How to Challenge your Child at Home
Top 5 Ways to Nurture Gifted Children
By Carol Bainbridge
"Is my child gifted?" That is the question asked most often by parents of gifted children. After that question, the most frequently asked question is "How do I
nurture my gifted child?" Here are five simple answers to that question.
1. Follow Your Child's Lead
What does your child enjoy? What does your child seem to be good at? Provide opportunities for your child to works with things he or she enjoys or is good at. For example, if your child loves dinosaurs, get books about dinosaurs, fiction and non-fiction. Get games and puzzles about dinosaurs. Go see dinosaurs at museums. If your child is good at music or a sport, provide opportunities for him or her to learn an instrument or play a sport.
2. Expand Your Child's Interests
While it's important to provide opportunities for your child to work with his or her interests and strengths, it is also important to expose your child to new things. Children only know what they have been exposed to, so if they've never been exposed to music, they may not know whether they like it or are good
at it. Children need not be forced to try new things, but they should be encouraged. It is not forcing a child, however, to insist that they not quit something after two days.
3. Be Creative
This may seem as though it's easier said than done, but once you start thinking "outside the box," it gets easier. Gifted children love to think and solve problems, so provide them with ample opportunities for doing so. For example, if your preschooler or kindergartner likes to read, you might write daily notes to pack in their lunch box. If your child likes science, you might cook together and then ask your child why vegetables get soft when they're cooked or why cakes rise when they're baked.
4. Look for Outside Activities
Many towns offer classes for children as do museums, zoos, community theaters, and many universities and community colleges. In addition, most every region has places of historical interest. Some also have botanical gardens, planetariums, and other places of interest. If you are unsure of what is available in your area, you can call or visit the nearest "welcome center" for your state or province. They have this kind of information to give to visitors.
5. Keep a Variety of Resources at Home
These resources need not be expensive or elaborate. They just need to allow your gifted child to develop his or her interests or get exposed to new ones. For example, to encourage artistic talent, all you need initially are simple paint brushes and a paint box, plain white paper, crayons, and other basic supplies.
It's not difficult to create boxes of such materials for your child to use whenever he or she is interested.
How to Challenge your Child
by Marielle Wiesinger
1. Follow your child's passion or interest and provide opportunities for further exploration: for example, one summer, my son was obsessed with tarantulas. So, I went to the library and signed out every book I could on tarantulas; we did some research on the web, and I took him to Science World where we visited the residential tarantula. From there, I learned of a bug museum where there was a variety of different tarantulas, so we went and visited a few times, and learned about the different varieties of these fascinating spiders. As well, we made a model of a tarantula and painted it; and my son drew pictures of the tarantulas. This was a great project for both of us and I learned a great deal about tarantulas. My son was five at the time, so this type of learning was appropriate for his needs; if he was older, perhaps I would have encouraged him to write about tarantulas, or create a story about tarantulas, or investigate why some tarantulas are considered endangered.
So find your child's interest and passion, and provide opportunities for your child to develop this area of interest, no matter what it may be!
2. Encourage reading, reading, reading and more reading: I can not encourage reading enough and I think it is the best way to challenge your child and have them learn about new things and have new perspectives on their world, and open themselves to new ideas. There are so many things to read besides books: newspapers, blogs, magazines, websites! For example, one of my sons loves lego, and he is constantly on the lego website, reading reviews of new items, meticulously reviewing the lego magazine, and watching reviews about products. He knows what items were released in what year, and what has been discontinued, and what are specialty items. He gleams all this information from reading!
So encourage and provide opportunities for reading by visiting your library or nearest bookstore, or search the web for fantastic teacher and librarian sites that recommend and review books.
3. Give your child free time to play and explore and they will discover who they are and what they are interested in: I firmly believe that a child needs time develop interests and passions. Get away from tv and computers and have your child play without results or outcomes. I call this tinkering....draw, write, build with lego, make a song, create a game, and go outside!
Giving your child time to play will help your child gain independence and will feed their passions.
Now, it may seem contrary to what you are expecting ( ie hours of skill and drill to make sure they master everything at grade level and beyond), but the bottom line is; follow your child's passion, provide help in getting them there, open up their world with literature and reading opportunities, and let your child work it all out through free time and exploration!
