Is there such a thing as a "gifted" curriculum?

[paulcindy]

If there is I never hear of one. The only thing I have heard in reference to a gifted curriculum is Michael Clay Thomas's LA program. Is this true?

What do you all do for a child who is bored with regular, mindless, workbooks and readers?

Or, boring History?(according to them)

It would be nice to have a curriculum that would really make a child "think". Use expressive language, write their thoughts, discover and do for Science(but not so babyish).

Am I dreaming?

[Jennifer in SC]

Moving Beyond the Page advertises as a gifted and creative curriculum.

[Jenny in Florida]

From what I can see, gifted kids are just like everyone else: different. The fact that they are gifted doesn't mean they're all the same or that they are gifted in the same ways. So, I can't imagine how one could design a curriculum for such a diverse group.

Heck, even my two kids are different and don't do as well with the same curricula.

So, I think the key for gifted kids--just as with all children--is to find the curricula that work for the individual. I honestly don't see what being gifted has to do with it. I just look for materials that are right for this specific kid.

What do you all do for a child who is bored with regular, mindless, workbooks and readers?

Or, boring History?(according to them)

Hmm, I guess I try not to use mindless or boring stuff? But I don't think something has to be labelled "gifted" for it to be good.

[paulcindy]

Hmm, that is what I thought. I guess what I am looking for really, is something for her to really think, and not learn by rote repetitive learning.

I would love for her to expand her vocabulary, delve into deep discussions of classic literature, but without spending a fortune on curriculum.

I need a lot of hand holding when it comes to her. And for me:confused:

I love MCT LA for her. Seems to be a perfect fit. But MCT does not really offer a Lit program. Maybe I can just use DITHOR or Progeny Press guides?

I was originally set to use HOD, but I keep second guessing if this is going to challenge her enough, and really expand on her talents.

[matroyshka]

I love MCT LA for her. Seems to be a perfect fit. But MCT does not really offer a Lit program.


Have you seen his Suppose the Wolf Were an Octopus books? I think those are supposed to be the MCT lit program.

Another idea might be Teaching the Classics - it uses Socratic questioning for lit analysis, so it can be used to discuss any book at any level.

[KAR120C]

Although I don't know that I've seen them billed as "gifted" materials - any good literature resource should require plenty of deeper thinking and hardly any rote memorization...


The ones I've liked are:

Junior Great Books -- good introduction to the ideas of literary analysis in small bites, but watch the "older" grades for content,
Teaching the Classics -- I only skimmed this myself, but our book group uses it as a model and some of the other parents got a lot out of it,
several Shakespeare guides... Shakespeare Set Free, Shakespeare Can Be Fun (for younger kids), The Bell Shakespeare company's teachers' kits (http://www.bellshakespeare.com.au/resources/archive/Teacher's_Kit/2004_Twelfth_Night.pdf), and a Cambridge site (http://www.cambridge.org/uk/education/secondary/english/shakespeare/cambridgeschoolshakespeare/), and actually the introductions and notes in the Folger editions of the plays are excellent... and there's a website for that company (http://www.folger.edu/index.cfm) too. Can you tell we're a little Shakespeare-crazy here? ;) And I know I'm missing several resources here...
For a general approach, and especially if you're just starting out with literature, I do like Lightning Literature by Hewitt Homeschooling. We've used the middle school (7th and 8th grade) guides -- not super-super-in-depth, but they're very well done and a nice introduction to literary terms and deeper thinking about reading. The only high school level ones I've seen are Shakespeare, they are similarly well-done, but not quite as much as we like to do here (being, as I said, just a little Shakespeare-crazy ;))
There are usually literature guides available somewhere for just about any classic book you'd want to read. Googling a title will usually turn up several ideas, and once you've skimmed through a few you can get a feel for what you're getting into. And once you've worked through a book or two with your kids, you probably won't need the hand-holding any more! :)

[JennW in SoCal]

I don't mean to sound flippant, but have you read The Well Trained Mind? Looked ahead into the "logic" stage section of it and tried implementing any of that in your home school? The beauty of the WTM is that you can tailor any of it to fit any child, from the gifted to the learning challenged to the gifted kid with learning disabilities. The whole point to the WTM is to train children to think and express themselves clearly.

