The Science Struggle

Our kids are mad about science, total unashamed nerds for it, just like their geeky parents.

To us, nothing is cooler or more satisfying than figuring out why things work the way they do.

Whether it's rattling marbles down different inclines to get a feel for gravity and resistance, or mixing vinegar and bicarbonate in a paper volcano to appreciate acids and bases, they can't get enough.

Given we're both in the medical profession, which inherently involves lots of teaching students as well as explaining fairly complex ideas to patients and relatives, we love the unique opportunity to teach our own kids about all the same things that have fascinated us as we've grown up.

This is one of the many reasons we've decided to homeschool in the first place, because we want to teach them ourselves.

Their memory is incredible.

I've never seen a student remember so much so quickly, let a lone a kid who is still getting to grips with the English language, oh and how to put on a jumper by themselves.

But everytime we bring up a new subject, they lap it up like a famished labrador, their eager eyes lighting up each time they start to understand a new concept. It's such a stark reminder of how powerful their brains are during their early years, learning ravenously to a level that would make any over-caffeinated university student jealous.

(Even the 11 month old is enjoying recognising flags on a poster.)

It's glorious, and so encouraging to see their love of learning set free. There's no concern about whether other students will mock them for being a geek, or whether they're going to 'need this information' when they're older - just pure learning for learning's sake, which is what we're all about.

We've found a bit of an issue though.

We've recently started going to a homeschool science group, where a group of around 10 homeschool kids sit in a room and learn about a different scientific principle each week.

One week was biology, learning about germination and seeds, then the next week it was planets and the solar system - you get the idea.

It's pitched at a early-school-years level, and as the teacher calmly and gently explained that there are eight different planets around our central star, and that each planet is held in place by gravity with or without moons, I could see our two older kids getting restless, wanting to get up and look around at the variety of posters and inflatable planets stuck over the walls.

They're not used to learning while sat in a chair

I could also see the 4 year old quietly muttering the answer to every question the teacher asked under his breath while quietly inspecting a rather unconvincing cardboard Saturn in the back corner of the classroom. He'd started off shouting the answers out, because that's what we do at home, until the teacher had told him he needed to put his hand up like the other children.

To his credit he'd duly obliged but then after a while I think he'd got a bit self conscious putting his hand up and getting called on each time, so had given up engaging, allowing the other students to take over instead.

We'd done quite a lot of space stuff recently, including visiting the amazing Observatory Science Centre in Herstmonceux, and so all of the lesson content was stuff he already knew. As I watched him perusing Jupiter and quietly commenting to himself on the Great Red Spot, I could see he wasn't getting anything out of the session.

The pace was clearly too slow for him and he was getting bored, looking for other ways to occupy himself while the other kids sat with their hands up.

This isn't intended as some self-important brag about how splendidly clever my child is - it's a genuine concern that he's just not going to get on well in a classroom, and that the level and speed at which information is being supplied isn't going to be satisfying for him.

This is where it gets frustrating.

Nobody would question a parent who says 'my child has special educational needs, because they pick up new ideas more slowly than other children'.

But if instead you say, 'my child has special educational needs, because they pick up new ideas more quickly than other children', then suddenly you're a pushy parent who thinks their child is simply better than everyone else's, and you should just shut up and teach your child to sit still and be quiet like the rest of us.

It's exhausting and frustrating trying to talk to people about the genuine struggle of finding enough for your child to learn about and consume, because there are so few groups and resources aimed at high learning potential kids at such a young age. As soon as you mention anything about your child 'needing more detail' or 'picking things up more quickly' people instantly dismiss you as a tiger parent who thinks their kid is superior and needs to climb down out of their own backside.

It's tricky being weird, but we're used to it.

If you're the proud parent of a gifted or high learning potential child then I'm sure you've had similar experiences too - please rest assured that you're not alone in this!

Here's a wonderful quote by Stephanie Tolan

Highly gifted children learn not only faster than others, but also differently. Standard teaching methods take complex subjects and break them into small, simple bits presented one at a time. Highly gifted minds can consume large amounts of information in a single gulp, and they thrive on complexity. Giving these children simple bits of information is like feeding an elephant one blade of grass at a time - he will starve before he even realizes that anyone is trying to feed him.

from Helping Your Highly Gifted Child by Stephanie S. Tolan

We learn on the go.

In general these homeschooling groups are often good fun, and allow our kids to mix with a broad variety of children, to play together and discover new ideas, so we are keen to try them out as much as possible.

They help tick that "what about the socialising" box that so many homeschool-critics love to wheel out when you reluctantly start down the "he'll be going to school soon?" conversation that's omnipresent in our life at the moment.

Some groups are great, some not so much.

What we've found is that our kids learn best on the move, touching, exploring, feeling, experiencing first hand how gravity, forces, magnetism, chemistry and biology all work in the wild, rather than sitting still and looking at a board or a screen. Most homeschool groups tend to teach this way as well, which we love, and we've found these groups much more enjoyable and worthwhile.

For the few groups that we've tried that involve sitting still in a classroom setting, it's clear it just doesn't fit with our kids' brains, and that's alright.

We're going to start our own group

We've been chatting about what to do and we thought about the idea of starting our own little science group for homeschooled kids - aimed at those with a real passion for science and a higher level understanding than is typical for their age group.

We have a shiny little village hall down the road from us that we can hire out, and our kids would love helping to set up for an interactive group on semi-regular basis. There wouldn't be any desks or sitting down, rather lots of things to move around and explore, to get your hands messy and really feel the science.

Then we could advertise the class for anyone interested in science, and simply state the kind of level it would be pitched at 'Key stage 3, GCSE, A level' etc, and then anyone who feels it would be useful can join in, regardless of age.

The benefit of this is people will know whether it will be at the right level before they attend, and it will naturally allow kids of different age groups and backgrounds to mix, and enjoy the love of learning science together.

We'll see how it goes.