By Carol Bainbridge
"Is my child gifted?" That is the question asked most often by parents of gifted children. After that question, the most frequently asked question is "How do I
nurture my gifted child?" Here are five simple answers to that question.
1. Follow Your Child's Lead
What does your child enjoy? What does your child seem to be good at? Provide opportunities for your child to works with things he or she enjoys or is good at. For example, if your child loves dinosaurs, get books about dinosaurs, fiction and non-fiction. Get games and puzzles about dinosaurs. Go see dinosaurs at museums. If your child is good at music or a sport, provide opportunities for him or her to learn an instrument or play a sport.
2. Expand Your Child's Interests
While it's important to provide opportunities for your child to work with his or her interests and strengths, it is also important to expose your child to new things. Children only know what they have been exposed to, so if they've never been exposed to music, they may not know whether they like it or are good
at it. Children need not be forced to try new things, but they should be encouraged. It is not forcing a child, however, to insist that they not quit something after two days.
3. Be Creative
This may seem as though it's easier said than done, but once you start thinking "outside the box," it gets easier. Gifted children love to think and solve problems, so provide them with ample opportunities for doing so. For example, if your preschooler or kindergartner likes to read, you might write daily notes to pack in their lunch box. If your child likes science, you might cook together and then ask your child why vegetables get soft when they're cooked or why cakes rise when they're baked.
4. Look for Outside Activities
Many towns offer classes for children as do museums, zoos, community theaters, and many universities and community colleges. In addition, most every region has places of historical interest. Some also have botanical gardens, planetariums, and other places of interest. If you are unsure of what is available in your area, you can call or visit the nearest "welcome center" for your state or province. They have this kind of information to give to visitors.
5. Keep a Variety of Resources at Home
These resources need not be expensive or elaborate. They just need to allow your gifted child to develop his or her interests or get exposed to new ones. For example, to encourage artistic talent, all you need initially are simple paint brushes and a paint box, plain white paper, crayons, and other basic supplies.
It's not difficult to create boxes of such materials for your child to use whenever he or she is interested.
How to Challenge your Child
by Marielle Wiesinger
1. Follow your child's passion or interest and provide opportunities for further exploration: for example, one summer, my son was obsessed with tarantulas. So, I went to the library and signed out every book I could on tarantulas; we did some research on the web, and I took him to Science World where we visited the residential tarantula. From there, I learned of a bug museum where there was a variety of different tarantulas, so we went and visited a few times, and learned about the different varieties of these fascinating spiders. As well, we made a model of a tarantula and painted it; and my son drew pictures of the tarantulas. This was a great project for both of us and I learned a great deal about tarantulas. My son was five at the time, so this type of learning was appropriate for his needs; if he was older, perhaps I would have encouraged him to write about tarantulas, or create a story about tarantulas, or investigate why some tarantulas are considered endangered.
So find your child's interest and passion, and provide opportunities for your child to develop this area of interest, no matter what it may be!
2. Encourage reading, reading, reading and more reading: I can not encourage reading enough and I think it is the best way to challenge your child and have them learn about new things and have new perspectives on their world, and open themselves to new ideas. There are so many things to read besides books: newspapers, blogs, magazines, websites! For example, one of my sons loves lego, and he is constantly on the lego website, reading reviews of new items, meticulously reviewing the lego magazine, and watching reviews about products. He knows what items were released in what year, and what has been discontinued, and what are specialty items. He gleams all this information from reading!
So encourage and provide opportunities for reading by visiting your library or nearest bookstore, or search the web for fantastic teacher and librarian sites that recommend and review books.
3. Give your child free time to play and explore and they will discover who they are and what they are interested in: I firmly believe that a child needs time develop interests and passions. Get away from tv and computers and have your child play without results or outcomes. I call this tinkering....draw, write, build with lego, make a song, create a game, and go outside!
Giving your child time to play will help your child gain independence and will feed their passions.
Now, it may seem contrary to what you are expecting ( ie hours of skill and drill to make sure they master everything at grade level and beyond), but the bottom line is; follow your child's passion, provide help in getting them there, open up their world with literature and reading opportunities, and let your child work it all out through free time and exploration!
