Is Your Child Gifted?

Does your child display the following traits?

In the school district where I work, all 2nd graders take the Otis-Lennon School Achievement Test (OLSAT). Students with high enough scores are referred for gifted identification. But students who do not meet the OLSAT's criteria can be identified as "gifted/talented" if they frequently or consistently display:

1)Strong powers of reasoning, ability to make comparisons and generalizations, and ability to see cause-and-effect relationships.

2)Ability to concentrate, to become totally submerged and absorbed in an assignment, project, or activity.

3)Approaches tasks in unexpected, unusual, and original ways.

4)Ability to use humor to make a point, to change a situation to gain an advantage, or to connect diverse knowledge.

5)Displays keen powers of perception and observation that can frequently detect fallacies and inconsistencies.

6)Thinks of and asks questions which involve logical-thinking processes.

7)Shows fluency in his/her native language; uses expressive speech, extensive vocabulary, and natural communication skills.

8)Improvises with commonplace materials and objects.

9)Shows a "street sense" and is recognized by others as a person who has the ability to "make it" in the dominant society.

10)Uses body language and gestures expressively; has ability to interpret body language.

11)Displays inner conflicts about academic achievement.

12)Enjoys group activities and problem solving; relates well to peers and is respected by them and is seen as a leader (may be perceived as leading in a negative way).

13)Uses richness of imagery in informal language.

14)Is sensitive and empathetic to the feelings of others but is impatient with illogical, careless, or disorganized thinking.

15)Possesses a sense of justice and fairness, intuitively understands why certain behavior is positive and another is negative.

16)Is highly sensitive to social and moral issues, particularly those in which the student's sense of reason seems to be violated.

17)Likes flexibility in scheduling and experience; is resistant to routine drill.

18)Demonstrates high-level social skills and leadership qualities. Enjoys competition but also works in cooperation with others.

Teachers mark students on a scale of 1 through 5, 1 being "no opportunity to observe," 2 being "seldom," 3 being "occasionally," 4 being "frequently," and 5 being "consistently."

When I was in 5th grade in Central California, I took a test, was identified "gifted," and was accepted at a magnet for gifted and talented children. I was so excited to attend a special school.

Because I started the school (a 2nd-6th grade school) in 6th grade, I was the new kid with no friends. On top of that, I had three hours of homework each night. I was miserable. So my mother removed me from the school.

My parents had raised me in a way that encouraged reasoning, creativity, humor, and so on, and so every time I look at this checklist, I see these traits as habits, trainable, the result of nurture. While a child may be predisposed to being highly intelligent - as Charlotte Mason said -

Education is an atmosphere.

Field Trip - Santa Monica Festival

"To invent, 

you need 

a good imagination 

and 

a pile of junk." 

My three year old dressed herself today - in her Sully costume, complete with Velcro tail - for our field trip to the Santa Monica Festival, a community event that is held at a nearby park each year.

We started off by visiting the fire department's booth for a yellow plastic fire fighter's hat.

Next up, my daughter played in the "pop-up playground" made from cardboard boxes and cardboard tubes. The above quote is by Thomas Edison and was displayed at the entrance.

Worried that my child would be smashed by rambunctious boys jumping on top of boxes to flatten them, I pulled her away to the dance floor where she Zumba'ed for a good twenty minutes. We followed that up with a blue and green snow cone, two children's music classes, dribbling a soccer ball up and down (and up and down) the field, and dress up at a booth run by a group that does children's theatre camp.

My daughter hasn't napped all week, but this afternoon she slept for three hours!

Scouting

In Parents' Union Schools, 4th through 6th graders took "under direction, six scouting expeditions" per term. This works out to one every two weeks. This site has Baden Powell's 1908 book on scouting. A fun read.

Puzzle Math

A fun preschool/kindergarten math activity you can make yourself.

Here's what you need:
Index cards
Do-A-Dot paints
markers
scissors

I wanted to introduce addition, so I took 4 index cards and made the following facts:
3 + 0
2 + 1
1 + 2
and I meant to make 0 + 3, but - oops - I made a second 3 + 0

Charlotte Mason used dominoes. I didn't have dominoes, and I didn't want to buy dominoes, so I made something with what was on-hand. The result? My daughter loved it. Who doesn't love puzzles?

