Simple Living, Homeschooling, Faith, Homemaking, & Books
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We are now homeschooling eighth grade. I wanted to share our relaxed homeschooling curriculum choices for this year. With Caroline's input, I've put together an interesting collection of materials that should make for a good year. As a general rule, eighth grade is the time for relaxed homeschoolers to prepare their child for high school …
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When I submitted my name to review Helping Your Child with Language-Based Learning Disabilities, I thought it would be worth checking out as something to maybe refer to from time to time. I thought it would be worth knowing about the book in case it might be helpful for some of my readers either now or in the future. I had no idea it was going …
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We recently completed our first standardized testing. This is not required in our state, but I did want to get a snapshot of where Caroline is at this point in our relaxed homeschooling journey with a gifted/2e child. I had the opportunity to do a Stanford Achievement Test with her as part of doing a review of Homeschool Testing Services so I …
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This year we officially start middle school with sixth grade. How is that possible? But it is! We've settled into our relaxed homeschooling approach as it is the best way to do homeschooling for our little family. Although I would really like to be an unschooler, I know after trial and error it won't work with my highly creative and imaginative …
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I mention frequently that Caroline is creative and spends a lot of her time doing artistic things whether it is building on the computer (Minecraft, Roblox, Animal Jam, etc.) or with real life media. I've asked her a few times if she'd like to share photos of some of her creations with you, but she never was ready. Until yesterday! Yesterday she …
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There are many reasons why a parent might want to have their gifted child tested. I'm going to focus on the primary reasons we chose to pay for professional testing and the outcomes. Parts of this might seem a bit cryptic and I don't mean to be that way. But I am going to protect my child's privacy and not divulge numerous details (as interesting …
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Minecraft is a powerful learning tool. Although I was highly skeptical of it when my daughter first expressed an interest, our family's experience with Minecraft completely changed my mind. So can Minecraft be an educational tool? Absolutely. Should you integrate it into your homeschool planning? It can be done, but not in our home. I have, in …
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How old is your gifted child? My oldest is 5, and he’s twice exceptional. My younger two are age 3 and 2, and are likely twice exceptional too, but in different ways. When did you realize your child was gifted? We didn’t realize that our oldest was gifted until we started trying to get him ready for kindergarten. Both my husband and I …
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Welcome to the wonderful world of having a gifted/2e child! I know it doesn’t feel wonderful at times. It sometimes feels overwhelming, frustrating, and bewildering. The reality is these children offer us a unique opportunity to grow as individuals and parents. Below is a collection of posts that I hope will encourage you as you seek to effectively …
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Sometimes things seem so obvious in retrospect. The loneliness of homeschooling a gifted child is one of those truths that somehow fully escaped me until recently. I realized it feels a bit like I'm going down a never-ending rabbit hole of moving further and further out of the norm in terms of our homeschooling. And the further you move away from …
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When did you know you were different from other children? Is there a particular event that stands out? I knew pretty early that I was different from other children. I believe I was about 3 to 4 years of age. My first friendships with children seem to be of most frustration. I remember trying to mingle more with their parents than my age peers. I …
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Over the past couple of years I've participated in a number of groups for parents of gifted/2e children. I see the same questions voiced over and over again. I want to respond, but I don't want to appear negative and I don't have time to write out a lengthy response each time. This post is that response. And it is lengthy. If you are new to …
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Twice-exceptional or 2e children are those who are both gifted and have a learning difference. Because they are gifted, they are far beyond their peers in at least some academic areas. Because they have a learning difference, they lag behind their peers in at least one area. These learning differences can be challenges such as dysgraphia, dyslexia, …
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This year my curriculum post is going to be a bit different. (You can see my past ones here, here, here and here.) I'm writing about homeschooling a gifted/2e visual-spatial learner. Kind of specific, don't you think? And yet that is the world that we live in at our home. :-) We've undergone a significant shift in our homeschooling philosophy …
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This past fall we made the decision to seek out occupational therapy (OT) for Caroline. She was struggling a great deal with the act of writing and we also suspected she had some midline issues. With her permission, I'm going to write about our experience with occupational therapy for dysgraphia or writing problems. We strongly believe in …
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If you receive my newsletter, you already know that the past couple of weeks were tough. I mentioned in the last newsletter that I was calling the previous week my Homeschool Mom Professional Development Week to put a positive spin on it. But the truth of the matter is that I've been going through a period of when homeschooling is hard. Calling …
