Dear Parents,

What a wonderful opportunity for you! Home schooling a precocious child is challenging and rewarding. You have several excellent questions, and you must be feeling some stress from this situation. So to begin with, relax. Meet each day one at a time. You and your daughter have a learning process to go through, but there is plenty of time.

Let's look at your daughter's needs. You mention that she is articulate, advanced in her knowledge of facts and abstract thinking and is emotionally sensitive. Basically she needs opportunities to use language and facts in a safe environment. That doesn't mean that she needs to be kept isolated, but she will need to be guided carefully, and many rules of thumb probably won't be good guidelines for her. You don't want to pressure her or allow others to pressure her, but allow her to develop naturally at her own pace in all areas, whether that is quickly or slowly.

Your home schooling should focus on her needs and not on the "right" way to home school. Home schooling is not school at home. It's a lifestyle. A desk and a special room are not at all necessary. Your home and the world around you will be the school room. Some people do set up desks and a special room, and some don't. Our children had desks but didn't use them much until the middle school and high school years. I have my doubts about training a three-year-old to sit at a desk. Most of the three-year-olds I've known, including the precocious ones, were wanting to do, not wanting to sit. But they were certainly learning while doing.

You may home school at your daughter's pace, depending upon your available time. Working with her three or four days a week is fine. In fact, the CHC lesson plans are structured for a four day school week. You can move through them quickly or slowly in each subject area. Having both of you work with your daughter will be beneficial for everyone. Because you are new to home schooling and you need to find out what is best for your daughter, I suggest beginning slowly with the core subjects and spending no longer than two hours a day with a break in between for formal studies. Give yourselves and her time to find out what works and what doesn't. She may learn best at this age by sitting in your lap. She may not want to do worksheets, but play auditory games. Or she may be a visual learner and be interested in drawing or manipulating objects and discussing what she sees and what she is doing. Give her a chance to ask questions and make suggestions. You will have to listen carefully to guide her, but she will give you clues. If she's feeling overloaded, back off. Smaller doses of time are better than one long session. Remember, too, that her physical capabilities are probably not equal to a five-year -old's. For example, some parents have told me that they borrow large-print library books for their very young readers to prevent eye strain and limit the reading to an hour a day.

Two hours a day may not seem like much time for formal study, but there is also informal study. When we learn, we need time to absorb and digest information, so I don't recommend structuring every moment of her school day. She needs down time. And she needs play time that isn't strictly or formally educational. You can read to her, play games, sing songs, make mud pies, cook together, and climb trees. I would also allow her lots of time for unstructured independent play. She should begin to experiment and explore subjects and objects on her own under your supervision.  She will still be absorbing and learning a great deal. She needs to spend some time with other children to develop her social skills, but that can come later. A three-year-old doesn't need to have an extended social life. At the right time, she will be learning that not everyone is at her level and that other children have different skills and interests.

Enjoy your daughter and your home schooling. It will make such a tremendous difference in her life and yours.

Sandra Garant