The Brainy Bunch book - Part 3

Questions answered about The Brainy Bunch...

Yesterday, Paola Collazo asked the following:
Does the book mention what Universities the children have attended? Does it mention a typical day for them? Do these kids get to be kids? Does it feel like this is something the parents want accomplished, or are the children interested as well? How do they prepare their children spiritually? What is their reason for starting college at 12? Again, thanks for your valuable input.

I hope this helps...

1)Does the book mention what Universities the children have attended?
Cuesta College (San Luis Obispo, California - their oldest took an online algebra class)
California College of the Arts
Faulkner University
Huntingdon College
Foothill College (California)
Allan Hancock (College Now! program)
Troy
Auburn University
Santa Clara University (California)
CSU East Bay

2)Does it mention a typical day for them?
On page 124, there is a "sample schedule" for Katrinnah (on the cover, she is listed as age 10).
*Dress, breakfast, chores
*Bible study, ACT review (one section per day), & writing
*Lunch
*Reading (history & science), math, Spanish, violin or piano
*2:30 p.m. - play outside
*No homework, just free reading

(Note that subjects such as literature - including Shakespeare and poetry - art appreciation, and music appreciation are not mentioned.)

3)Do these kids get to be kids?
I guess it depends on your definition of "kid." There is an implication that if a child goes a traditional route, the child will be subjected to the negative aspects of the teen years, and that if a child spends their teen years in college, they will be so focused on their future that they will bypass negative pressures.

4)Does it feel like this is something the parents want accomplished, or are the children interested as well? 
This is the culture of their family. With the older children entering college by 12, it is what the younger children consider "normal." It seems that the children want to do it both because it is what their parents want, and because it's just what one does when one is a Harding.

5)How do they prepare their children spiritually? 
Bible is part of their daily schedule. "By age six we are teaching...Bible stories... By age eight the children are learning Bible truths and are learning to really verbalize them... By age ten they are reading the Bible independently and figuring out what they really believe and why..." (page 101). The book also mentions participation in AWANA and attending church.

6)What is their reason for starting college at 12?
When their first daughter, Hannah, reached Mona Lisa's level of proficiency in math (Algebra II, she writes that she was "too tired to relearn trigonometry," Kip realized Hannah could be earning dual credit for high school and college by enrolling in an online class. That was their reasoning for their first child, but ultimately, they see high school as a waste of time, a hoop to jump through ("It should not have to take four whole years to cover four years of high school, especially if you homeschool all year-round" page 55). On page 61, the Hardings write, "In the course of a lifetime, people change their jobs and careers several times. I expect my children might also do the same. Why not start the process early?" One could also ask WHY? On page 71, they write, "Although they may be eighteen or younger when they receive their baccalaureate degrees, they will still face the same challenges the twenty-two- or twenty-three-year-old graduates face with having little job experience. It is better to face that earlier than later." These are opinions. The Hardings offer no statistical evidence to support these statements.

What it all boils down to is that a homeschooler's experiences (in life and with education) influence his or her educational philosophy. Maybe Kip Harding (who went back to school when his oldest children were very young, and is currently working on a doctorate in education) wishes he'd had the opportunity to accomplish more earlier and wants to give that opportunity to his children. I think the Hardings are well-intentioned and what they are doing works for them. But this book should be read as more of a memoir than a manual of "The Harding Family Method to College Ready by Age Twelve" (the book's subtitle).

For the two previous posts about this book, click here and here.

