Resources for Families of Academically Gifted Students
Parents, teachers, and communities need to work together to accommodate the social and emotional needs of gifted and talented children. When educators and parents work together to meet the needs of children, they are better equipped for setting and accomplishing future goals. I have provided parents, teachers, and communities with resources available for fulfilling the demand of intense but yet meaningful academics that accommodate all families with gifted and talented children.
First, I have included activities for kindergarten through second grade. The academics are on second or third grade level due to the cognitive or special subject area needed by the gifted student. For example, I have included a multi-genre project which includes all components of literacy, math, science, social studies, art, music, and technology. The multi-genre project can be adjusted to any grade level K-12. The project can be created in any order and self selection of topics is offered. I have also included a family math activity incorporating higher order thinking skills. The math activity consists of geometric skills with components such as thick, thin, color, shape, and size.
Some other resources available for parents of gifted children are parent organizations. Two of the organizations are located in North Carolina and the other organization is a space camp offered by NASA located in Alabama. The summer camps have government grants making enrollment more feasible and the parent organizations consists of seminars that reveal the latest research of gifted students generating ideas about meeting their emotional and social needs.
Third, I have included brochures and websites that will provide parents and teachers with resources that meet the academic needs of gifted children during the school year and the summer months when parents may struggle with the emotional and social demands of high maintenance children. For example, one brochure informs parents of games available through popular websites. Another brochure informs parents of summer programs for gifted children specializing in arts/science and technology.
The general idea behind the family resource book is to provide my school, community, and parents of academically gifted students with creative ideas for talented children to motivate and accomplish goals independently as they become older and life becomes more challenging. The activities, parent organizations, websites, and camps are ideas for accommodating needs of gifted children while providing academic challenges for all developmental stages of cognitive, social, and emotional needs of gifted and talented students.
