What does American Idol and Homeschooling have in Common?

What does American Idol and Homeschooling have in Common? David Archuletta: 2008 American Idol runner up is officially a student at Murray Highschool in Murray Utah. On the Idol set, he had the obligatory (and by law) three hour a day tutoring that working minors must get. In a recent article in the DesertNews website, he stated, “I’ve probably home-schooled for half of my life, so it’s not anything new to me. If … I have to do that, (homeschool) then that’s something I’m up for.” He has been “working” and has been on numerous TV shows since the age … Continue reading →

Teaching Them against their Will

Sometimes, you have to insist your homeschoolers learn subjects they are not necessarily fond of. (Of course, if you are an unschooler, you will take exception to this statement.) While your child may be gifted or talented in an area or two, they will want to ignore other areas. Your math whiz may resist grammar lessons. Your creative writer may avoid math. Your budding scientist will shun anything unrelated. Unless college is unimportant, and counting money suddenly becomes irrelevant, there will be subjects they have to take anyway. Today, I had to break the news to my son that if … Continue reading →

Homeschoolers Should Not Impose Rules on Each Other

I was recently chastised by another homeschooler for placing a label on my child. I mentioned that my child qualifies as “gifted” according to certain standards, and that the other was “talented” at computer science. I seem to have struck a nerve as she attacked my comment in a “how dare you” kind of way. She insisted that one of the reasons to homeschool was to remove labels from children, so as a homeschooler, I should know better than to apply such labels to my kids. She felt that calling my kids talented or gifted was the same as calling … Continue reading →

Homeschooling Talented Children: Allowing Talents to Evolve

In my most recent blogs I wrote about homeschooling talented children. I pointed out that when you homeschool talented children, you first need to identify their talents. Once your child’s talents are identified, you must then nurture their talents. In this post I want to talk about allowing talents to evolve. Many parents, including myself, become attached to their children’s talents. While my sons attachment to the computer was impressive, I was overjoyed when his piano teacher said he was a natural. I bought a piano, paid for lessons, and insisted on daily practice. He expressed that he wanted to … Continue reading →

Homeschooling Talented Children: Nurturing Talents

In my last blog post, I wrote about identifying the talents of your homeschooled children. I distinguished between what I believe to be gifts and talents, and explained that while small minorities of children are considered gifted, I believe that every child has a talent. Once you identify your child’s talents, it is your responsibility as a parent to nurture the talents of your children. Nurturing your children’s’ talents takes time and money. There is a huge debate right now that children are in far too many activities and are becoming exhausted. Homeschoolers however have a unique benefit in the … Continue reading →

Homeschooling Talented Children: Identifying Talents

There are gifted children, and there are talented children. I believe that every child has a talent or a gift. It is our duty as parents to discover and harness those talents and gifts. In schools, the terms ‘gifted’ and ‘talented’ usually go hand in hand. Schools like to categorize and label don’t they? There is however, a distinctive difference between the two. Gifted children have exceptionally high and measurable intelligence. Meanwhile, talented children may have a propensity or natural inclination toward a particular activity. This propensity may be clear or ambiguous. Valorie Delp has written a few articles on … Continue reading →