Hi
My dd is 5 in November & we are considering homeschooling. I would like to know just how many other families in Christchurch there are homeschooling their gifted children at present. Knowing there is like minded children my dd could get to know through the homeschooling network would help. While there will be plenty of children she can hook up with through homeschooling, it is an issue if she can't get access to other gifted children being homeschooled as well. because that's when the other option of school has to be considered to get that contact. I had thought up the idea of homeschool with one day school, does anyone know if OD's is avaliable to homeschooled children. I love the whole idea of her learning from home & have bee reading lots of material for the past six months. I am a primary teacher so feel reasonably confident about being able to create an environment that will guide her in her learning. The issue of hooking up with other gifted kids seems to be our biggest issue at present.
Hi Sharon,
I'm not in Christchurch, but wanted to bring another point to your considering. Here in Auckland I have met numerous families with gifted children in the Homeschooling network, who don't get involved with NZAGC. They seem to not feel the need, as their children aren't limited to mixing with age peers, and their education is tailored to their personal needs, so some of the major issues become less.
All I'm saying here is that you might need to ask your question through some of the Homeschooling networks, as well as this site, in order to reach the families you need to reach.
Good Luck
Hi my name is Avalon and i attend new plymouth girls high school i am 13 years old and its that time of the year where we are all expected to do a speech. I have chosen to mine on homeschooling and is it better then attending a public school. If you have anything to say about this or can give me some information that would be great even if you just email me the address for the website you found some stuff on. I look forward to hearing from you
Hi Avalon, I am the mum of a 13 year old (year 9) who has just managed to persuade me to take her out of school. This will not happen until the end of term 3 as I work and I need to finish off there as well as sort out her application etc. However a book, The teenage liberation handbook, by Grace LLewellyn was very helpful for her in organising her arguments!
I am wondering if you ended up homeschooling and how it is going? My daughter aged 14 year 10 would love to be homeschooled but I am not convinced although I am disappointed in how school is going for her.
Yes we did end up homeschooling. The best choice all round. My daughter is enjoying it and so are we. It has been very slow to find other like minds out there homeschooling in Christchurch and we are only just starting to get to know others with gifted children at home. Some of these are people who are feed up with not getting what they need for their children in school. and have pulled them out in the past year.
We havn't looked back and know we are happy with the choice we made.
I was interested in your thread as we're considering a combination of homeschooling and ODS for our 5yr old. Did you end up doing ODS as well? It's great that you're enjoying it. I'd love to do it and I think it would be good for our daughter but she is a real 'social butterfly' and I worry about the lack of social contact. Now that you're starting to know others, is that becoming easier?
Just interested in how you integrate the social side with other children into home schooling. We are in Christchurch and school is just not working for our gifted son, he seems pretty keen on the idea of being home schooled but we are worried about the social aspect. Have you found any home schooling networks or clubs which meet for say sport, cultural outings, field trips or camps?
Sally and others. Too busy to help you personally right now, I'm afraid. I like to suggest you contact a homeschooling organisation/support group like National Council of Home Educators NZ (www.nchenz.org.nz) or Canterbury Home Educators (www.che.org.nz) or search the web with homeschool+nz to answer some of your queries.
The Gifted Forum doesn't provide a deep enough pool ... you need to venture into the home ed community.
Hello Sally,
It is now 8 months since you posted your message on the NZAGC site and I am interested to know if you decided to go ahead with the homeschooling idea and if you have, how it is going for you and your son in Christchurch. I am in Australia in Canberra and have homeschooled my gifted son in 2007 and am about to reimbark on this path after yet another unsuccessful attempt at mainstream education (even in a gifted class!). We are even considering a move to NZ because of the One Day School on offer and the apparent strong network for homeschoolers. Please share your experiences about homeschooling - have you found a network of like-minded homeschoolers in Christchurch to aid the social side of your son's education? Has the One Day School been a positive experience...etcetera...
Hello Frances. I am in NZ. I would like to know more about Alpha Education and if it can be accessed in NZ. My son is almost 8 and the One Day School is difficult fo us due to rural living. Can you please tell me how to access Alpha? Thank you, Tracey.
I run Alpha from an isolated area - just north of Fairlie in South Canterbury. I presented on Alpha twice last year in Christchurch and I'm planning to present again during term 4.
There are full time options from preschool to year 13 and part time extension options from 5-15 years.
Our current NZ Alpha students come from Auckland, Whangarei, Warkworth, Rotorua, Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton.
Go to our website www.alphaed.co.nz for some initial information and then contact us directly to arrange a tour of our digital facility. Our email and phone details are on our website.
There is another option that is also run by the same people as the One Day School - the Gifted Education Centre.
They run the Gifted Online (GO) Programme that can be accessed through your child's school, or is available for home-schooling parents as well.
Children have two real-time chatroom sessions a week during school hours with the rest of the GO class who join in from rural areas all over New Zealand. Themed lessons are posted online and the work is completed over a two-week cycle, including making/creating activities, research and write activities, and asynchronous Thinking and Reasoning discussion forums.
