My Homeschooling Experience
First, let me give you a background of my expertise in this area. Before I was an early childhood professional, I was a homeschooling mom. Each of my three children were very different, but my middle child bordered on gifted and my youngest was advanced. My middle child learned to read before her fourth birthday, and by her fifth birthday she was reading on a third grade reading level. My youngest and oldest learned to read in kindergarten, but my youngest excelled in math concepts. On the Stanford achievement test, which my children took every school year, my oldest always registered slightly above average, my youngest always scored squarely above average except in math where he scored in the 99th percentile even in the private school ratings, and my middle child always scored in the high 90s if not 99th in percentile on everything even in the more competitive private school ratings. By the way, I did not teach to the test. I just let the test happen every year without any prep, which is how that is supposed to work. The tests are meant to show the teacher if any holes are occurring in instruction so corrections can be made in curriculum planning.
Keep Them Challenged
How did this translate into my philosophy concerning the teaching of gifted and advanced children? My youngest two children taught me how important it is to keep children like that challenged. Recently, I read an article that talked about why it is not important for children to learn to read at 5 years old. I had to laugh out loud. My middle child does not even remember not being able to read, and she thinks every child should have that opportunity. The author of that article obviously never talked to any adults like my daughter. Granted not every child is ready to read at 5 years old, but holding back an advanced or gifted child is just as horrible as pushing a child that is not ready. This is the reason I designed my preschool to provide one-on-one instruction. Every child needs the opportunity to proceed in their education at their own individual rate. This is why Developmentally Appropriate Practice is so detrimental to advanced and gifted children. A great deal of what I do everyday with advanced and gifted children has been deemed developmentally inappropriate by my assessors, and I have been counted off considerably for it in my QRIS ratings. Of course, I do not give a hoot about whether or not these "experts" consider what I do as developmentally inappropriate because their scale was designed for below average to average children. In case you did not know, these scales and developmentally appropriate standards used by some states and accreditation systems for assessment purposes were designed for the population of children that normally attends Headstart programs. These children tend to be disadvantaged and usually fall in the below average to average categories on standardized measures. The scales and standards were designed with this population in mind, and therefore should not be considered appropriate measures for the population at large especially advanced and gifted children. This also makes them inappropriate measures for children with developmental delays, which is the other end of the spectrum.
The Way I Do It
Over the years, I have tended to attract children from the two extreme ends of the spectrum and not very many from the middle in my childcare program. This is probably because I was the only program for miles that actually catered to advanced and gifted children. Does this mean that I run one of those programs that makes children sit all day long and work on pages? No. The children's one-on-one instruction takes anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes according to the child's maturity level. The rest of the day I let them play without getting all up in their business. Play is extremely important for a child's development at every point on the spectrum, but this does not have to be an either or situation. The one-on-one instruction design gives me the freedom to adjust my instruction to each child's maturity and cognitive level while at the same time allowing the child to play most of the day. Does that mean I might have 3 year olds working on prereading skills while at the same time I have four year olds learning their colors? Absolutely. If a child has learned all the points leading up to prereading, then I let that child keep going at their own pace.
The "Crab" Effect
At this point I want to talk about the "crab" effect. Our public school systems have been compared to crab buckets. Let me explain. In a crab bucket, when one crab tries to climb out of the bucket, the rest of the crabs pull that crab back down. This is basically what happens to advanced and gifted children in the public school system. They have to fight the other crabs in order to climb above the fray, and many children will simply play dumb in order to avoid this "crab" effect. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that this could explain quite a bit of why our country struggles to train the highly educated professionals we need for emerging industries. Having been the "geek" in school, I know having to fight against the fray leaves deep emotional scars for some children. One of these days, someone is going to be brave enough to suggest that maybe we need to start grouping children by ability rather than age and go to a more individualized instruction environment. Actually, these people are already out there, they are just being pulled back by the "crabs" of society. This is why I homeschooled. I knew my children might take after me, and I did not want their education to be dictated by the "crabs." Did my experiment work? My middle child is now in graduate school doing what she loves. My youngest child is in college and pursuing a career in the music field. My oldest is married with children, which is exactly what she wants out of life. I think I did okay.
Curriculum for Advanced and Gifted Children
What does curriculum look like for advanced and gifted children? This is probably the question that causes the most consternation for early childhood professionals. However, one only has to look into the homeschooling world to find the answer. Many homeschooling curriculums have detailed teacher's books that are not difficult to follow even for someone who does not have educational training. I will tell you that early childhood classes offer no instruction for teaching advanced and gifted children because they are built on the Developmentally Appropriate Practice standards. You will have to look elsewhere. Most of the advanced and gifted children I have had over the years graduated from all the instruction provided by early childhood classes by the age of three and a half if not before. I use a homeschooling curriculum and usually start prereading skills with most of these children at the age of three. Many of these children are learning to read short words at the age of four and full-on reading by the age of five. Of course, I use a phonics-based program, which will be the topic of my posts on Saturdays for the next little while.
The Need for Social/Emotional Instruction
Before I leave this topic, I want to discuss one aspect of teaching advanced and gifted children that is often overlooked by most everyone. That is social/emotional instruction. Because these children are so intelligent, many times adults tend to overlook their social and emotional instruction. However, these children need this instruction just as much if not more than other children. Many highly intelligent children struggle with social concepts. This is not just a stereotype. Many children who fall in what is considered the average category on standardized measures usually have strengths in social intelligence rather than more cognitive intelligence. Many children who have strong cognitive intelligence tend to be weak in social intelligence. However, all it takes is some instruction and training to help these children increase their social intelligence just like cognitive instruction improves those whose strength is social intelligence. Do not neglect the social/emotional instruction with any group of children.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!
Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
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