How to tell if a child is gifted?

[mashy]

Chamonix


Racism is something we can’t explain. If there is deep hatred, they will detest even a baby. I don’t think they treat the Muslim gals there any better when there was the uproar over Muslim gals wearing the veil.

[metz]

mashy:

Chamonix


Racism is something we can't explain. If there is deep hatred, they will detest even a baby. I don't think they treat the Muslim gals there any better when there was the uproar over Muslim gals wearing the veil.

Don't think there's such intense racism and hatred at where I'm staying. A close friend revealed to me that the rest of the french parents weren't happy with the teacher too. Apparently, she often shouted at his classmates (my son witnessed those incidents too. He felt relieved he was never yelled at). She left the school a couple of months later. It was just my son's luck to have met this teacher. My daughter, who was in the same school, didn't have such problems with her teacher.

There's definitely some racism. Some kids tried to tease him. But there were nice kids too. Months after he left school, he chanced upon a schoolmate during a performance. The boy apologized to my son for his 'unhappy times' in school. Things weren't entirely bad.

And in their previous music schools, they were given opportunities to perform and join the school Orchestra. Currently, they are taking group tennis lessons. No problems with the teachers too.

[mashy]

chamonix:

mashy:

Chamonix


Racism is something we can't explain. If there is deep hatred, they will detest even a baby. I don't think they treat the Muslim gals there any better when there was the uproar over Muslim gals wearing the veil.

Don't think there's such intense racism and hatred at where I'm staying. A close friend revealed to me that the rest of the french parents weren't happy with the teacher too. Apparently, she often shouted at his classmates (my son witnessed those incidents too. He felt relieved he was never yelled at). She left the school a couple of months later. It was just my son's luck to have met this teacher. My daughter, who was in the same school, didn't have such problems with her teacher.

There's definitely some racism. Some kids tried to tease him. But there were nice kids too. Months after he left school, he chanced upon a schoolmate during a performance. The boy apologized to my son for his 'unhappy times' in school. Things weren't entirely bad.

Then guess it's the teacher. Just need a bad egg to ruin children's lives. Sigh.

[Chenonceau]

phankao:

mashy:

I really admire all u mummies who hs. I definitely can't do it. I think I will vomit blood first. Hahaha.

My eyes already open so big until my eyeballs nearly pop out just reading these last few pages about what you mummies do!

Oi? Oi? Oi? I am still waiting for you to share about your 2 year old and the P1 syllabus.

[metz]

mashy:

I really admire all u mummies who hs. I definitely can't do it. I think I will vomit blood first. Hahaha.

It all depends on your homeschooling style. There are more that one style a homeschooler can adopt. I'll just briefly touch on two general styles.

If you are the type that feels comfortable following a curriculum and have a list of what you want your child to achieve (by certain time), then your child must be willing to follow your lead. Otherwise, it will be a struggle.

But if you are the child-centered type and allow your child to take the lead, then you probably will have an easier time.

Ours is a mixture of various styles. Most of the time, my kids are left to read on their own. (in our case, we have a library of books). Often, I would get my kids to give me verbal reviews on the books they read and probe them to think a little deeper with some questions. Documentary DVDs is another great source for self-learning. But for Maths, I would play a more active role and request them to do certain amount of work. Their progress will depend on how fast they can absorb. Besides the seat work, they also pick up maths concepts via books such as this - http://www.amazon.com/Sir-Cumference-Dragon-Math-Adventure/dp/1570911649 .

In homeschooling, most parents would tend to focus on more than just academics. You can be sure that homeschooling kids are also exposed to the various activities that school kids take part. Maybe more. Nothing unusual as they have more time.

Homeschooling certainly has its pros and cons. By nature, i'm not a very sociable creature. Making effort to create interaction opportunity for my kids tires me out easily. So, I would prefer to put my children back to schools though my daughter feels otherwise. How not to when she goes to bed at 10pm and wakes up after 9.30am everyday? :snooze:

[2ppaamm]

chamonix:

How not to when she goes to bed at 10pm and wakes up after 9.30am everyday? :snooze:

What fantastic lifestyle! My kids also sleep very late and they prefer homeschooling any time. There's a lot of freedom and chance to do things they cannot if they went to school, like visiting the zoo during off-peak hours, go to a movie, go sew something, create websites, scrapbooking, cook their own lunch, bake a cake, go for a party (but nobody to party with in Singapore), go for a swim, the girls go shopping during sale with nobody to squeeze with. And all because they want to do it. I just watch or get pulled along.

