I have to tell you that although my son can measure trajectory, play chess in his mind several moves ahead, and has a deep fascination with bioluminescent animals. . .he still has to be taught the basics. It is true that he intuits quite a bit of information. For example, when I was teaching my daughter subtraction, we had to go through each set of facts and review them over and over again. With my son, I didn’t even have to teach him all the facts. He caught onto the principle of subtraction and went on from there.
Despite the fact that he is intuitive when it comes to numbers and science–that doesn’t mean that he still doesn’t need to know them. He needs to understand percentages, fractions, basic operations etc. He needs to learn to add–even if it’s easy for him and we at least need to spend a micron of a second on those other operations too. Even if he does pick it up rather easily.
The Obvious Answers
So here’s the hard part. . .”easy” insults his intelligence. “Easy” is boring. In fact it is not fun unless it applies to physics, chess, or Cars (as in the recent Disney movie). So the obvious answer would be to gloss over the basics and keep going. I am, after all, not at all concerned that he won’t learn them.
The next obvious answer would be to make it fun. I do try to make homeschooling as fun as possible. In fact for the first three years of their homeschooling lives, when someone asks them about school, they don’t know what to say because they don’t realize they are actually doing school. But sometimes the reality is that 2+2 is just plain old 2+2.
The Real Problem
It’s also been suggested to me to just keep going. He can skip grades. This is what people with bright children do. (Believe me, there is a difference between a bright child and a gifted one.) But here is where the real problem lies. He’s not bright, he’s gifted. He’s a gifted five year old boy, with some five year old boy interests and a not-so-five-year old brain. And this is what many people who have not had hands on experience dealing with gifted children fail to recognize.
The answer is not to just “skip ahead”. Granted I will not spend a week on basic operations with him like I did with my daughter. He probably won’t have to do the drills and play the games that my older daughter did to get his math facts down. He already does most math in his head–even the more complicated problems. And it is true that he will be ahead of his class (in a manner of speaking). There’s no doubt about that. But I’m increasingly becoming convinced that what he needs is broader and deeper.
I am beginning to find answers to this balancing game and in my next blog, I’ll make sure to share some of my newly found resources!
Related Articles:
Why We Are Not Testing Our Gifted Son
Thoughts on Homeschooling a Gifted Child