.
One son is working on a higher grade in teaching textbooks. First, I would give him the quiz and he would do very well so we would move on. When he did not get an 80% or higher we would go back and do the lesson. I discovered he would breeze through the assignment because it was only one section that somehow was not taught to him. He would tell me most of this lesson is easy even though he did not get 80% or higher.
For example he would get the fractions correct but miss the Roman numerals because he had not covered that in public school. Since Roman Numerals were on the same quiz he had a lower score.
My older son is doing Algebra but the text has several of the same problems in the lesson. He gets frustrated so I do not make him do all of the problems unless he is getting them wrong.
It is indeed not easy with gifted children. I find it hard knowing what to teach them.
February 6th, 2010 at 6:00 am
Lee says:
Karen,
When you find out the piece that is missing (Roman Numerals or something) then only teach the PIECE, don’t teach the whole chapter. Have you tried giving the end-of-chapter test FIRST to identify which concepts he needs to learn and which ones he already knows? That can help prevent him from getting frustrated, so that he is always learning something.
Good luck! I know it’s not easy!
Blessings,
Lee
February 6th, 2010 at 7:53 am
Penny Go says:
Hi Lee,
I agree, it’s a challenge to raise gifted kids. My son is academically advanced and feels that he needs more challenges. I like your suggestion to take the end of the chapter test, and only teach the parts that need teaching! How refreshing!
Penny
February 7th, 2010 at 9:01 pm