I myself never used any curricula except for math and logic -- for everything else we used life, books, documentaries and games. All the writing assignments came naturally from the reading we did, from the copy work and dictation when they were young to the narrations and now the essays and research papers they do in high school. They write about science, literature and history, equally, and learn each subject through the context of other subjects. We diagrammed the sentences from copy work, played vocabulary and grammar games. Did crafts. And read many books together.

Pick a period of history, find some great historical fiction or works from that period. Read about the period from Kingfisher. Outline some reading, write some narrations, have your dd research someone from the period and write a short report. Talk together, let your dd wonder aloud about why things happened or how odd they are. Do something similar for science.

Go to museums. Keep a nature journal and get some local field guides so you can identify area birds, bugs and plants. Read the newspaper, listen to NPR in the car. Build things, use science kits. Read aloud some great books or listen together to audiobooks. Bake. Subscribe to some good magazines like Muse or Scientific America or Smithsonian or National Geographic. There is so much a gifted kid will absorb without it being fed to them through textbooks and as long as you are equally engaged, your kids will be thinking right along with you and learning how to better frame their questions or build their arguments.

One other recommendation. If you are intimidated by literary analysis, read the Well Educated Mind and use it as a basis for analyzing books with your kids.

It takes a bit of a leap of faith do school this way. I started as an unschooler, and slowly became more formal with my kids through the years, and they are turning out quite well. Most importantly, to me, they still love to learn, still are inquisitive about the world around them.

So that's my recommendation. There is no dream curriculum out there, but with a bit of faith in yourself and your dd, and the WTM giving you the tools and benchmarks, your dd will get an excellent education.

[paulcindy]

These are some really great suggestions, thank you!!

A few questions. IS SWB coming out the a new edition of the WTM? And I do not have the WEM, but it is available through my library.

Where do I see, or purchase Junior Great Books?

And Isn't Teaching the Classics expensive? Is that through the IEW website?

How about DITHOR? Would that work out okay?

You have all been quite helpful, thank you.

[mcconnellboys]

You can enroll your child to take the Explore or other Duke TIPS testing and qualify them for their programming. While their online or in-person classes are quite expensive, they also offer CD ROMS with books for some classes that you can do yourself, at home. Johns Hopkins also offers programming, but is even more expensive. I don't know if they offer things for sale to use at home as the Duke programming does.

If your child has very high IQ or other test scores, they may qualify for the Davidson gifted children's programming. I believe that their offerings are pretty expensive, too, but you might ask more specifically on the accelerated board.

[Karin]

For math, try MEP, which is free, although you need a password for some of it. http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm There is so much more to this math program than many out there. There are some other good math programs out there, but this one really worked ds's brain in a way he's not used to.

I do think WTM can lend itself to gifted dc, but we had to modify it, because there's no way my dd's were in the rote stage at the rote ages.

With gifted children you can go faster, deeper, or faster and deeper. Unless, of course, they're not paticularly motivated. I have one of those, and yet she was still ready for Algebra at 11 (hating math--but I think if I'd known about MEP she'd have enjoyed it a lot more because there's so much more to it than most math programs out there.)

[Spy Car]

For math, try MEP, which is free, although you need a password for some of it. http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm There is so much more to this math program than many out there. There are some other good math programs out there, but this one really worked ds's brain in a way he's not used to.

I do think WTM can lend itself to gifted dc, but we had to modify it, because there's no way my dd's were in the rote stage at the rote ages.

With gifted children you can go faster, deeper, or faster and deeper. Unless, of course, they're not paticularly motivated. I have one of those, and yet she was still ready for Algebra at 11 (hating math--but I think if I'd known about MEP she'd have enjoyed it a lot more because there's so much more to it than most math programs out there.)

I'm thrilled to see you're so enthusiastic about MEP! :001_smile:

Bill

[Hathersage]

I'm thrilled to see you're so enthusiastic about MEP! :001_smile:

Bill

Me too!! And yes, another vote for MEP!