Homeschooling is MUCH EASIER than having to send the kids from tuition to tuition. I just cannot imagine myself doing all those driving to tuition centers, getting demands and pressures from tutors besides the school teachers, getting complaints from teachers about why this is not done, that is not up to standard, and my daughter no longer get the stress of sticking white paper over that golden line on her sports shoes, because we could not find a totally white pair that she could run in, and she loves running. Stress of waking the kids up early so that make it to school on time, and if there's a jam and we're late by even a minute, the kid will get booked, and if booked too many times, have to go for detention, and then all sorts of strange accusations from hair color to disagreement between student and teacher that I have to mediate (like teacher insist on my kids admit to things they did not do and they also did not witness), the teacher enrolling the kids into the wrong class - HMT instead of MT (and yet blame me for it, even after my daughter kept reminding her - she expected me to go to school and complain, can't even sort it out?!), call me about this 作文 not done (ask the kid to do lah!) that worksheet not completed (ask him to do!), call me to tell me his hair is not combed properly (ask him to comb lor!), he has got no tie (give him time to run down and buy lah!), a pile of forms to sign every term, so many announcements about everything unimportant to my kids, and if you miss something important they accuse you of not reading, (I've got 5 kids, you know). Aiyoh! Those were much bigger stress for me, on a daily basis!

And, I have not gone into the politics of students (mostly the A-chasers), and their parents. This is more evident in Sec schools, the selfishness in elitist school children, the lack of comradeship, the lack of empathy among children, the unfair treatment of teachers. All these are fine, and are reflective of the real society. But they are not fine when the school insists on getting me involved! I don't want to get involved just because other parents want to (my parents did not get involved with mine?!)! These days, parents complain about every single thing, including things they imagine and they have no facts and proof. The schools no longer know how to handle them, they automatically find an easier target, or find the less 'complain-y' ones to take the blames. So if I am not the kind (and don't have time) to run to school to complain about every single detail, I become an easy target. Eeeks! So stressful!

I only homeschool two kids now that 3 are in the universities. It is so much easier, so much more peaceful.

[mashy]

chamonix:

mashy:

I really admire all u mummies who hs. I definitely can't do it. I think I will vomit blood first. Hahaha.

It all depends on your homeschooling style. There are more that one style a homeschooler can adopt. I'll just briefly touch on two general styles.

If you are the type that feels comfortable following a curriculum and have a list of what you want your child to achieve (by certain time), then your child must be willing to follow your lead. Otherwise, it will be a struggle.

But if you are the child-centered type and allow your child to take the lead, then you probably will have an easier time.

Ours is a mixture of various styles. Most of the time, my kids are left to read on their own. (in our case, we have a library of books). Often, I would get my kids to give me verbal reviews on the books they read and probe them to think a little deeper with some questions. Documentary DVDs is another great source for self-learning. But for Maths, I would play a more active role and request them to do certain amount of work. Their progress will depend on how fast they can absorb. Besides the seat work, they also pick up maths concepts via books such as this - http://www.amazon.com/Sir-Cumference-Dragon-Math-Adventure/dp/1570911649 .

In homeschooling, most parents would tend to focus on more than just academics. You can be sure that homeschooling kids are also exposed to the various activities that school kids take part. Maybe more. Nothing unusual as they have more time.

Homeschooling certainly has its pros and cons. By nature, i'm not a very sociable creature. Making effort to create interaction opportunity for my kids tires me out easily. So, I would prefer to put my children back to schools though my daughter feels otherwise. How not to when she goes to bed at 10pm and wakes up after 9.30am everyday? :snooze:

That is such an interesting book on maths! Thanks for recommending that! Hehe, my boy sleeps at 10pm and wakes at 9.30am if there's no activity in the morning.

[cnimed]

chamonix:

By nature, i'm not a very sociable creature. Making effort to create interaction opportunity for my kids tires me out easily. So, I would prefer to put my children back to schools though my daughter feels otherwise.

oh man, I feel the same way. Fortunately our neighbourhood have many boys and my kids are outdoorsy boys. If I should pull ds1 out of school again, I will just send him down to the playground instead of chasing the many socials.

[phankao]

Chenonceau:

Oi? Oi? Oi? I am still waiting for you to share about your 2 year old and the P1 syllabus.

Don't have lah. He's 3, and so far working on K2 Singapore Math syllabus. Very very very slowly. Like maybe a few times a week only. Nothing astounding. What's in the syllabus seems quite simple. At the topic of grouping in Tens & Ones at the moment. I suspect he's gone through it in school as he seems to know.

[sean wife]

Are most gifted kids naturally motivated?