I never would have thought that one of my kids would have asked me that. All my kids really seemed to love school up until this year. My youngest is in 3rd grade this year and is, well, smart. She tests above the 99th percentile for Math & Reading on the tests they gave her at the beginning of the year. A couple of weeks into school she looked at me and said "Mama, I'm so bored at school." I looked at her and said "Why honey?" and she said "because I know all this stuff already and I'm tired of them talking about the same stuff over and over again."
Wow. This kid is my Mom. My Mom is extremely intelligent. I always felt dumb growing up because I never understood what my parents were talking about. Turns out I'm not dumb (thankfully) but my parents were just wicked smart. They taught Physics & Economics at the college level so it's really not a surprise that I was totally clueless at the dinner table. Thank heavens for spaghetti and the china cabinet. Anyway, my youngest is just gifted. She taught herself to read at 3 and not by memorizing words. She was reading wonderful, beautiful, generous and mischievous at 3. It was like a light bulb turned on in her head and she never looked back.
The first 3 years of school she always said she knew the material but it was okay because it was still fun. Apparently the fun factor has dried up. She's tired of knowing everything. I asked her yesterday how many times she has to read something to remember it and she said "usually once, at most twice." I asked her if she understood that this was not how most people learn and she said "yeah, but is it a bad thing that I learn that way?" OMG, parent failure. "No sweetie, you're just special is all." That's when she looked at me and said "Mommy, will you homeschool me? I want to learn at a faster pace than what my teachers can do."
OK, well, I work full time and so does my husband so homeschooling is a challenge. I'm trying to get her to explore virtual public school or possibly skipping a grade. Homeschooling is a BIG task. I would have to start cutting back on my responsibilities in other areas of my life for certain. I don't know if I'm up to the task and I honestly have no idea where to start.
This kid blows me away.
