Home Schooling the Gifted Preschooler

Each child is unique and every single child on this planet has gifts. By "gifted" we're referring to a child who has unusual talents and aptitude in one or more areas, beyond that which is found in most children. Gifted does not always mean a high IQ, but often can. Gifted does not mean better than other children, nor does it guarantee success in adult life.

What kinds of gifts does your child have? There are children who are musically talented who are average students in other subjects. There are some who begin reading early and can sit still through long lessons, while others may not enjoy being read to but produce amazing art at a very young age. There are some children who seem to excel in all or most areas or in one area to an amazing degree, such as very early readers or mathematicians.

Why it's easy to home school a gifted child

A child who is gifted in many ways is very easy to teach. As many have high intelligence and wonderful memories, instead of spending a great deal of time explaining something and explaining it again the next day when you move onto the next lesson, they just understand and remember. Often they are very curious and eager to learn, so it's a pleasure to watch them soak up everything you've taught them and then suddenly explain it back to you. They also have amazing aptitude and reward your efforts with advanced reasoning and questions. What could be more delightful?

Why it's difficult to home school a gifted child

But there is the other side of the coin. The highly gifted child can quickly become bored or moody in class if its too easy. They can intentionally get answers wrong, just to shake things up because you're reviewing something they understood the first time and find tedious. This is more likely to happen in a classroom with other children who are not at your child's level, but it can even happen when the lesson you've planned is just too easy.

In addition, when a subject is actually challenging for them, they may give up easily and need extra encouragement because they are used to everything being easy and they haven't yet learned how to persevere through adversity. Those skills is one of the most important things you can teach your gifted child.

They are also surprisingly perceptive, so simple answers to difficult questions may not satisfy them. They will continue to press for information even more doggedly than the average preschooler, to the point where you're ready to say "just because!" But make sure you're consistent in your answers because they will remember what you said last time and reason out if you're just not making any sense.

They also may be intellectually mature, but could be physically, emotionally or socially immature. Be sure not to treat them like a six year old just because they seem like one.

Don't expect too much

Your child is a very special and gifted person, which is why you're reading this guide in the first place. Even if they can sit for hours and read to themselves, that's not what home preschool is about. Since you will be choosing the subjects and books (which may not be the exact thing they are in the mood for at that moment), you may have to break it up into short lessons based on their "school" attention span, which can be less or more depending on the day and their mood.

On most days, my daughter can sit for around 20 minutes at a time in a quiet activity such as reading or coloring before she needs action. My lesson plans are created around her need to change activities from passive to physical. We may open with reading several books, then walk to the garden to water the flowers and talk about seeds. When she's gotten the wiggles out, we'll go back into the classroom and color for around 20 minutes, then turn on the music and dance in her room. On days when she is simply unable to concentrate, we'll spend more time on physical activities such as the water table or play dough and less time on books.

Don't expect too little

Even the most gifted teacher with many students can only teach so much in a day. They can give attention to each child up to a point, but have to move at the pace of the class regardless of if it is too slow to too fast for your child. There are constant distractions and the lesson plans are tailored to the class, not each child. This is not a failing of the teacher, but a simple numerical fact. Any teacher with less students can teach more to each one and a teacher with just one student can be even more productive.

One of the advantages to teaching your child one on one is that you can cover more material in a much shorter time. If you have a list of 50 things that a preschooler may learn in their first year, any home schooled child can in a few months probably learn those plus the 50 for next year in just a few hours a day. Your gifted child may be able to learn far more, covering years of material in several months. Allow your child to progress at their own pace without pushing. Remember, if learning is fun they will always seek it out. A person who loves to learn will normally seek out new ideas and become more educated than someone who was better educated in school but never moves beyond that.

Beware of "tricks" that don't improve education

We've all seen those adorable babies reading on late night infomercials and thought our children could probably do it too. Although its fun to show off the talents of our children, one of the most important things to remember is that your goal isn't teaching impressive "tricks" but giving a depth of education. Nearly any child with repetition and patience can be taught to repeat a difficult phrase, recognize letters on a card or remember clever little sayings to impress your friends, but that doesn't mean they are understanding it or deriving use from it. It does not mean they will be a better reader at seven or seventeen. The goal of each lesson should be a steady block upon which to place the next lesson. You're building a wall of education upon which they can build their lives, not a Ferris wheel of tricks.

Balance

The fact that your child is gifted does not mean they will automatically excel in school or even enjoy learning. It doesn't mean that they won't have subjects which are more difficult for them than others. Being smart in one thing and not as smart in another is nothing to be ashamed of. You have the opportunity now when they are so young to make learning fun and figure out what their strengths and weaknesses are. There will be times when you have to work on things they aren't good at, but figure out ways to make it fun and you may turn your slow reader into a speed reader. Balance is the key as the world can seem to lack balance for those who are uniquely talented.

One of my friends from college was among the most gifted and intelligent young men I've ever met. His gifts were history, music, literature, science-nearly everything with the exception of math. Because math was difficult and he was so talented at everything else, he focused only on his talents and won numerous awards and contests for his skills.

Unfortunately he never learned basic math skills, just barely finished high school math and spent the next ten years trying to find a college program he could pass without math. Failing out of many schools that should have been privileged to have his intellect, he became discouraged and even more convinced he could not learn math. Instead of becoming the intellectual he was born to be, at nearly 30 he still works in a minimum wage job he hates and has no prospects of moving up. This does not have to be the fate of your child, as you can start to teach them early that they don't have to simply focus on what they like and are good at, but at what they need to be a successful adult.

