For gifted students the great advantage of home education is the flexibility to tailor a program to their abilities and needs without the constraints of curriculum and age boundaries.

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For gifted students the great advantage of home
education is the flexibility to tailor a program
to their abilities and needs without the
constraints of curriculum and age boundaries.
There is no one right way to home educate
gifted children Styles vary.
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The Smorgasboard of Options
METHODS COMMONLY USED IN SCHOOLS TO ACCOMODATE
GIFTED STUDENTS
Grouping Options
Accelerative Options
See how these options can be provided easily
and naturally with home education
Fill your plate
Enrichment Options
Counseling Options
The options listed in red can all be used in home
education
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• Accelerative Options
• Early school admission
• Grade-skipping
• Subject-skipping
• Credit by examination
• University courses in high school

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• Grouping Options
• Special schools
• Schools-within-a-school
• Special classes
• Combined grades in regular class
• Cluster groups in regular class

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• Enrichment Options
• Independent Study
• Learning centres
• Field trips
• After school Saturday programs
• Holiday programs

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All cost money

• Counseling Options
• Personal
• Social
• Educational
• Career

But most parents are paying for them even if
their children are in school
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Levels of Giftedness
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Grade skipping In school the child is placed in
a grade ahead of their age. This can be easily
achieved at home by simply choosing curriculum
materials from a more advanced grade or, if doing
a correspondence course, by enrolling in a more
advanced grade.
The one-on-one teaching involved will provide the
support they need if grade-skipping brings
greater demands in some areas - e.g handwriting.
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Acceleration The child works at a higher level
and/or faster pace than age mates. e.g. Does
grade two reading in grade one. Acceleration may
be across the board or subject based. This can be
achieved at home because of the flexibility of
the home environment and, unlike school, does not
involve going to different classes. This can also
be done for individual subjects through
individual programming e.g grade five Maths and
grade three English for the same child. In fact,
home education does not have to have any grades
at all.
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Continuous Progress Curriculum The child moves
through work/grades at his/her own rate rather
than by their age-for-grade. Home education
offers the perfect environment for this as there
is no need to wait until the end of the term or
year to move on to the next terms or years
work. Children can just keep going.
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Compacted Curriculum The amount of time normally
required for a subject or topic is reduced so the
child can be freed up for other activities or to
advance to the next level of work. This can
easily be applied at home by doing parts of a
course and moving on as a child has mastered each
topic rather than insisting they work through
every given example or complete every task. Some
textbook work is just busy work and, if the
child already understands the concept being
taught, there is no need to labour the point.
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Pre-testing Children are pre-tested to find out
what they already know and teaching begins from
that point. This avoids teaching and learning
of material that is already known. This is easy
to achieve at home and need only be done once
rather than repeated with each new teacher every
year.
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Early Entry The child enters school either at an
early age or by skipping the Prep grade. Again,
this is easily achieved in home education because
the child can simply start book-work when they
are ready rather than having to wait until they
reach school-entry age.
Even if no book-work is done, they will be
learning huge amounts from their daily
conversations and activities.
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Enrichment Greater Breadth Subjects are studied
that are not usually offered eg. Chinese or
Latin or Greater Depth Deeper treatment of
the same subject. At home, children can be
extended as far as you and they wish in chosen
areas by using the familys books, the library,
community groups and clubs and the Internet.
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Delight-led learning Home education offers the
opportunity for in-depth study to a very high
level. With good libraries and the Internet,
young people can get themselves to a very high
level of education by pursuing their interests
passionately at home.
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Computerised Instruction The child moves through
a computerised course at their own pace. This can
be done in home education - subject to the
parents budget. There are many such programs
available - the most difficult thing is choosing
one. If you want to pursue this course, shop
around, talk to other parents for recommendations
and wherever possible, try before you buy.
Beware of expensive programs - they may not be
what they are cracked up to be and cheap mistakes
are easier to walk away from than expensive ones.
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Thematic Teaching All or most subjects are
integrated in a common theme. Home education is
ideally suited to thematic teaching and learning.
EXAMPLE CHRISTMAS THEME A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR
TREE MATHS A Partridge in a Pear Tree - how
much would it cost to give all the gifts in the
song today? MATHS 3D Shape construction -
Rainers star LANGUAGES Christmas carols and
Christmas greetings from many lands TEXTILES 12
Days of Christmas quilt HOME EC Christmas cakes,
Gingerbread house, Christmas hampers ART/ SOCIAL
SERVICE Nativity windows