Gifted Education at Home – It Can Be Done!

An article about gifted education and the link to additional information in the Virginia Homeschool Manual.

For many years, the homeschooling community has been reluctant to “label” kids as gifted. Perhaps the popularity of the sentimentality, “all children are gifted,” has conditioned parents to feel embarrassed about wanting to identify their gifted child’s special abilities. Perhaps our public school system’s egalitarian leanings have stigmatized giftedness as wanting to appear to be better or more deserving than others. Perhaps parents are loath to be called “stage moms,” or “pushy.”

Whatever the reason, there exists little gifted education literature designed specifically for homeschoolers. With so little guidance, what are parents to do when they suspect their young one may be gifted? How do they meet his academic and emotional needs? What if he is exhibiting behaviors that do not respond to typical parental guidance or discipline?

Thankfully, answers to all of these questions, and more, exist in the gifted education research that has been amassed for over eighty years. Applying these answers to homeschooling is easy. Many gifted education researchers tout homeschooling as the best educational option for gifted children. Some researchers even believe parents are best equipped to determine their child’s giftedness. Researchers trust parents’ perceptions of their gifted children’s abilities and needs, and they recommend homeschooling for the one-on-one attention it affords the little learner.
-Beth Wright Bess

The above is an excerpt from the Virginia Homeschool Manual.