Practical applications:

Create a learning environment for your child

Find a room or a corner just for learning. This should be a quiet place where others in the family are taught not to interrupt lessons. This may be difficult since you have other responsibilities and possibly other children, but its important to create a place and a time that is just for you & the child learning the lesson. Don't expect to multi task by giving a lesson and a worksheet, then getting up to do laundry while they follow your instructions. All but the most focused preschooler will not be able to follow your instructions while you're in the other room. This is their time and you need to be there for it.

During school time, I turn off the phone's ringer and my husband (who works from home) does not interrupt. We use my daughter's play room, but we have a plush, velcro calender that we hang up on her easel when class starts. When it goes up, its school time just for her and when we put it away, school is over. The first thing we do when class begins is to change the date and talk about the month, day, weather and so on. We also have certain books or toys that are just for school time, so that there is an anticipation associated with it. When that calender comes down off the shelf, my daughter joyfully shrieks "School time!"

Curriculum

One of the first places many moms begin to look for preschool curriculum is online. Although most websites only offer coloring pages and few full, free lesson plans, if you're looking for lesson plans for your gifted child you may find that you're very disappointed.

One of the main difficulties I had was finding age appropriate lessons. The preschool lesson plans were-as they should be-full of the basic skills, but they were things my daughter already knew. Of course they were great for practice, but since she'd known her letters since she was 13 months old and could count to 20, they were review only.

I needed plans to teach new skills, but the kindergarten programs I found incorporated physical accomplishments she doesn't yet possess, such as cutting with scissors, glueing and learning complicated dances. I found that my only choice was to create my own curriculum based on her needs and skills, with lots of guidance from online lesson plans.

My daily lesson plan:

Just a few weeks into teaching, I was completely inspired by the concept of the Whole Child by Shirley, a home schooling mom. She offers ideas about all the different aspects of learning that should be covered for maximum child development, including all the subjects I was already teaching my daughter. This is a full education that doesn't emphasize only one area such as art or letters, but focuses on all the mental and physical needs of your child.

We have a daily goal of at least 4 subjects covered, but try to add more when appropriate and she was interested. The subjects we're focusing on include pre-reading/pre-writing, math, science, music, art, history, social studies, and physical education.

Each day would be a specific theme and I would center most of the activities around it. For example, on a day about dinosaurs, we would start with an age appropriate book about dinosaurs. I would read & ask her questions about the pictures, and occasionally have her tell me the letters of certain words and we would sound them out. (Reading, science, and history)

Then we pulled out the playdough and would try to make dinosaurs out of the clay and talk about their size and what they sounded like (art, science). During playdough or coloring time, I always have a classical CD playing very softly in the bacground. When a song she likes comes on, she will get up and dance to it, then sit back down and continue working on her art. If the music starts to distract her, I turn it off. (music, physical education).

Next, we may get out a dinosaur puzzle and put it together. She normally likes to put the puzzle together three or four times before we move on to the next activity. We always count the pieces when we're done to make sure we have them all back in the box. (math, science)

Next, we go out and water the plants in the garden and talk about how some dinosaurs ate plants like the ones in the garden. We talk about the seeds we planted and the colors of the plants.(science)

Once we're back inside, we both get matching coloring book pages I've printed out from online sources which include images of dinosaurs and either the letter "D" or the word "Dinosaur." We both color together. While we're coloring, we trace the letters with our crayons. Often at this point my daughter tries to draw other letters in crayon (she's getting great at M and W).

The reason we both color the same image, is to show her diversity of thought she would learn if she were in preschool with other children. We each color it our own way and thats a good thing. (art, pre writing, pre reading)

Then its music time, which is my daughter's extra special gift. We either sit at the piano or the keyboard and she plays around with the keys. We have a keyboard which can synthesize well over 100 instruments, so sometime she plays the "tuba" or "violin" and then we talk about the instrument (What does it look like? Is it a string or brass instrument? What other instruments does it look like? What does it sound like?) She may play her guitar or we may sing, but music time is one of her favorite times of the day (music)

At this point, I see how my daughter is feeling. Often she's ready for the next active phase, and we'll go to the water table or the playground (science/physical education). If she's ready to stop for the day, I'll put on a movie or special about the subject we were learning about (for dinosaur day it would be her favorite movie , The Land Before Time). Each day is different and most days schooling lasts from 2-4 hours. We normally only repeat her favorite activites two days in a row.

At least once a week we don't do any lesson plan at all and have a field trip day. This can be a trip to the children's museum, the zoo, park, or even the mall. It should be fun but focus on what your child can learn from each place. If you're at the mall, you're not there to shop. You're there to show her all the different kinds of shoes there are and what the difference between leather and plastic boots are. You're there to show her all the different people with different jobs and how they do it-for example, having her watch people make smoothies in the food court. Is there a pet store? You can look at each type of animal and have her give you reasons that fish are different from bunnies. You can turn any trip into an education if you focus on learning from her perspective.

Choosing to home school your gifted preschooler may be the best gift you can give them. With your loving, one on one time, you've giving them a true head start on their education while preserving their love of learning by creating lesson plans that are interesting, attuned to their needs and fit their unique learning style. Your gifted child may need a more customized or active curriculum than other children, but this is all part of the treasure of learning you're exploring with them.