It all started rather innocently. A friend who runs one of the gifted support groups I’m involved with had a mum inquire about home education, so she asked me to have a chat and offer some advice. It was awesome, talking to someone local who was also home educating. And then another group asked if I could be the gifted/2e contact for their home education group – they didn’t get many inquiries, but in case they did . . . So I thought, hey, I could write up an article for them on some of the basics of getting started.
But then I thought – maybe I could organise a group meetup for parents and kids of gifted families who are home educating in Melbourne. (“If you build it, they will come.“) So I contacted the lovely people at GHF to ask them about how to go about organising a group.
And then it snowballed . . .
So now, I’m the Australian (yes, all of Australia(!) ) homeschool contact for the Gifted Homeschoolers Forum. So if you are in Australia and would like information on what services are available for home educators with gifted/2e children – let me know. ( And yes, I panicked, and as my DH knows, when I panic, I go into research mode. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing!)
Another thing that has picked up momentum like a train with overheating brakes is the Gifted Expo my friend Louise over at the Gifted Support Network has been organising for the last few months. She’s put an awful lot of work into it, and somehow I’ve been roped in as well. If you’re in Victoria, come over and say hello to me and Sue Wight – we’ll be at the HEN desk. Sue is also giving a talk on home educating gifted kids in Victoria – with her kids now grown up, this is a great opportunity to talk with a veteran home educator with a lot of experience in dealing with all sorts of issues for home educators. She’s the editor of HEN, and has only recently stepped down as chairperson, so she’s a lady who has been in the trenches.
In all of this, I’m still putting together the small (small? Is that the right word? How big does a thing need to get before it’s not small anymore?) group of parents who are home educating their gifted/2e children. I’m hoping it will be a place for parents to connect and talk about home education and gifted issues – as well as (if we can swing it), a place for kids to do interesting stuff. I’m still in the planning stages for this, so if you are interested, contact me. As far as I’m concerned, home education can include full or part-time homeschool, as well as after-school. Even if you’re just interested in home education but haven’t yet decided if it’s right for you – let me know. Finding the right environment for our kids takes time, patience and planning.
It’s certainly been an interesting few weeks, and I don’t think that the changes are necessarily bad.