07.05.09
Clay Day
The WAGC clay workshop was an exciting event, with something for everybody. Children, and some parents, worked with adobe clay making everything from dragons to snowmen. Some of us were less keen to get our fingers messy, but were fascinated with the adobe house and oven, the rammed earth floor, and the many other interesting and beautiful things our hosts had made from the local clay.
An adobe clay tile nearing completion.
We used an adobe mix that contained clay, sand and paper. This can be quite dry and crumbly, but draws in extra water easily, and is fairly strong when dried without firing. There are various “paper adobe” and “hybrid adobe” recipes on the internet that people may like to try out at home if they missed the event.
The sticky fingers of success!
Like many successful WAGC events, this was organised and hosted by one of our member families. If your family has an interest you could share with other gifted children in the Waikato, we would love to hear from you.
06.19.09
What Should Parents Do?
Gifted kids quite often have gifted parents. Gifted parents quite often have that drive for excellence that many gifted people have in common, regardless of age. It follows, then, that quite a few parents of gifted children want to be totally excellent at quite a few of the things they do, including being excellent at parenting gifted children.
Some of the most wonderful people I know are the parents of gifted children. They thank me for things I do for their kids, and I wonder why, because when I see them interact with their own children, I am both humbled and inspired by the excellent job they are doing. Many of these same parents, though, spend a lot of time asking themselves, “How can I do better?”
Here are some thoughts:
- Aim to be good parents. Even aim to be great parents. But don’t aim to be perfect parents – that cannot prepare children for an imperfect world! The resilience to cope with boredom, grumpy words and even unpleasant vegetables usually begins with enduring a few minor hardships at home.
- Do things you love with your child. Seeing how adults develop their interests is helpful for children who have a great capacity to be interested in things but don’t yet know how to channel it.
- Seek the company of other parents who share your values. Many gifted kids will question each of your values in turn, and on a bad day they may question all of them at once. It’s good to know who is on your side.
- Sift through advice discerningly – it doesn’t all work for every gifted child or every parent of a gifted child.
Here are some web pages on parenting your gifted child:
- Parenting Young Gifted Children
- Parent / Teacher Relationships
- Hoagie’s Parenting Page
- 97 Page Booklet
Waikato Association for Gifted Children has a lending library which includes many books on parenting gifted children. WAGC also provides opportunities to talk to other parents, face to face. New members are always welcome.
Phone Mary on 849 4842 (evenings) for more information.
06.18.09
Pretending to be Ordinary
Back when I was at high school, I used to babysit for our school guidance counsellor’s kids. As I was arriving or leaving, we used to chat about things, including giftedness. I remember him telling me about a gifted kid who he had helped to become more popular. He had told this boy to count to ten after the teacher asked a question before putting his hand up. Worked a treat apparently. All the other kids thought this child was not as smart as he used to be, so they accepted him more. Looking back, I think I may have been told the story as an invitation to adopt a similar approach myself. Too subtle, Mr. F. – the penny took thirty years to drop!
This is a scary story. It’s scary because the only way for this child to get ahead socially was to get behind mentally, or to pretend to. It’s scary because it worked. It’s scary because so many of our gifted kids are working out the same technique for themselves, and using it all the time. It’s scary because in thirty years, it is a problem we haven’t solved.
If you’re sporty, there is a right time to run really fast and a right time to throw the ball really hard. That time is not when you are teaching someone smaller and more delicate to play a sport that you love, but it is most of the times that you play sport.
When is the right time for our gifted kids to stop dumbing down, be who they are, and play really hard with their minds? For too many of them, that right time is certainly not between 9:00am and 3:00pm on weekdays.
It is important to get gifted kids together with other gifted kids. It is important to give them as much time as possible when they don’t need to pretend to be ordinary to fit in.
06.17.09
Is My Child Gifted?
One of the purposes of Gifted Awareness Week is to help create understanding of what giftedness is. Many parents go through times of suspecting their child may be gifted, alternating with times of doubt. Questions parents ask themselves include the following.
- Was I kidding myself when my child seemed so bright before starting school?
- If little Johnny is as bright as he seems, why can’t I see progress happening each and every day?
- Shouldn’t my daughter be playing with children her own age, not the younger ones, if she is as bright as I thought she was?
- Is my child naughty, or gifted, or both?
