heartofdakota.com

We had started out our 2nd grade year w/Beyond and ending up switching to Bigger because I felt like he needed something more challenging. Now we are finishing up 2nd grade and I was planning to use Bigger on into 3rd grade but his LA skills keep growing by leaps and bounds!! Examples: He just turned 8 last month and can write all the dictation in Bigger with 100% accuracy. He has immaculate cursive writing, neater than most adults writing! He can already compose original stories (and poetry) with correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I haven't had his reading ability tested- but it's probably at least around 7th-9th grade level?? He actually memorized and can recite nearly a full chapter of an audiobook (Captain Nobody) we checked out from the library. Help! I feel like everything I buy for him in LA becomes obsolete within 2 short months! Do we just stick with Bigger for History, Geography (also his incredibly gifted area!), Bible, Read Alouds, and Science and do something totally different for LA? If so, what?? Do I let him just write his own stories, copy out of his favorite books, and write letters (this is what he has been doing) rather than buying more LA "curriculum" for him? Any thoughts or advice? Thanks!

My first thought when I read your title, was rejoice! He sounds very gifted in LA. What a blessing! It sounds like he is really excelling in Bigger. Is he doing really well with the history and science also? How far along are you in Bigger? If you go and take a fresh look at the placement chart, where does he place now? I know you want to keep him challenged yet you don't want to overwhelm in other areas either. Are you taking a break for the summer or continuing to work on things? How is the length of your day going? Do you feel he needs more to do? It sounds like he is doing a lot extra on his own already anyway. On the one hand, I could see just letting him pursue his interests in the way he has been and stick with where you are at maybe adding in an additional writing program like Igniting Your Writing if you wanted a bit more for him. On the other hand if you feel he is not well placed in the program overall, you might want to consider moving him up to Preparing. I wouldn't consider that jump at all though unless you feel he isn't well placed in all the other skill areas as well. It is a big jump up in skills across the board and a longer day also. Are you currently doing DITHOR for reading? That's another area where you could challenge him more by increasing the reading level of the books. If you could share a bit more, maybe we can brainstorm with you and help you figure out a good plan.

I would keep him in Bigger but let him go quickly through the things he's gifted in.

With dictation, you could let him do several in a day (provided he gets them correct first try) until he gets to a point that he makes a mistake. Then you'd do one a day until he catches up with that. My kids are not overly gifted in LA, slightly above average, and I have to do that from time to time.

With grammar, you might could do several sections in a day. I'd probably spread it out though... do one section, then do the left side of Bigger, then another section, then the right side, then another section? provided he already knows the information. The alternative is to just keep moving along with English through any breaks you take.

handwriting my kids just do whenever they want to.... I don't really care much about handwriting so this is just what we do. They average one lesson per day generally.

I'd have him do more detailed work with the vocabulary cards, and do all three for sure. And I'd make sure his answers with DITHOR were deeper than just surface answers.


I know how you feel though... my 6yo is very amazing. She could easily do Bigger with my 8yo. However I'm staying with LHFHG, adding in spelling and ERs, and letting her go her own pace in math. I don't feel like I need to advance the curriculum up, I feel like I need to widen it. Branch OUT instead of moving ahead. She does awana, and really excells at that, but it gives another outlet for her thinking. We let her read anything we have because we have made a conscious decision not to have anything out that she can't read (with the exception of sisters school books... she'll get to those when she gets to those guides!) We also have a lot of science experiment kits that they can do pretty much whenever they please.

I am a parent of a gifted child in language arts. She is in 7th grade and tests college level. At 3rd grade, she tested in high school. She started kindergarten on a 3rd grade level. My recommendation is to explore the gift outside school. Let him move at his own pace within curriculum and move forward quickly if he wishes. There will be plateaus. With my dd, I let her join a forum for a book series that she was very engrossed at the time. She wrote fan fiction and posted it and got feedback from those who also were fans of the series. We have went with the route that although she is gifted that doesn't mean giving more work or harder work necessarily but letting her expand her gifts in her own way and to foster a love for her gifts. She is gifted in language arts and has an artistic flair and pursues drawing.
She expanded on these loves with the computer and spent a year teaching herself psp (paint shop pro) and digital art techniques that she could add to her fan fiction. I always just let her find book series that she loved on her level (you may have to screen for content though depending on interest). She now has an affinity for learning computer graphics, telling stories, writing fan fiction, and learning to film these stories. All of this self-taught. Because she has the ability to complete her "school" work quickly and efficiently, she has the time to pursue these interests and to hone her skills and self-teach her interests. That is truly what I would recommend for a gifted child. They have the natural ability...just nurture that gift and help them find an avenue to expand on their interests and gifts.
If I would have just kept pushing her to the next level of a school book, then we would not have discovered all her hidden talents and she wouldn't have fostered a love of writing that expands into talents that could turn into a future career.

Thanks for all the helpful ideas and insight! I think I'm going to stay the course with Bigger, knowing we're covering our bases, and working on some obedience issues (& doing work with a cheerful attitude). I like the idea of letting him get his work completed quickly and allowing him time to pursue his own interests. This is pretty much what we've been doing already- I just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing him a disservice by doing that. Thanks again ladies!!