More on "The Brainy Bunch" book

The Brainy Bunch by Kip and Mona Lisa Harding has some useful information, but there are parts with which I disagree:

1)"Professional educators" do not diagnose children with ADD. (On page 16, the Hardings write, "We won’t address the issue of ADD in this book except to say that many a child has been mislabeled by professional educators only to completely excel when brought home to be educated.") ADD is a mental disorder (included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Teachers train to teach; doctors train to diagnose and treat medical conditions. Teachers keep records of their observations, and sometimes those observations include things like This morning, shortly after entering the classroom, Student X took apart his mechanical pencil and, using the pieces and a rubber band, built a weapon with it. When a teacher is concerned about a student, the teacher requests a meeting with parents and other faculty (an administrator, a counselor, a resource teacher, the school psychologist, etc.). The parents may choose to have their child assessed by a doctor, but this is up to the parents. The child's doctor can then determine if the child has special needs. (To take this one step further, when I send a child to the nurse, I can only report facts, such as Student X says she feels hot. I cannot say Student X has a fever, because this is a diagnosis.) I agree that my student who took apart the mechanical pencil would be better educated in a one-on-one setting, however, I do not agree that he would be better educated at home because this particular child's stay-at-home parent cannot read.

2)Sometimes God orchestrates things so that the father will be the stay-at-home parent. (On page 31, the Hardings write, "My husband and I have an understanding that he will be the provider and I will be the keeper of the home. This works for us. My role as a wife and mother gives me a lot of joy and security. I put my trust in God to provide for us through my husband. I know this may not be a popular view, but it is a biblical one.") To doubt that God will provide through whomever He has placed in the role of provider would be anti-biblical, but it is not anti-biblical for a father to raise his child and a mother to work outside the home.

3)The Hardings have let their children live with relatives, in dorms, and in apartments while they are still minors. While this has worked for them, I think it is definitely one of the issues a parent has to consider before following the Hardings' college by 12 plan. 

4)On page 89, the Hardings write, "This is a great disaster that has come upon families around the world. Instead of beautiful, thriving, bountiful households, people settle for smaller visions, short-term results, and simpler expectations. We all need to trust in God's Word more. He did not say, 'Be fruitful and divide,' nor 'subtract,' nor even 'add,' but 'Be fruitful and multiply.'" It's wonderful that the Hardings have chosen to have ten children, but to use Old Testament commandments (to Adam and Eve to initially populate the earth, to Noah to repopulate the earth, and to Jacob to father the Israelite nation) to judge other - less fruitful - people as contributing to a great disaster is preposterous and offensive.

5)Short essays written by the Harding children are interspersed throughout the book. These essays are well-written and sweet, but not literary. One of the things that draws me to Charlotte Mason is the emphasis on literature. I want my daughter's writing to be grammatically correct, generous, and artful.

6)The Hardings don't do lab science with their children (pg. 147). Their children read books about science, and when they go to college, they do lab science at school.

7)Chapter 14 ("Ideas, Exercises, and Experiments") is uninspiring. There are better suggestions on homeschoolers' blogs and Pinterest pages.

8)On page 154, the Hardings write about why their children do not do extracurricular activities: "We do not always explain that we choose to pursue extracurriculars at the college level. We do not want to hurt their feelings but we think it is important for others to see our kids as college students." In Fresno, California, where I was born and raised, I participated in community theater with Good Company Players. On Sunday, another Fresnan and Good Company Players player Audra MacDonald won her sixth Tony Award. In her acceptance speech, MacDonald thanked her parents for "disobeying the doctors’ orders and not medicating the hyperactive girl, and finding out what she was into instead, and pushing her into the theater." This is up to parents. Extracurriculars can be costly and time consuming, or (like community theatre) free and time consuming, but they can also be the way children discover what they are good at and passionate about. 

For my earlier post about The Brainy Bunch, click here.

Tortilla Face

A fun preschool dinner your child can make

To make a tortilla face, you need 1 tortilla, a cherry tomato, refried beans, whole beans, olives, an orange (not pictured), and shredded cheese.

Your child can spread refried beans on a tortilla.

Let your child make bean eyebrows and bean smile.

This is where she got the idea.

Add sliced olives for eyes, a halved cherry tomato for a nose, and shredded cheese for hair. Microwave for one minute (my daughter didn't want to do this step). Add orange slices for ears. (You can add salsa or avocado, or both, if you like.)

In the end, my daughter ate the hair, the eyes, and the parts of the tortilla that weren't beany. I tried to get her to take a tiny taste of the other ingredients, but the only "new" food I could get her to taste (and by "taste" I mean lick) was an orange slice. So... it was a SUCCESS!