Junior Great Books can be found here: http://www.greatbooks.org/programs-for-all-ages/junior.html

[Karin]

I'm thrilled to see you're so enthusiastic about MEP! :001_smile:

Bill

I'm the the zealous new recruit, what can I say?:D

[Spy Car]

I'm the the zealous new recruit, what can I say?:D

I love it! :D

And I traveled the same road myself, soon we will be a multitude :lol:

Bill

[paulcindy]

Thanks everyone for all the great help:):)

[Catwoman]

I myself never used any curricula except for math and logic -- for everything else we used life, books, documentaries and games. All the writing assignments came naturally from the reading we did, from the copy work and dictation when they were young to the narrations and now the essays and research papers they do in high school. They write about science, literature and history, equally, and learn each subject through the context of other subjects. We diagrammed the sentences from copy work, played vocabulary and grammar games. Did crafts. And read many books together.

Pick a period of history, find some great historical fiction or works from that period. Read about the period from Kingfisher. Outline some reading, write some narrations, have your dd research someone from the period and write a short report. Talk together, let your dd wonder aloud about why things happened or how odd they are. Do something similar for science.

Go to museums. Keep a nature journal and get some local field guides so you can identify area birds, bugs and plants. Read the newspaper, listen to NPR in the car. Build things, use science kits. Read aloud some great books or listen together to audiobooks. Bake. Subscribe to some good magazines like Muse or Scientific America or Smithsonian or National Geographic. There is so much a gifted kid will absorb without it being fed to them through textbooks and as long as you are equally engaged, your kids will be thinking right along with you and learning how to better frame their questions or build their arguments.


Wow, Jenn -- you're the homeschool mom I've always wanted to be! You sound so creative!!! :cheers2:

One quick question: What would you suggest for logic for a gifted 9yo boy? I have looked at several Critical Thinking titles, but I'm not sure what other options are out there.

THANKS!!!

Cat

[mcconnellboys]

I also just thought of Prufrock Press....

[JennW in SoCal]

Thank YOU for the compliment! I don't know if it is creativity or a stubborn dislike of text books that drives me, but it is how we've homeschooled for the last 9 years.

For a 9 year old...

My boys loved the Dandylion logic series (you can find them now at Prufrock Press http://www.prufrock.com/). The titles are something like Countdown, Lift Off and Orbiting with Logic. Dandylion also has some inexpensive collections of the MindBender type puzzles and other cool books that might strike your fancy.

We did the games of Rush Hour quite a bit as well as Set and some Chess. On the computer, the Logical Journey of the Zoombinies was a huge hit for several years. I assume it is still available -- it is a great game.

Reading Sherlock Holmes. We also had some collections of stories called "you be the detective" or something similar, but I've given so much away that I'm sure it isn't my shelves anymore.

From Critical Thinking we liked the Red Herring series (though didn't agree that all of them were logical) and the Riddle series and I can't remember what else.

When I'm thinking Logic curricula though, I'm thinking of Traditional Logic from Memoria Press for middle school to high schoolers, as well as Fallacy Detective and Thinking Tool Box.

Hope that helps!

[Jen3boys]

One quick question: What would you suggest for logic for a gifted 9yo boy? I have looked at several Critical Thinking titles, but I'm not sure what other options are out there.

THANKS!!!

Cat

We're using Logic Countdown and Logic Liftoff from Prufrock Press.

[Spy Car]

When I'm thinking Logic curricula though, I'm thinking of....as well as Fallacy Detective and Thinking Tool Box.

Hope that helps!

I'd just be sure you know what you're getting into with the Fallacy Detective.

I bought a used copy and was shocked by the authors' interjection of their political views on hot-button issues into an informal logic text.

Bill

[JennW in SoCal]

I'd just be sure you know what you're getting into with the Fallacy Detective.

I bought a used copy and was shocked by the authors' interjection of their political views on hot-button issues into an informal logic text.


This is quite true, but we simply looked at it as part of the lesson in identifying propaganda and bias. My oldest son in particular was amused by those interjections (he was 13 or14 at the time), and we knew going into it that the authors have a particular bias.

[Jenny in Florida]

My boys loved the Dandylion logic series (you can find them now at Prufrock Press http://www.prufrock.com/). The titles are something like Countdown, Lift Off and Orbiting with Logic.

We're using Logic Countdown and Logic Liftoff from Prufrock Press.

My son did that series a couple of years ago and really liked them.