- If I ask someone if they think my child is gifted, won’t they just write me off as a pushy parent?
I struggle to think of a single gifted child whose parents didn’t go through a time of soul-searching as they went about finding out whether their child was actually as bright as they suspected.
If this struggle is your struggle right now, here are some web pages about the characteristics of gifted children that may help you decide.
- The Young Gifted Child
- Strengths and Weaknesses
- A New Zealand List
- More Characteristics
- Gifted and Learning Disabled (yes, both at once)
Still not certain? Get in touch with WAGC or an organisation for gifted children near you. Talking to other people with an interest in giftedness is a good way to find out more.
06.16.09
Support from both sides of the House
It seems that parliamentarians are keen to be seen to support the cause of gifted education this week. Let’s encourage them. We may benefit if they make a habit of it!
Here’s what Heather Roy, Associate Minister of Education, had to say in support of gifted children on Sunday. She hadn’t finished, either. Here is what she had to say yesterday.
Trevor Mallard spotted an inconsistency between Heather’s words and what hapened in the parliamentary budget. Read what he had to say to her in parliamentary question time today here.
Now, if we can just get a few more of our MPs competing to do the right thing, and holding one another accountable, we might get somewhere!
Writing to Parliament
One of the things we are encouraged to do for Gifted Awareness Week, is to write to our local Members of Parliament. So what does one say?
The mismatch between the provisions of the latest parliamentary budget and last year’s ERO report on giftedness seems like a good place to start.
In looking at whether schools had “a school-wide shared understanding about gifted and talented education”, the ERO review team only found substantial or convincing evidence of this in 35% of schools. 65% of schools then, didn’t really have a shared understanding of the needs they must now try to meet for our gifted children.
ERO had identified a training need for teachers. This was not too surprising. The law change requiring schools to cater specifically for gifted and talented students is recent. Professional development was becoming available and beginning to equip schools with the skills to follow the new rules, but it was very much a work in progress.
Sadly, though, the latest Parliamentary budget has reduced funding for teacher professional development in the area of giftedness. Questions were asked in Parliament today about “a 100 percent cut to the teacher professional development budget for gifted and talented students“. We should be asking those questions, too. Ask your MP today!
06.15.09
Gifted Awareness Week
Today marks the start of Gifted Awareness Week. So why does it matter?
If gifted children, their families, or their teachers are not sure what services are available to help them, then Gifted Awareness Week is important for them. Many parents of gifted children find it tiring keeping up with their children’s thirst for knowledge. Many teachers of gifted children struggle to provide work that is challenging enough for these children while also meeting the needs of others in their busy classrooms. Many gifted children really want to spend time with other kids like them.
Waikato Association for Gifted Children offers information for parents and teachers, and opportunities for gifted children to spend time together.
Please pass on information about WAGC to someone who may benefit this week, if you have the opportunity.
Contact Mary on 849 4842 (evenings) for more information.
06.11.09
Clay Workshop
The July event for the Waikato Association for Gifted Children will be a clay workshop for families.
As it says in our newsletter:
There’s nothing like the feel of clay squishing between your fingers… join us and explore your creative side!
Make a masterpiece or mush – it’s your choice!
This will take place on Sunday 5 July at the home of one of our member families. Please phone Mary on 849 4842 (evenings) for further information.
06.09.09
Dyslexia and Giftedness
At tonight’s meeting there was some discussion about gifted children with dyslexia. I thought I would post a link to Hoagie’s dyslexia page, which will point you to lots of different webpages that you may find useful if your child is gifted and dyslexic. If you are not familiar with Hoagie’s Gifted Education Pages, they contain a great deal of well organised information, and are definitely worth a look.
There are a variety of services for dyslexic children in Hamilton, including SpeLD, the Davis Dyslexia Programme, the Danks Davis approach (different from Davis), and Behavioural Optometry.
06.08.09
Homeschooling Link
I have been amazed at how fast new blogs and blog posts show up on Google in the past, so I thought I would see if ours showed up yet. (It doesn’t, after long enough to make a cup of coffee, surprise, surprise!)
Anyway, while Googling, I found a link to a Waikato homeschooling group. They have links to some of the other Hamilton groups on their page, too.
I am often asked about homeschooling gifted children, and while WAGC has a number of members who homeschool, and who prospective homeschoolers can ask for information, I thought this link may help people too.
