Differentiation

To date, in our little homeschool adventures, I have pretty much been doing the same stuff with both kids. Wombat Girl is 15 months (and one day! don't forget the one day, mum!) younger than Video Boy, and bright without the major handicap of dyspraxia and the major concentration issues, so she is certainly capable of working at his level. In fact, she was grade-skipped when at school and so last year they were both in Year 5.

Mostly for my own benefit, we've been working on the same material. I have differentiated the "curriculum" for my gifted kids - we cover different "content", work at a faster "pace" and produce different "product" than what they would do if they were at school. It's one of the bonuses of homeschooling that I can do that easily.

http://thinkinghub.wikispaces.com/Differentiation+Methods

But there have been signs of dissension in the homeschooling ranks! The first clues were distracted behaviour, the second was frustration, the third was tears. Time to rethink what we are doing!

Wombat Girl is finding the Year 8 level algebra too easy, but the science discussions too high-level. Video Boy is quite comfortable with Year 7/8 level algebra, but already knows most of the science content up to at least Year 10 level and has rarely been learning anything "new" in our science adventures.

Those issues bring this lazy homeschooling mum to the point where I must differentiate even further for maths and science for my kids, or I risk turning homeschooling into the dreaded tedium and drudgery of school - and that's not what we signed up for!

So, today, Wombat Girl at the tender age of 10, did maths designed for students aged 15 or 16. She "got" most of it, especially after a discussion on negative numbers. I'm thinking we just might move quickly through simplification, expansion and factorisation and onto solving equations, then linear geometry and quadratics. I think that what her cognitive level is at, at the moment, but happy to be flexible...

For Video Boy, we will have to get out the Year 11 and 12  or even university level Biology texts and incorporate some mathematical modelling and chemistry into our ecology - we have to find new ground that he hasn't covered in his reading.

http://www.theclimatehub.com/science-of-warming-mindmap

For English, Geography and History, we are OK working on the same stuff (at the moment) - they do know lots, read lots and understand lots, but still need support in executive functioning and organising their thoughts to put them on paper.

I let them pursue their own interests - Wombat Girl is happily teaching herself the piano with workbooks and Video Boy...well...he likes video games!

When I registered with the Board of Studies to homeschool, I took on the responsibility for providing my kids with appropriate education. It's up to me to encourage a voice in my kids, listen to the feedback and make sure what "learning" we are undertaking is new and interesting, so matter how different it is from each other and those still in schools.