Vol IV, No 8 - September 20, 2022
FROM THE CREATIVE EDITOR
Parenting is the longest blink of an eye in the history of history. The fastest eternity you’ll ever endure. If you know, you know.

Homeschooling. For some, the plan from Day One. For others, the last best plan. Ten years ago (an eternity in the blink of an eye) was our first Back to School as homeschoolers. It’s now a fond memory but hooboy we were definitely in the last best plan lane.

Here at GHF Learners you hear a lot from parents and experts. This month our featured article is by a young homeschooler, nine-year-old Wanda Trott. Her point of view on homeschooling is a delight and I am so excited to bring her voice to you.

Back to School, my friends. Good luck, have fun, and see you back here in October!
Jen Merrill is a writer, musician, teacher, ed-tech marketing advisor, and gifted-family advocate. The mom of two boys, she homeschooled one twice-exceptional son through high school while happily sending the other out the door every morning. Her book, If This is a Gift, Can I Send It Back?, struck a nerve with families; her second book, on the needs of gifted parents and self-care, will be finished shortly before the heat death of the universe. In addition to writing on her longtime blog, Laughing at Chaos (currently on hiatus, returning this summer refreshed and relaxed), Jen has presented at SENG, NAGC, and WCGTC.

Jen brings both her acquired wisdom and her experience as a teacher and mentor to her work in the service of parents, teaching them techniques and mentoring them into their own versions of success. Her goal is to support parents of gifted and twice-exceptional kids, because they are the ones doing the heavy lifting and are too often ignored, patronized, and discredited. It is her hope that her sons never have to deal with these issues when they raise their own likely gifted children.
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A Day in the Life of a Gifted Homeschooler
by Wanda Trott

Hi. I’m Wanda, the daughter of Humu from Homeschool Humuhumu. I’m here to write a post about homeschooling.

Not everyone can homeschool. For homeschooling to work, one of the parents needs to dedicate their time to teaching their kid instead of having a job or being at work. This is why the other parent should probably have a job to get a steady income of money to support the family. This is how my family works. But it isn’t a set-up that all families can handle, but it’s a good idea for if your kid has a brain difference or behavioral difference that makes public school an option that doesn’t work, or if your family is high-risk for COVID. But if you can afford homeschooling your kids, then you probably should.

My daily schedule and perspective on school used to be pretty bad. I have multiple brain differences, and that made public school extremely hard to cope with. My brain was developing faster than the kids around me in some subjects, but I was also extremely stubborn and refused to do the school work because it was too simple for me. I started going to the Principal's Office on a daily basis, not because I got in trouble a lot (but that is true, I wasn’t what the teachers called ‘well behaved’) but because I wanted to. My parents weren’t sure what to do, and because of the way our schools are shaped to support kids that are ‘normal’, I felt like there was something wrong with me.

But then we started homeschooling.

Because of homeschooling, I was able to learn information that wasn’t annoyingly simple for me. And with the help of a diagnosis and medication, I was able to act in ways that were more acceptable. Homeschooling gives me time to do things after school. Which ended up changing my life. I got a hobby. I did it after school. And for once, I finally felt complete. I started being the person I always knew I could be. The person that I knew I was, but I never got a chance to be. All because we changed the way I was being educated. I think that my story isn’t singular. I think that this is how it is with a lot of ‘bad’ kids. They’re not bad at all, they just aren’t given a chance to grow to their full potential.

I’m lucky that my story ended this way. I’m lucky that my family could afford homeschooling. I’m lucky that I got a diagnosis. Some kids’ stories don’t end this way. But you can change that. If your kid is acting up, then you might want to consider homeschooling.
Wanda Trott is nine years old, and is in the fourth grade. She lives in San Francisco with her mom, dad, and two black cats. She loves pickles, Timmy Failure, and Homestar Runner.

She strongly believes that kids could do a pretty good job running the world, if grown ups would just give them a chance.
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“Listeners will come away with a better understanding of dyscalculia from how it looks in the brain, what assessment looks like, intervention, and lived experiences causing all who listen to embrace that dyscalculia is a brain-wiring difference, not a deficit." Listen here.



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