gifted children

a girl reading with stuffed toys: Why Children stop Reading

Why Children Stop Reading And What To Do About It

I’m desperately concerned about why children stop reading, and I hope you are, too. Let’s talk about why children stop reading and what we can do about it. Too Few Of Us Read I came across an article recently called Harry Potter and the Death of Reading that was written in

Read More »

How to help children love great art

Helping children appreciate and enjoy art doesn’t need to be daunting. Gifted children are often tuned in to the aesthetic nature of things and can easily become aficionados with very little encouragement. Both the Waldorf and Montessori methods are based in part on the idea that even very young children can

Read More »

Bringing Napping Back: A Kindergarten Perspective

To sleep, perchance to dream learn. – Shakespeare (kind of) When I went to kindergarten (shout out and apologies to my teacher, Mrs. Beasley), I needed crayons and a nap mat. Today’s kindergarteners need graphing calculators and pens. No nap map required. Or welcome. Fifteen years ago, the New York

Read More »

Read Ahead Contracts

Reading is one of the great joys of life, yet for gifted children, reading can become a tedious exercise, fraught with difficulty and frustration. This happens when they are forced to follow along in class while others read aloud. You know how you feel when you’re stuck in traffic and

Read More »
young girl with glasses and title 6 reasons not to give IQ tests to gifted children

6 Reasons Not to Give IQ Tests to Young Children

The reasons not to give IQ tests to young children are compelling. As the Youth & Education Ambassador for Mensa, I received inquiries every day (sometimes with accompanying videos) from parents (and grandparents) wanting to know how to get a young child tested. Mensa allows youth fourteen and over to

Read More »

Your Child is NOT the Center of the Universe

This may come as a surprise, but your child is not the center of the universe. Your child, is, in fact, not even special. I’m ducking right now, but please, hear me out. Special means “better, greater, or otherwise different from what is usual.” If everyone feels this way about

Read More »

Adaptive Giftedness & the Power of Connection

Want to try something really daunting? Raise a bunch of kids who are smarter than you are. Been there… Is your child’s magical power an atypical mind? This is great, but it comes with its own set of issues and fears. We don’t have every answer to the question, “How

Read More »

Creating Creative Children

We’ve long believed you’re either creative or you’re not, but that’s simply not true. Encouraging children’s creativity (which often means preventing the world from driving it out of them) is as crucial as their cognitive development. I wrote an article for the Mensa Bulletin on this, and you are welcome

Read More »

3 Reasons I Loathe Accelerated Reader

Confession: I loathe Accelerated Reader. Perhaps the title of this post was a spoiler. My friend Jen Marten wrote this terrific article about what’s wrong with Accelerated Reader. I would like to add a few points to her wonderful list. Much has been written about the problems with Accelerated Reader,

Read More »

What Sled Dogs Can Teach Us About Working in Teams

Let’s be honest: working in groups is not typically a strength for gifted learners. That doesn’t mean that we just shrug our shoulders and say, “Oh, well I (or my child) just prefer to work alone.” That’s simply not practical in today’s cooperative learning and work environments. So how can we

Read More »

Why School’s Not Fair to Gifted Kids

A gifted fifth grader received this advice on his report card: “You could work on ways to exhibit patience for others who don’t work at your same fast pace. Also be aware that you don’t overstep boundaries by helping people when they are trying to discover something on their own.”

Read More »