Every parent hopes for their child to be smart and to excel in school, but sometimes parents just don't know what to do with a child who is especially exceptional. Keeping him or her challenged, interested, and engaged can be tough, as can dealing with an educational system that doesn't always focus on helping out bright students. Parents of gifted children should know that they're not alone and that there are hundreds of resources on the Web that can help every step of the way. Here are some we think stand out from the crowd, offering advice, information, support, and educational resources to help you support and encourage your child's special abilities.
Organizations
These organizations help gifted students and their parents get the education, emotional support, and guidance they need to grow up happy and well-adjusted.
- National Association for Gifted Children: The National Association for Gifted Children is one of the best places for parents of gifted children to find resources, reading, help, and advice on raising an exceptional child.
- American Association for Gifted Children: Based out of Duke University, this organization posts news, resources, and articles of interest for parents and educators of gifted kids.
- IAGC: The Illinois Association for Gifted Children is just one of many state-centered organizations for gifted kids. Parents can join, find other families, and even attend special events.
- Gifted Child Society: The Gifted Child Society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering the cause of gifted children. Through their website, parents can find helpful information and learn about seminars and workshops they can attend.
- GPGC: The Governor's Program for Gifted Children is a seven-week residential summer enrichment program for gifted students. Parents can learn more about the program, held at McNeese State University, from their website.
- SENG: SENG is short for Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted and is an organization that wants to help ensure that gifted children are understood, accepted, nurtured, and supported by their families, schools, and workplaces.
- Mensa for Kids: Mensa embraces younger members through this fun website, offering up monthly themes to get kids reading and learning at an advanced level.
- Institute for Research and Policy on Acceleration: Find out more about the latest research being done into academic acceleration through this organization's site.
- Center for Talented Youth: Located at Johns Hopkins, this organization engages gifted kids and their families through programs, summer classes, and even a bi-monthly magazine.
Find quick 140-character-or-less quips and updates about working with, parenting, and helping gifted children from these excellent Twitter feeds.
- @teachgiftedkid: This gifted and talented teacher posts interesting articles and thoughts about working with the gifted here.
- @DeepWatersCoach: Lisa Lauffer works with the group Gifted Grownups & Parents of Gifted Children, offering support through her Twitter feed and beyond.
- @gifted_guru: Head to this feed to hear from Lisa Van Gemert, a gifted youth specialist for Mensa.
- @JeffcoGifted: This nonprofit group of parents, teachers, and community leaders tweets about advocacy and resources for gifted kids.
- @HoagiesGifted: Head to this feed to get resources and articles aplenty about gifted education and parenting.
- @laughingatchaos: Jen is a mom raising gifted kids. She shares her experiences, both the good and the bad, here and on her blog.
Blogs
These blogs offer excellent advice and resources to parents, teachers, or anyone working with gifted children.
- About.com Gifted Children: Carol Bainbridge, an expert on gifted children, maintains this blog, which is chock full of learning ideas, information, and more.
- Parenting Gifted Kids: Head to this blog, written by gifted educator Sarah Robbins, to learn more about how to challenge and help your gifted child.
- Gifted Exchange: This blog focuses on gifted kids, touching on issues of schooling, parenting, education, and more, all written by the staff at the Davidson Institute for Talent Development.
- The Prufrock Blog: Prufrock is one of the leading publishers of materials for gifted, advanced, and special needs students. On this blog, you'll find updates on their latest releases.
- Unwrapping the Gifted: Head to this Education Week blog to hear from Tamara Fisher, a K-12 gifted education specialist. She gives great insights into gifted and talented education.
- Parents of Gifted Children Resource Group: Here, parents can find resources and make connections with other parents of gifted children.
- Help Me With My Gifted Child: Not sure how to help your gifted child? Look to this blog for answers, with information about gifted programs, enrollment testing, and parenting.
- Gifted Parenting Support: This blog is an excellent place to read more about how to parent and educate children who are gifted and talented.
- Gifted Guru: This blogger offers up resources, books, commentary, and more on the subject of gifted education.
- Gifted Education Perspectives: Follow this blog to learn more about all things gifted, from what defines it to how to best educate bright students.
- Creating Curriculum for Gifted Children: This blog approaches gifted kids from an educator's perspective, but parents can also learn new ways to challenge and interest their children.
- Gifted Education Consultant: Sonia White, author and gifted education specialist, shares her passion for helping gifted children through this blog.
- Gifted Phoenix: On this blog, parents can find some insights into giftedness issues, education, and parenting, from a New Zealand perspective.
- Byrdseed: Focusing on creativity, accelerated learning, literature, and more, this blog offers resources and inspiration to gifted educators and parents of gifted kids.
Resources
If you're looking for resources to help you parent, choose a school, or just support your child, these sites are great places to start.
- Hoagies' Gifted Education Page: On this site, you'll find a bit of everything, from conference listings to tips on understanding your gifted child, making it an excellent resource for any parent.
- Gifted Development Center: Looking for information about giftedness and how to raise a gifted child? Dr. Linda Silverman provides both on this helpful site.
- Gifted Child Today: This open-access journal is a great read for parents who want to learn more about how to cater to the needs of their gifted child.
- Gifted Child Quarterly: Another open-access journal, this journal is a bit more scholarly, publishing research done on giftedness and talent development.
- Summer Camps for Gifted Children: Looking for a great way to keep your child busy and learning over the summer? These summer camps could be a great choice.
- Exquisite Minds: Parents and teachers who work with gifted children can find resources, online games, tips, tools, and more on this social site.
- Royal Fireworks Press: Head to this publisher's website to find great reads for both you and your gifted child, especially if you're homeschooling.
- BrightKids: BrightKids is a discussion group for parents of gifted children and is maintained through MENSA. You can join here and get tips and advice from other parents of bright kids.
- Schools for the Gifted Child: Wondering where to send your gifted child? This site lists schools in six countries.
- KidSource Gifted and Talented: KidSource has collected a number of great resources and articles on gifted kids that can be a big help to parents.
- Educational Resources for Parents and Teachers of Gifted Youth: Mensa is a great place to look for help with a gifted child. Here, they offer up a collection of resources for parents and teachers that ranges from lesson places to fun activities.
- Gifted Homeschoolers Forum: Even if you're not homeschooling your child, this site offers a chance to get resources and talk to parents who are also working to raise gifted children.
- Genius Denied: This is the website for the book Genius Denied, an expose of the ways in which the American education system often ignores its brightest students.
- Gifted Children's Bill of Rights: This resource will help you learn how to stand up for your kids and make sure that his or her rights are being respected.
- Gifted Journey: This site is a great resource for learning about giftedness, touching on everything from bullying to IQ tests.
- teachfine on gifted and ed tech: This site collects resources that combine gifted education and technology, creating a great list of articles and sites that parents and kids can use to learn.
Articles
These articles will help you stay informed and educated about issues relevant to your gifted child.
- Gifted Students Go Dumb to Fit In: Is your child lowering his or her potential in order to fit in with peers? This article explores the stigma of being smart.
- Gifted Children Need Help, Too: Many teachers and parents believe that smart kids don't need help; they'll do well on their own. This just isn't the case, as you'll learn here.
- The Drama of the Gifted Child: Being a gifted child isn't easy, as you'll learn from this Psychology Today article.
- Hey, Teacher, Get Help Somewhere Else: Make sure your child isn't working as a teacher's aide in his or her classroom, a common occurrence as this article explains.
- Top 10 Myths in Gifted Education: Learn some of the biggest myths about teaching gifted kids from this great YouTube video.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment