Q: Our son has a high IQ, and is considered gifted. Should we allow him to skip a couple of grades?

A: In most cases, I think it's usually best to allow a child to identify with the grade level that describes his age group. My best advice for all home schoolers is to move ahead at a comfortable pace as long as the child continues to love learning.

If a child's birthday is fairly close to your state's "cut-off" date for school entry, it's usually okay to start a child in home school kindergarten one year early, IF you're convinced that he is academically advanced, physically similar to other children in that grade, emotionally mature, and exhibits self-motivation for learning along with a quickly growing attention span. Using those characteristics as a guide will help prevent problems later.

Additionally, although this may sound old-fashioned, I do think it's sometimes easier for girls to start early than for boys. It's a fact that boys are more often mis-diagnosed with ADD/ADHD than girls; perhaps they just need a few more years to wiggle. So, gender is another factor for parents to consider.

As teachers, we should remember that enrichment is often more important than advancement, especially in the early years. In other words, teach deeper instead of faster. One option is to pursue an enriched curriculum throughout elementary years, and if a child still exhibits a need to advance more quickly, allow him to skip the 8th grade and accelerate toward college prep courses and college level courses from there as needed. It's also fairly easy, with some good planning, for students with high IQ's to complete a college-prep high school program in three years if desired.

Keep in mind that if you do move ahead, and an advanced level of learning becomes stressful, don’t be afraid to take a break, try a new approach, or even take a few steps back.

I've seen people regret moving ahead too quickly, but rarely have I seen them regret progressing at a steady pace. Make common sense and nurture your guides, and discipleship your goal. Be careful to avoid the influences of selfish ambition or pride, and you will be sure to make a wise decision.

Happy Home Schooling,
Mrs. Sherry

P.S. To read about how we made a decision about grade assignment for our daughter for the next school year, visit the home page of my website: www.sherryfiscella.com. You can cut and paste the address into your browser, or there's a link to the right.

While looking for an easy way to explain to a home school mom how to calculate a GPA for a high school transcript, I found an easy-to-use online GPA calculator.

Just copy and paste the following link into your browser, and you'll be able to figure your student's GPA in just a couple of minutes just by plugging in grades and credits earned:

http://www.pahomeschool.com/transcript.html

Happy Home Schooling!
Mrs. Sherry

Home schooling hasn't always been given legal status in every state, and there's no guarantee that it will continue to be legal unless we vigilantly guard our parental rights. The article below is from www.parentalrights.org (link to the left). Please read it and decide how you can make a difference in protecting our rights from an international Trojan horse.

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Part I of an In-depth Look at Article 13 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child from www.parentalrights.org:

This week, we continue our series on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by considering Article 13, which states that “the child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice.”

The crux of this article is the child’s “right to information.” Children access information through what they are taught and what they discover on their own. This week, we will consider the Convention’s implications on what children are taught.

Homeschooling

Article 13 is far more sweeping than any right articulated by our Constitution or Supreme Court, guaranteeing all children the right to seek information of all kinds. International author and commentator Marian Koren explains that although the state should generally refrain from interfering in the family, “the State also has a positive obligation in supporting the possibilities for children to seek information or to express their views.” Ultimately, “it is the duty of the State to respect the rights of the child and his freedom to thought, conscience, belief, expression and opinion.” (emphasis in original)

Although the United States has not yet ratified the CRC, there is a growing sentiment that the state should bear the responsibility for ensuring that children are “properly educated,” instead of parents. A striking example occurred this past February, when a California court declared in In Re Rachel L. that “parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children,” unless they are certified by the state to teach. In so ruling, the court declined to follow the Supreme Court’s 1972 decision in Wisconsin v. Yoder and its 2000 ruling in Troxel v. Granville, which guarantee parents the fundamental right to direct the upbringing and education of their children.

Whose Responsibility?

Rachel L., like Article 13, presumes that it is ultimately the state’s duty to ensure that the child’s right to information is respected. The California court quoted repeatedly from an earlier California decision in 1952, which concluded that children must be educated in traditional public or private schools, subject to state standards and regulations: anything less would “take from the state all-efficient authority to regulate the education of the prospective voting population.” (emphasis added)

The language of “all-efficient authority” is not the language of liberty. According to Dr. Martin Guggenheim, Professor of Law at New York University, “our future as a democracy depends on nurturing diversity of minds. The legal system’s insistence on private ordering of familial life ultimately guards against state control of its citizens.” There may be questions over the “best way” to educate children, but according to Guggenheim, the American answer is that “unless the answers are so clear that there is no room to disagree, parents are free to decide for themselves what they believe will best serve their children.”

Thankfully, the public outcry to this decision led California courts to decide to rehear the Rachel L. decision this summer, allowing parents - at least for the moment - to continue teaching their children at home. But only time will tell whether the California courts will have a change of heart, or whether the damaging decision will simply be repeated. The strong words of the first Rachel L. decision suggest that this is a real possibility.

America’s legal heritage has consistently held that parents, not the state, have the right to decide whether their children would best benefit from public schooling, a private school, or even learning at home, but this recent decision from California highlights just how tenuous this freedom can be. If we wish to secure these freedoms, we must act now to place parental rights beyond the reach of judges by protecting them within the Constitution.

Additional Sources:

Marian Koren, “The Right to Information: Too Vague to Be True?” in Monitoring Children’s Rights, Eugeen Verhellen, ed. (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1996): 675.

In Re Rachel L., 73 Cal.Rptr.3d 77 (Ca.App. 2008)(VACATED)

Martin Guggenheim, What’s Wrong with Children’s Rights (2005): 24-27, 43.

Normally, when something sounds too good to be true, it is.

My friend, Christine, recently told me about this website: www.freepaperbacks.com. It seems this is one good deal that checks out!

You can become a member of this co-op style site for free. Then, you can earn points by listing and trading your own old or duplicate used books (they don't necessarily have to be paperback). You can use the points you earn to order books from other site members at no cost. The only cost to you is the price of mailing your books to other members. Printing off postage from the site keeps everyone honest.

Christine has tried the system and it works! So, I've done some browsing and intend to give it a try myself. There's a huge section of home schooling books. If you've tried it, let me know your experience.

I know we're all looking for ways to save a buck in this economy, and this sounds like a great way to do it!

Happy Home Schooling,
Mrs. Sherry


P.S. Thanks for the great tip, Christine!

No foolin'! April is Math Awareness Month.

When I was a math student, the last thing I wanted was to be more aware of math. Because of my own math struggles, however, I've ended up being a much better math teacher than I was a math student. I tend to be sympathetic with fellow math-phobiacs, and my difficulties motivate me to find clever ways to remember formulas and rules.

One great elementary website I recently discovered has great on-line and printable activities across the curriculum, math included. One of the great things about the math section is the printable manipulatives students can use to solve the math problems written in poetic form. To visit the site, copy and paste this address in your browser:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/CLF/index.htm?grade=grdk2&subject=math

If you have a math question, or a great strategy or help you've discovered for your own math student, I'd love for you to share it in the comment section below.

Happy Problem Solving!
Mrs. Sherry