Hoagies Parenting the Gifted

Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented Parent Resources

Gifted students have unique learning needs that must be met

Crushing Tall Poppies
Susan and Doug Blanchard live in a small town in the Midwest, and they are the parents of three daughters. Rosie is 3 years old, Annie is 7 years old, and their oldest daughter, Torie, is 11 years old. The Blanchard's are an active family, and you can most often find them running, walking or biking in their neighborhood. Susan, a former college cheerleader, is a stay-at-home mom, and she is busy driving the girls to school and to all their various after-school activities.

Back to home/school — Vive la différence
Avant Parenting
Another year, another set of decisions about education. When my son was going into kindergarten, we thought we'd choose a school and that would be it until 6th or 8th grade. Ah, doesn't the universe have a way of making a mockery of everything we know? Différence!

Back to school blues: Why gifted teens dread returning to school
Gifted Challenges
Some gifted teens look forward to starting back to school. But many do not. Many are filled with anxiety, foreboding and dread. At best, they may anticipate another year of boredom and disappointment. At worst, they are consumed with fears about academic performance or social isolation.

Paralyzed by a plethora of possibilities
Your Rainforest Mind
Paula Prober, a contributor for Your Rainforest Mind, writes: "You would think that a smart person could make decisions easily, quickly, and definitively. But the people that I know? Don't. How can that be? Let me explain. Which of the following are true for you: Your wild mind generates many ideas, options, possibilities and perspectives."

The six types of gifted child: The underground
Jade Ann Rivera
Is your child hiding their giftedness to fit in with a non-gifted group of age-mates? Parents of gifted girls and introverted boys may have found themselves answering mostly C's on my May quiz. For those that did, your gifted child is considered to be Type 3: The Underground gifted child.

TEA graduation toolkit
Texas Education Agency
The Graduation Toolkit provides details about the new Foundation High School Program and other planning information for high school years and beyond. There are two download options, Individual Flyer pages or Booklet format. Both options provide printing specifications.

How school policy affects gifted children's friendships (and what you can do about it)
Gifted Challenges
When my children were in middle school, almost all classes based on ability grouping were eliminated. Besides the educational rationale for this policy, it was designed, in part, to encourage children of all abilities to interact, "learn from each other" and develop friendships.

Friendship and the gifted child
Institute for Educational Advancement
Does your gifted child like to spend recess alone? Does she only have one or two friends? Does he have one very intense friendship? Does she only have friends that are significantly older or younger than she is? Does he only make friends in his extracurricular activities rather than at school?

In search of friendship and finding peers
Gifted Parenting Support
Many theories have been put forward and research papers written about gifted children and how they approach friendship; but it's not complicated. They seek out their peers. People who are most like them. They might be the same age; or not. They almost certainly share common interests and enjoy each other's company.

Little-c creativity in our lives
Avant Parenting
Suki Wessling writes about parenting, education, gifted children and homeschooling. "I recently attended a talk by psychologist Susan Daniels, who lectures and writes about creativity. Her talk was based on a book she'd read, assigned to her college students, and followed herself."

I'm jealous of your smart kid
Crushing Tall Poppies
Celi Trépanier, a contributor for Crushing Tall Poppies, writes: "Yes, I am jealous, but I would never roll my eyes or say nasty, mean things about you or your child! Nope, I keep my envy to myself, and I just smile when I see your smart child making honor roll, gathering awards and breezing through school. I know how lucky your child is to be so successful academically! He or she will easily go far in life!"

Top five misconceptions about gifted students ... and setting the record straight!
Gifted Parenting Support
Lisa Conrad, author of the Gifted Parenting Support blog, writes: "Many articles have been written about the misconceptions surrounding gifted students, but I want to address the top 5 which I feel are the most detrimental to the fulfillment of potential of gifted students."

What hidden emotions complicate parenting a gifted child?
Gifted Challenges
What hinders parenting your gifted child? Yes, the usual ... time, money, a limited school system, lack of support. But are there other hidden barriers that we, ourselves, create? Despite our best intentions, can underlying feelings interfere with our child's emotional well-being or academic success?

