Today, Aidan gave me a lecture on trying to find her things that aren't "so easy" She patted my arm as she says
"I know you don't know if it'll be too hard for me or not, so that's why you're giving me such easy things, but I'd really like it if you could find harder things to do. I get bored with this easy stuff."
I. just. don't. know. what. to. do. with. her.
I haven't been posting about what we're doing on a weekly basis because there is nothing really to post about. I do work with Ainsley with reading a few times a week. She's doing GREAT and Ainsley does do random math sheets and is slowly working through Explode the Code book 1. However, she only does something a few times a week. Mostly she plays.. as normal 4 year olds are wont to do.
Aidan does school about 2-3 times a week. She finishes everything I come up for her to do too quickly.
I spend 2-3 hours every Sunday night... copying and making "packets" of work for her. I make a brain teaser packet, a language arts packet and a math packet.
This last week, I made a packet of 10 front-to-back sheets with word problems, puzzlers, hard mazes, etc and she did them all in 15-20 minutes.
I made 20 front-to-back sheets with phonics and language arts selections. She did the entire packet an hour and 15 minutes on Monday. (and it was only that long because it had a ton of writing)
I made 15 front-to-back sheets of random math selections (around 3rd/4th grade level). She pulled it out twice this week and the total time spent on it was almost an hour.
Do you see why I don't post?
Remember Singapore math? Well, she finished the entire workbook... a full semester of math... within a week... working about an hour to an hour and half for 5 days. She worked in it by herself and I checked it later. What she missed were just careless mistakes... that's it. I'm not sure if I should just give the whole series to her and let her do it all or not.
I can't decide on anything.
Where is the rule book?
Should I just shrug off language arts and math for now? Or just continue going through the state list until we've completed it all. We haven't covered mathematical transformations yet. That should take up a day or two.
Or...should I just say "okay, you're good" and just spend time reading about things and maybe making notebook pages of what we're learning? I've been thinking of doing that.
I JUST DONT KNOW!!
The danged part is that I can't google the answer! There really is no answer to any of this.
bleh
Yes..... obviously.... I'm feeling frustrated. I thought the packets were working. I was carefully selecting what was in them... what concepts were in them... so that I knew she would know what she needs to know. She may be brilliant but she still has to be told what an adverb is to know it. Right?
Eh... maybe I'm being silly and taking what she said today way too seriously.
Or maybe I need to research grown-up kids like Aidan and contact their parents to ask what the heck they did.
Just call me the second-guessing google stalker
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5 comments:
Hi second guessing google stalker from another second guessing google stalker. LOL
For math I was having the same problem, but I found www.aleks.com and right now Ansley is loving it. It's all computer but is awesome. It only starts at 3rd grade, but goes all the way through college level. It gives a chace for them to work a problem without it being explained and if they need it explained they can just click "explain" If they answer a few right, it is added to the pie that they have for that level. Ansley just started and is loving it. Plus there is an online test that opts them out of lessons they know, and they can retake it anytime, which is great because Ansley picks up skills not taught so we will be doing this every once and a while.
Yep, still would have to be taught what an adverb is, but that's like a 5 min thing. We do a lot of science, right now studying cells then moving on to genetics. I think I have found a science curriculum that we will use next year. It is middle school but looks awesome, it will at least introduce new concepts, but honestly everything is 'easy' because they catch on so quick...so even a new topic is learnt quickly. I have just had to become ok with moving quickly, and being okay with not teaching things...because honestly why teach reading when she did her assesment the other day and apparently comprehends on the 9th grade level. I am not teaching vocab for the same reason....however, I am going to introduce latin roots soon. I am going to email you tonight when Ansley goes to bed, so we can talk more. Hang in there. There is no instruction book for us, but you are doing a great job!
I love your post! At least you get a lecture, Julie usually just puts her head down and starts snoring loudly.
Hang in there! Julie isn't PG and I can't keep ahead of her!!
PS...glad to see you are posting often!! I need to really update...
I was just going to say the same as Amanda - computer based programs might work. She can progress at her own pace. There is Stanford math for gifted that I was considering, but I was worried that we won't have time for it. You can look it up here - http://epgy.stanford.edu/
Hi! I was doing research on gifted children/students, and I happened upon your blog.
As a child, I was suspected of being "gifted." (I'm uncomfortable with that term, but it's common, so I guess that's what we use, haha.) Sure enough, I was tested and I qualified to be a member of our school system's gifted program. While it was, well, *something*, it wasn't at all what I needed. Anyway, that's a story for another day.
Here's the main reason I'm writing--from what I've read, I don't think you need to be concerned about your being what your children need you to be, at least not in terms of their intellectual needs and development. The mere fact that you hope you can be what you need to be? The fact that you're looking for any resources you can find? I can only imagine how my life would have been improved if my parents had shown that level of care and concern.
Heh, it would kill them to read that, and they were there for me in other ways for which I'm eternally grateful, but I don't think either one of them ever asked, "What specific needs does a gifted child have?" Sadly, science was frowned upon in my household, and things like philosophy were thought to "mess up" my mind.
So keep asking those questions! Keep trying to make connections and get advice! But just know that I would have killed to have had a parent or adult figure who cared about my intellectual development.
Sorry if this sounds...I dunno. But I just felt compelled to say something.
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