Encouragement, ideas and ways to homeschool a gifted child:

We are all intelligent in our own ways.

We may be intelligent with “book smarts” or we may have the gift of intrapersonal skills. Do you have a way with others or can spout off a random fact at any given time? We all know a person like that or perhaps we are that person to someone else and don’t even realize it. With children, in many ways, their minds have the same dynamics and understandings.

We all want our children to be considered the intelligent or gifted one, but what if your child is that child that is beyond understanding and has advanced to levels you can’t fully comprehend yourself?

You may be throwing up your hands, or maybe like us, you are surprised and confused at every corner that suddenly your child can’t tie their shoes or order a sandwich. But having an advanced or gifted child changes your mindset and sometimes you stop and realize, they are still a child.

You aren’t alone…

You may be thinking, I’m the luckiest parent on Earth? But more than likely, you are finding yourself frustrated. Why? Because having a child who is truly advanced and gifted is one of the more difficult tasks weighing heavily on a parent’s shoulders. All you are constantly doing is trying to teach, trying to reach, and trying to help. Yet, all of these become exponentially more difficult. Not because your child struggles with one topic or another, but because they understand them all!

They understand them all faster, more deeply and with more thorough comprehension than you even do and then they can synthesize the information back to you and then are left waiting, wanting for more. It can be humbling and terrifying at the same time.

What to do…

So what do you do when your child has read every book on the shelf for their age, they know three languages or perhaps can solve quadratic equations while only in elementary or middle school? It’s hard to say what will work exactly because being advanced has it’s own challenges but also its own boons.

Most importantly…

Treat them as they are – a gift, a child and a wonder. They have the power to shape their future. Let them. They are not limited by any skill, talent or wealth of knowledge. They can pick anything and learn it. Revel in that fact. Not everyone is afforded that gift.

Your gifted child…

1. Love them as they are, a child.
2. Don’t exaggerate or brag about the giftedness, they know, and more than likely, it’s already frustrating.
3. Provide unique and beneficial INTENTIONAL experiences and knowledge.
4. Focus extra hard on life skills because normally a gifted child struggles with life skills – communicating, organizing, cleaning, cooking, tying their shoes.
5. Teach them that mistakes are okay and are good for growth.
6. It’s okay to be average or not know something – age and experience provides wisdom over time.

Challenges are best – not busy work

What does this mean? I hear this all the time. Don’t just give them more worksheets. That’s true. They hate it. Trust me.

Utilize the resources around you to find what is best for them.

Pre-test like crazy.

Not only is this fun, but it’s also a good assessment (the teacher in me loves pre testing to see what level/what they know “on a dime” – our son particularly enjoys this with spelling. Our son is particularly good at spelling because of his high reading skills and so because he’s read so much, there are many more words in his head that he can naturally spell.

He tested out of the first two levels of spelling just from a verbal spelling test. He loved the challenge and it made him feel excited to gain something new. Don’t worry though, I still make him write the words because his handwriting is terrible and we tell him that’s okay. He can relax about his spelling and work more on writing all those big words he knows how to spell. It’s just a different thinking process and a different approach.

Books everywhere

A you may have read in our voracious reader, we have books everywhere. For an advanced/gifted child, reading is normally a huge part of their life. We have a room library, a box of library books and shelves everywhere to store the purchased books we have accumulated over the years. Provide resources that encourage that desire to read.

If your child is like ours, books new or old are greatly desired. We go to the library one or two times a week. Is that a big time commitment on our part? Yes, but the joy and encouragement it provides our children is reward enough. He desires to devour a book in his free time, so we allow it. Another great outlet to use to keep track of books and get ideas is through your local library and Goodreads.

Curriculum that meets multiple needs –

If you are like our family, you understand that as much as the learning takes place, the approach to that content has to be unique. All children enjoy activities. Perhaps games or other content for a lesson but advanced are looking for the why, the how and the more. What will give them that extra step to critical thinking?

Also, allow the lesson to reach multiple aspects of learning. Perhaps your child is weaker in concrete math that appeals to baking or cooking. They may be able to solve quadratic equations but can they figure out how to double a cookie recipe with cups and teaspoons? Or maybe their science lesson on birds makes sense but they find the rare hummingbird of South America fascinating? Magellan TV has multiple engaging and fun documentaries on specific species or find a book or magazine like National Geographic that adds an extra layer of information for fun and easy access.

Teach many aspects of a concept to go in depth –

Most advanced children have breadth of information but not always depth, unless it truly interests them. Show them how much they don’t know yet. A favorite in our house in history of a war. Or maybe for your child it is the details of a particular planet or bird, how cars are put together or maybe different types of poetry and non-fiction. It may take some digging for resources on your part to gather enough information to make a deeper lesson. However, that effort will pay off. It will spark the interest and keep a mind occupied with less frustration and as an added bonus, shows them how much they DONT know which can teach humbleness and autonomy.

Other ways to help guide a young and advanced mind…

• Provide resources/opportunities for independent learning (websites/how to use encyclopedia etc)
• Play lots of educational games (like the States game from our history section) or board games

Show them what they don’t know, don’t tell them what they don’t know…

They may not admit when they don’t understand because everything has always come easy to them. So show them (depending on their personality style) what they don’t know in a kind and gentle way through ideas, facts or resources.

If they are wrong, or missing something because let’s face it- they are KIDS they don’t know everything. If they don’t have the experience and wisdom and age to know everything, guiding them to the right answer will help as they learn many skills in the process.

• Find their weakness subject or skill and develop it gently over time.
• Teach practical needs/useful (baking/cooking/balancing a checkbook/researching)
• Allow them to have trust with you
• Give them creative outlets/allow them to be a kid
• Advanced/gifted does not always mean book smart or NT learning style, it may be hands-on or other learning styles that can solve problems, help people etc.
• Push them and challenge them but don’t overwhelm them.