If you would like to know any more about this programme, contact me directly at go@debbie.co.nz, or via the GEC website at www.giftededucation.org.nz.
hi I am looking at homeschooling my child who has CP he" a quadaplegic
hi I am thinking of homeschooling my child who has cp he's a quadriplegic so has to use adaptive equipment just wandering if there are other parents who are homeschooling their special needs children
Good afternoon everyone. I just managed to come across this through a search engine. I have a four year old daughter who is increasingly struggling with preschool. Several people throughout the last year have told me she is gifted and if this is so I now believe it is affecting her education. I am a journalist and single mum, we have 50/50 custody and because neither myself or her dad could bear to be away from her an entire week, we do half weeks and alternate the weekends. I unfortunately as I have a mortgage to pay, have to work full time which is a depressing situation to be in because I would love to be able to focus more on her and I sometimes feel like I am not giving her enough of me.
She has only ever been to the one preschool, which due to changes in early childhood regulations, has to change hours and she had to transfer to another centre in the same company. Before the change she had been moved up to higher classes three times because she was getting bored and disruptive and each time her behaviour improved. Now she has just turned four and is in the highest preschool class however her behaviour there is worstening. At home on the other hand her behaviour is getting better and better, she knows what's right and what's wrong and has been through the stages of pushing her parents to see what she can get away with. Yet every time I pick her up from preschool they only give me negative feedback; she wasn't listening, she was misbehaving. I have been through everything, even to the point of making them write notes to let me know specific behaviour, and it just seems to lead to the fact that she is bored and they are not teaching her at the level she needs.
I'm getting stressed, I don't know if I need to find a new preschool which can better meet her needs, or if I need to look at other alternatives altogether, I cannot afford to work less than full time... so I just feel like I am at a complete loss as to what to do. Even if some people out there in Christchurch want to start a weekend coffee group or something, I am 25 and don't know a lot of parents with children my age, even if you have older children, my daughter prefers older children anyway so would be great to know of weekend playgroups or if we should start one?????
Your current preschool should look to cater to her needs in order to improve her behaviour. I'm sure she's great when she's engaged in challenging activities. Have a read through the Early Childhood section of this forum. Many people have had success with project work, encouraging reading and 5-7 yo workbooks on subjects of interest. I've got some stuff on the Internet Sites section that might be helpful, sites you can print free resources from e.g. mazes, worksheets, different levels, etc.
Perhaps if you can share ideas of some of the things she really engages with at home with the ECE teachers they will be better equipped to prevent her becoming bored and disruptive. If she's close to heading to school you might want to talk to the school about her abilities and give them the 'heads up' so they don't put her off school or write her off as a immature troublemaker in the first week.
My son is 4 and being catered for well by ECE, although pushing well outside their usual curriculum. His future school is having him one morning a week to determine 'what to do about him', but I have to be there for that. Does your daughter's father have more flexibility with work hours or capacity to work together with you to sort things out for her?
I am unsure of weekend playgroups, they often run during the week. I have a just turned 4 year old who is gifted and we had the same problem at preschool, luckily though I do not work and was able to take her out and have just popped her into kindy which she doesn't hate but definately tends to isolate herself and read a book or something. I don't know whether you have looked into it but a home based carer may be a good option? Where she goes to someones house who is looking after up to three other children, you could also enrol her into morning kindy if you found a home based carer that is willing to do the kindy pick up (as some are very flexible with this sort of thing). She may be happier in an environment where there are more opportunities for one on one attention more individualised learning programmes? Just a thought. As for the preschool, I have looked at basically every preschool in this city trying to find one to fit my kids but was at a loss. I think when they get to a much higher level it gets harder and harder to find one that can meet that level, if cost is not an issue I would recommend looking at the private schools that have preschools attached, I have heard great things about some of them and awful things about another. They are pricey though.
It is a hard situation that you are in but at least she is behaving well for you at home. Have you discussed with the preschool that she may be bored and that the solution could be to offer her work at a higher level? For my daughter she was just turned 2 when she had reached the level of all the just turned 5 year olds at preschool, I left her in for another year which was a year of boredom for her and took her out.
Hi Melinda. I am the president of ChCh Explorers which is the ChCh branch of NZAGC. We run a workshop once a month for our gifted children and preschoolers are welcome to come along. The topic of the Clubday is aimed at our school children but there are separate toys for the preschoolers to play with and have some social time together with other likeminds. You are welcome to come along and have a look. Our next clubday is 24th May 2-4pm at Papanui High. We will have some art supplies out for the younger children. We also have a coffee morning 10-11.30pm on the 2nd and 4th Friday of the month for parents to be able to talk over issues. There is a play area for children. St Christophers Church 244 Avonhead Rd. I know you work full time but do you have flexitime to enable you to take a lunchbreak early and come. You can contact me off line if you wish.ph 3579339
Hi Melinda. I strongly suggest you look at assessment. My daughter has just turned 5 but struggled with preschool from turning 4. Oh boy -do we wish we had done the assessment back then.