How family game night makes kids into better students
The Atlantic
There has been a lot of recent attention focused on the importance of executive function for successful learning. Many researchers and educators believe that this group of skills, which enable a child to formulate and pursue goals, are more important to learning and educational success than IQ or inherent academic talent.

What I've learned about being gifted as a grown-up
Red, White & Grew
Pamela Price, a contributor for Red, White & Grew, writes: "I wouldn't go so far as to call it a universal truth, but a whole lot of parents I know who are raising gifted kids have gone through a bit of shock when the quirks and eccentricities of their kiddos prove to be tiny emotional landmines."

Gifted child, gifted parent
Christy's Houseful of Chaos
Christy Knockleby, a contributor for Christy's Houseful of Chaos, writes: "A post caught my eye the other day. It is about how a gifted childhood prepared a person for parenting gifted children. It got me thinking about what aspects of my childhood helped prepare me for parenting my kids, and which makes things more complicated. I’m going to write up some of my thoughts now as part of the Gifted Parenting Blog Hop."

Gifted students develop asynchronously
Crushing Tall Poppies
Celi Trépanier, a contributor for Crushing Tall Poppies, writes: "'But I am sure the Naval Research Laboratory has a gift shop that sells scanning tunneling microscopes so I can create my own quantum dots with identical, deterministic sizes! Why can't I have one? Don't you understand that I need one for my own research?', screams the 12-year-old gifted child as he falls to the floor in a heap, crying, beating his fists on the floor, and intermittently screaming and then begging for his parents to buy him this highly-specialized and expensive microscope."

Gifted students can have learning disabilities
Crushing Tall Poppies
Twice-exceptional (or 2E) children can have extra burdens on them, more so than other gifted children, for several reasons which are related to the simple fact that children's giftedness or higher-than-average intelligence is often masked, offset or overshadowed by their learning differences or disabilities in school. Given the well-known fact that too many educational professionals in our school systems today seem to only recognize gifted children as those who are very intelligent and excel in the classroom, we then fail to identify many gifted children who may not fit this stereotype, and fitting this stereotype can be especially difficult if the specific educational needs of the gifted child are not being met.

Gifted in translation
A Voracious Mind
Amy Harrington, a contributor for A Voracious Mind, writes: "Upon the realization that my first child was gifted, I did some Google searching and had a conversation or two with my mom about it and then went on my way living my life as if it was just a thing that would make life and school a little easier. Life and school certainly do not become easier because your child is gifted. There are some words and thoughts that come to mind when I think about raising gifted children but easy living isn't one of them."

Let them know they are gifted
Crushing Tall Poppies
Celi Trépanier, a contributor for Crushing Tall Poppies, writes: "Although my youngest gifted son is 14 years old now, I feel as though I have many more years of parenting experience behind me than I do ahead of me. And this, I think, gives me enough credible perspective to ask myself, 'what is the one thing I wish I had known or done differently before I started on this journey of raising my gifted sons?,' and then be able to answer my own question with a insightful and helpful answer for you."

A little autistic: What we learned on summer vacation
2e Newsletter
Fiona Babbitt, a contributor for 2e Newsletter, writes: "It was the summer of 2011. I could feel my carotid artery pulse as I walked toward my front door, clutching the business envelope from the children's hospital on that August day. Was Josie officially on the autism spectrum, or did the doctor leave it out because of my mild protest? Dr. Wong had implied that my daughter's potential Asperger Syndrome was so mild that its symptoms may disappear in the next few years."

Tips for parents: Nurturing creativity at home
Davidson Institute for Talent Development
This Tips for Parents article is from a seminar hosted by Lisa Rivero. Rivero summarizes the key points in which parents can encourage and facilitate creativity in their children. "I am passionate about creativity, and here is why: Having greater skills of and practice in creativity and creative thinking can help us to live more fulfilling and even happier lives, even if we never paint a picture or patent an invention."