For Parents & Educators

Here are some of our favorite resources. Tell us about your favorites!

If you want an overview of gifted traits and best practices…

The Survival Guide for Parents of Gifted Kids: How to Understand, Live With, and Stick Up for Your Gifted Child

A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Children

Growing Up Gifted: Developing the Potential of Children at School and at Home (8th Edition)

Often used as a textbook for gifted education classes, Growing up Gifted is an information-filled, research-based, slightly dry read. This would not be the first book you’d pick up to understand gifted education, but it adds a deeper understanding of teaching gifted learners.

Gifted and Talented Learners, Joyce Van Tassel-Baska (editor)

A classic for TAG educators, this book is also helpful for parents who seek to understand best practices in gifted education. VanTassel-Baska contributes to and edits this collection of essays covering topics such as the nature of giftedness, program development, highly and exceptionally gifted persons, organization of curriculum and instruction, and excellence in education. Contributors include Linda Silverman, John Feldhusen, and Camilla Benbow.

If emotions and intensity are a theme in your family…

Understanding Creativity

Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students: Helping Kids Cope With Explosive Feelings

Living With Intensity: Understanding the Sensitivity, Excitability, and the Emotional Development of Gifted Children, Adolescents, and Adults

Raising Your Spirited Child: A Guide for Parents Whose Child Is More Intense, Sensitive, Perceptive, Persistent, and Energetic

For 2E (Twice Exceptional) and Learning Differences

For all gifted individuals, it’s important to understand Dabrowski’s

Classics for All Parents

Some of My Best Friends Are Books: Guiding Gifted Readers (3rd Edition)

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk

The Five Love Languages of Children: The Secret to Loving Children Effectively

Especially for EG/PG (Exceptionally to Profoundly Gifted)

5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options

I’m not a proponent of categorizing children in general, but EG/PG kids have some differences that are important to understand, particularly in the emotional/social space.


Sensory Support

Snug Kids Earmuffs

Bouncy Bands for School Chairs

Resistance Bands (Cut to size)

Fidget Toys

As a teacher, I have a love/hate relationship with fidget toys. They can easily become distracting, messy projectiles. Most cheap fidget toys from Dollar Tree or Amazon will fall apart quickly. But some kids need to fidget. What to do?

If you want to make your own fidgets, try filling balloons with a baking soda/water mixture. This is a great project for the kids to do themselves. They can experiment to find the baking soda/water proportion that feels best to them. And it’s very economical! Some people add food coloring to the mixture. Yes, it creates a super cool effect. NO, NO, do not do it! Some kids will fidget until these balloons fall apart. What a mess!

If you want to buy some fidgets, I like Crayola Gobbles. Better quality than most, and the balls wash easily. Look on Amazon Warehouse Deals for better prices.

Whenever possible, I combine the need to fidget with a learning activity. Try a mini Rubik’s cube, Magic Snake, or other mini mind puzzles. Metal wire puzzles are inexpensive, last forever, and teach important visual-spatial skills.


Awesome Articles

Why Kids Need to Tinker to Learn

Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning

How to Trigger Students’ Inquiry Through Projects

The Challenges and Realities of Inquiry-Based Learning

Websites

SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted)

Byrdseed

Hoagies 

Curriculum & Educational Materials

Differentiated Curriculum Kit for Grade 4 – Systems

Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician’s Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks

Prealgebra, the Art of Problem Solving 

Splash!: Modeling and Measurement Applications for Young Learners (A Mathematics Unit for High-Ability Learners in Grades K-1) (William & Mary Units)

Spatial Reasoning: A Mathematics Unit for High-Ability Learners in Grades 2-4 (William & Mary Units)

Invitation to Invent: A Third-Grade Physical Science Unit (William & Mary Units)

Beyond Base Ten: A Mathematics Unit for High-Ability Learners in Grades 3-6 (William & Mary Units)

Differentiated Projects for Gifted Students: 150 Ready-to-Use Independent Studies

Units of Study in Opinion, Information, and Narrative Writing Elementary Series Bundle, Grade 4, Lucy Calkins

Videos

Diana Laufenberg’s TED Talk on the importance of Learning from Mistakes