I haven't yet joined explorers but have been to the coffee group that Barbara suggests - and met others form this site. Having others to talk to about issues that I normaly keep very quiet about is wonderful! I plan to join explorers (yes I am half way through completing the form Barbara!)
As for the assessment, I thought she was possibly gifted - hence the house being a mess, my being permanently tired, problems with preschool, her needing constant stimulation. $500 well spent - to find out that yes we DO actually have a HG child. That's why I never have time to do 'normal' stuff...
This site is great. There really are people that do understand. And there really are people out there that are a bit further on than you and can give great advice.
Sorry a long time replying. We did remove our son from school and home schooled for 6 months. In that time his confidence soared and he was also diagnosed with Irlins Syndome (inability to read black writing on white background). Once he had his coloured glasses we noticed a huge change in him in terms of quality and quantity of work he was able to produce. After 6 months we put him back into school but this time into a small rural school rather than a large souless city one. A smaller school with smaller class sizes worked really well. He asked to go back to school because in his words 'even though I've learnt so much more at home I need some friends'. The social aspect is a huge one when thinking about home schooling, my son decided to take some boredom at school in return for some friends. I do think the six months of home schooling was just what he needed, a break from a school he hated, a chance to succeed and let his self esteem return.
Oh my goodness... I got caught up with life and forgot all about this website...
We have done everything we can physically do with my daughter's current preschool. The last straw came when they told me to take her to a doctor because her behaviour was so poor they wanted to rule out any medical issues. The outcome? Two doctors both concluded she is just too bright and they are failing to meet her needs.
I do not know if she is gifted per say, I don't even know how they test at that age group or anything, but some examples are she has been reciting the alphabet since she was 18 months, her dad showed her how to use the computer mouse when she just turned two because she was so obsessed with puzzles and we just couldn't buy enough as she would master them and get bored and want a harder one. When she turned 2 she was sitting up at the computer doing 200 piece jigsaw puzzles online. Now she is four and she can already read and write. I don't know many other children this age group, I used to be a nursery teacher so am not experienced with 4 year olds, so I don't know how advanced she is... but I do know nobody believes me when I tell them she has just turned four... she is in the top percentile for both her height and weight as well. I took her to a birthday party in the weekend and someone actually asked when her 6th birthday was!
We have managed to find a nice little community preschool with stable teachers, 20 children in the whole centre and high ratio of teachers to children and we have drilled them about how they can help her development and we are quite likely to put her in there, hopefully in 2 weeks. If anyone is wanting to email me in the future my address is melinda1nz@yahoo.co.nz and I will keep an eye on this site from now on.
Hay, thank you so much for taking the time to answer back. I got caught up in life and haven't been back on the site since then. Can you tell me a bit more about the assessment please? I wasn't sure if you could even get a four year old tested. But how do they do it, who do I contact, etc etc?
Also concerned that I might be disappointed if we got her assessed and she isn't actually in the category of gifted. Anyway in a previous answer I just wrote to someone else in this thread, I mentioned some of the things that she does. She turned 4 in March and she can read some words from sounding them out now. She knows every letter of the alphabet she types words on the computer screen, has been doing online puzzles for two years now, just last week she started beating me to the phone and answering the telephone... "I will just get my mummy to talk, I'm a bit busy at the moment," she said into the phone after greeting the caller. But I don't know, I mean I know she is smart but I just don't know what level she should be at or whatever... anyway I am really bad at just rambling on here... whoopsie, better get back to work but if you are interested in talking further my email address is melinda1nz@yahoo.co.nz and thanks so much for your feedback
My name is Livi and I am a 15 year old girl living in Christchurch.
I started home schooling at the age of 5 was homeschooled until two years ago. When i was 13 I moved from the north Island down to Christchurh where i attended a school for two years. I am now Home schooled again as school didn't work out and i was just wondering if there were any groups that met up in the Christchurch city area.
Canterbury Home Educators (CHE) is holding an information evening Tuesday, 24th May, 7 pm, in the Upper Riccarton area. This is an informal gathering, with plenty of opportunities to ask questions about home educating your children. For more information and to book, email CHEInc@free.net.nz. Website: www.che.org.nz.
Canterbury Home Educators (CHE) is holding an information evening Tuesday, 5th July, 7 pm, in the Upper Riccarton area. This is an informal gathering, with plenty of opportunities to ask questions about home educating your children. For more information and to book, email CHEInc@free.net.nz. Website: www.che.org.nz.
Hi all,
My lovely daughter will be home educated next year, she will be 6. She is not an overly social person, she can be loud and confident and stubborn! But dose not seem to develop closer longer friendships, although I don't feel this bothers her at all, I suspect she feels more comfortable with children younger or older than her naturally.
Any way my question is to those seasoned homeschoolers out there- now that she will be homeschooled and given her personality do you think I need to make an extra effort for social interaction with people her own age or just let her be?
She can become quite grumpy and antisocial or very overly silly when encouraged to play with children her own age.
She is my first baby and I although I don't think this behavour is normal for her age, I guess I could be mistaken.
I do think she is very bright, probably not gifted or talented but definitely perfect! :)
