Homeschooled gifted students bring their own set of challenges to the table. Some homeschooling families struggle teaching a gifted child, while others are frustrated with the lack of available materials. The key to homeschooling a gifted child is to keep the curriculum challenging without interfering with the gifted child's desire for independent learning.
Instructions
1. Assess your child's learning style before developing or buying a curriculum. The three types of learning styles are visual, auditory and tactile. Gifted children may use a combination of styles, but one style is dominant over the others.
2. Mix up your child's curriculum by supplying materials in higher grade levels. Gifted children can be on grade level in science and history but excel in math and reading. Rather than buying pre-packaged curriculum, order bits and pieces from different grade levels.
3. Supplement a regular curriculum with field trips, movies, literature and experiments. Gifted kids need variety to fight off boredom and continue productive learning.
4. Create a unit study that involves all aspects of the curriculum. Gifted students love immersing themselves in a particular topic and learning all they can about it. If learning about Native Americans, visit a reservation, make traditional foods, weave a belt or rug, make pottery, use counting sticks for math, make a bow and arrow, create a tee pee in the backyard and read some works of literature.
5. Register your child in online advanced placement courses or a gifted program course. Universities, such as Stanford, offer programs for gifted students taken completely online. Many of these courses help give middle school students high school credits or high school students college credits.
6. Join a homeschool group in your area that caters to gifted and talented students. Parents can support each other by helping teach tough subjects like physics and calculus. This is also a good way to find resources for tough questions your gifted student will ask, but you have trouble answering.
Tags: gifted child, your child, Gifted children, grade levels, high school, school students