Homeschooling again?

So we've been faced with a new dilemma in our home. We put our youngest in public school in 5th grade for many reasons, but largely because the other's were going to school and I was confident that this kid could not be homeschooled alone. We have a wonderful elementary school in our neighborhood that I often lamented I was not getting to enjoy. So he went in as a 5th grader and we got to experience one year of elementary level education.

He tried different things, but eventually landed in the math bowl team and loved it! In fact his team did well in the state standings and he personally finished the year with a perfect score on his ISTEP math test. They even gave him an award which seemed to confuse him because as he told me later "But Mom, the test wasn't even hard." "Yes, kiddo, that is the point." I assured him. So we skipped 6th grade math this year and put him in 7th grade honors pre-algebra as a 6th grader.

So here is the problem. He is killing it and wants to do algebra this summer at home. (Just so you know, my other kids think he is nuts!) But the kid just loves math and has a gift. But if we do algebra this summer at home, which honestly would be easy, there will not be any math left for him to take at the middle school. The school says we are welcome to drive him to the high school everyday so he can take classes there, but that is not desirable for multiple reasons. Transportation and time are relevant but he is also not a very large kid and we don't really want him with high school kids yet. Not to mention he would be at the same math level as his older brother. (We might never know how motivating that fact alone is to his pursuit of higher math :)

So we are faced with an interesting dilemma. What do we do with the gifted child? I don't know yet, but I greatly appreciate that the school is partnering with us and I am confident we can find a solution. As the guidance counselor said "This is good problem. We like these kinds of problems." She also made it a point to commend us for having done such a great job teaching our kids at home. She said she knows a number of bad examples of homeschooling and as we know "homeschooling" can often be used as a excuse to not educate kids by neglectful parents. But she mentioned a couple times "I don't know what you did, but you did something right." We have smart kids, so it's hard to take too much credit for things given to us by the hand of God. But she also pointed out how different each kid was from each other and how they were a joy to be around but also very much individuals. I will soak in that compliment for awhile and thank God again for the chance to homeschool and just enjoy my kids.

So will next year be some kind of public school/homeschool combo plan? Perhaps. We shall see but I am thankful to have access to so many resources while figuring this out. We recently took our son to lunch and asked him about these ideas and what he thought about it all. As usual, he smiled through the conversation because we were talking about math in general. But when we threw out the idea of trying to find a way for him to go as fast as he wants in learning math, his eyes just lit up. Kind of like Dash from the Incredibles: "I want you to run as fast as you can." says the mom. "As fast as I can?" says Dash with a big smile. "As fast as you can!" assures the mom. Yeah, it felt just like that.

My other kids sing and act and play sports and this kid does too, but his first love is math. How often do you see that? So perhaps homeschooling will be our ticket to helping Dash the math wiz, run as fast as he can! There are bridges to cross, but how is that not Another Homeschool Success Story?