Child Development Question for Home School Parents (vanity)

Texas Republicans

[Marie]

I've always considered this behavior normal as both my children did this at an early age. I still consider them average, but now my daughter is working 5 years ahead of her peers in math and reading and she finished her 8th grade science textbook in two months. (She would be in the 4th grade this year)

I'm starting to see that they are above average, but I don't know how much of this is natural talent and how much can be credited to attentive parenting. Perhaps the seeds are there, but the little sprouts still need to be tended.

My advice would be to ENJOY him and homeschool him! Yes, I homeschool and I believe that this is the optimal way to educate any child.

[jstag]

Try this website if you are, in fact, from Texas.

http://www.thsc.org/

[bimmer]

haven't heard of those but they sound great! my 16-year-old still listens to books on tape at night, believe it or not. he enjoys the Left Behind series and Lord of the Rings by the BBC, as well as classics like David Copperfield.

[TontoKowalski]

About a year ago, when he was your son's age, my wife found some US President flashcards.

Similar story, only our boy learned them from a plastic placemat. He'd ask who they were while he was eating, and we'd tell him...really not expecting anything. It was just a placemat. The first time he reeled them off we were in the car, and he said "I'll say the Presidents" and proceeded to name them all off from memory. Then he did it backwards. We were floored.

(though his pronunciation was of course rather off).

Again, similar story. During the episode mentioned above, I had to pull off the road when he got to "Fartin' Van Buren."

[watchin]

My addvise is like that you not to homeskool yur kid, cuz he won't like fit in or be like cool and he might not you know learn good like uther kids that are like hiz aje and all.

Seriously, the only really difficult thing about homeschooling is attempting to answer criticisms like that. Whether your child is exceptional or just plain "normal", homeschooling is the right choice.