What books/sources helped you "understand" how to best help your child? And thanks all.

[momsuz123]

First off, thanks so much for all of you on this board. I have been posting things on and off here, but am really doing a lot of reading on here. I love the ayschrony in action thread. I feel some relief already.

 

I just had/have no idea what it all means to have a gifted kid. I just now am realizing about the "unbalance" that can occur when intelligience can take off, but emotions suffer, etc.

 

So, I am ordering The Whole Brain Child. I just read Lori Pickert's book Project Based Homeschooling. What else? Aside from reading all of your posts!

 

Thanks.

 

By the way, we meet with the psych on Monday, so I am sure she will give me some advice, but I want yours first!!

[wapiti]

My favorite book that helped me understand my kids is Linda Silverman's Upside Down Brilliance, which is out of print (it's about VSLs). She has a new book, Giftedness 101, due out in a couple of weeks. I already pre-ordered ;)

[serendipitous journey]

Well, these are a little off-topic, but two resources that have really helped me to help my child are

The Highly Sensitive Child and

Non-Violent Communication. (there are certainly things here from a different perspective than mine, but it's been invaluable generally)

They aren't about giftedness per se, but have helped me create an emotionally sturdy environment (more or less ... the last few days have been hard around here, and I am frazzled much more than usual and not nearly as gracious in my parenting as my standard usually is. I'm doing my best; but the struggle is humbling)

[LivingUnderGrace]

My favorite book that helped me understand my kids is Linda Silverman's Upside Down Brilliance, which is out of print (it's about VSLs).

 

:iagree: I just started reading this one, it's great!

[momsuz123]

Well, these are a little off-topic, but two resources that have really helped me to help my child are

The Highly Sensitive Child and

Non-Violent Communication. (there are certainly things here from a different perspective than mine, but it's been invaluable generally)

They aren't about giftedness per se, but have helped me create an emotionally sturdy environment (more or less ... the last few days have been hard around here, and I am frazzled much more than usual and not nearly as gracious in my parenting as my standard usually is. I'm doing my best; but the struggle is humbling)

 

Thanks for the ideas - I too have been struggling some. You are not alone. :grouphug:

[momsuz123]

Well, these are a little off-topic, but two resources that have really helped me to help my child are

The Highly Sensitive Child and

Non-Violent Communication. (there are certainly things here from a different perspective than mine, but it's been invaluable generally)

They aren't about giftedness per se, but have helped me create an emotionally sturdy environment (more or less ... the last few days have been hard around here, and I am frazzled much more than usual and not nearly as gracious in my parenting as my standard usually is. I'm doing my best; but the struggle is humbling)

 

Thanks for the ideas - I too have been struggling some. You are not alone. :grouphug:

[jenbrdsly]

Have you checked through all the articles on the SENG website? That was most helpful to me. I also have a gifted page on my blog that might help.

[Kathy G]

My 2 favorites:

 

A parents guide to Gifted Children http://www.amazon.com/A-Parents-Guide-Gifted-Children/dp/0910707790

 

and I agree with Upside Down Brillance

[Barbara H]

Ditto to A Parent's Guide. It is a substantial book and one that you'll continue to reread as your kids get older.

[Mukmuk]

Another vote for Parents Guide to Gifted Children by James Webb.

[minuway]

As far as books, the best I've found have been Guiding the Gifted Child, Raising Your Spirited Child and Some of My Best Friends are Books: Guiding Gifted Readers. Living With Intensity and Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students: Helping Kids Cope With Explosive Feelings were also good.

 

The SENG website has been really helpful to me. They have lots of free articles, and also a free ebook: The Joy and the Challenge. Gifted Homeschoolers Forum is good. Psychology Today has a collection of articles on Giftedness as well. In case this isn't enough, here is an enormous list of links I bookmarked a while ago but haven't gone through all the way. I hope this helps. I've had fun avoiding making dinner. :)

[Staceyshoe]

Another vote for Parents Guide to Gifted Children by James Webb.

 

Yet another vote for this one! This was the first book where I felt like the author "got it." The more I read, the more I "got it" too. I refer back to it every few months as different issues arise.

[Embassy]

 

Strong Willed Child or Dreamer has been very helpful in understanding 2 of my kids. I'm revamping how I approach some subjects because of it. It even has useful strategies for my child that doesn't fit in the same profile.

[Embassy]

My favorite book that helped me understand my kids is Linda Silverman's Upside Down Brilliance, which is out of print (it's about VSLs).

 

 

Yes, I want this one!! I can't believe the used prices on that book though.

[mathwonk]

My favorite education guru was the late E. Paul Torrance. He studied creativity and how it differs from what is often thought to be intelligence as measured by IQ scores. I do not remember which books of his I liked most but one promising looking one is here, Guiding creative talent:

 

'http://www.amazon.co...s=paul torrance

 

Torrance was interested in how to nurture the ability to grapple with new problems, rather than amass facts. He was interested for example in what made one pilot become a fighter ace in comparison with other pilots.

 

To be completely direct, my best insight came a bit too late, from a friend. A comment he made caused me to realize that I had formulated goals for my children based on hopes that they would achieve the results I had not in my field. he made me understand that the job of a parent is not to push the kid to the heights we wanted, but to support them in exploring the avenues that appeal to them.'

 

our job is not to train our kids to be stars, but just to realize their own dreams, whatever they may be.

 

 

I just read the description of Upside down brilliance and that book seems to be about the same phenomenon. We had two gifted kids, one who remembered everything and was very precise, and another one who forgot everything and lost everything but was very imaginative. We studied the phenomenon Torrance calls "creative gifted" to help the second one and help him get recognition as gifted. It also helped that we had him IQ tested by a disciple of Torrance, who also included creativity in her test, so he also received a high IQ score. That type of giftedness seems to be what is referred to here as VSL, a term I am not as familiar with, (although I may well have encountered it here).

 

Paul Torrance is the father of measuring and recognizing creative giftedness, and wrote over 80 books on this and other educational subjects. His books may be more dry than the one suggested here, but they vary, and some are written for parents and even kids. He is probably even mentioned in the bibliographies of the more recent books like Upside down brilliance. I mention him because his books may be more available. I would look in university libraries for them first, since he wrote a lot of them, and some are not as inspiring as others.

 

well my quick search of the reference lists in some of the VSL books do not mention Torrance at all, which I find puzzling, given his lengthy career in the field of creative giftedness. Maybe there is a distinction I do not appreciate, or he has been partially forgotten, having died several years ago. or maybe his stuff is too scientific. but he was a strong advocate for the interests of a group of gifted kids who were regularly overlooked and mishandled by schools, often getting into trouble with teachers. reminds me again of my grand daughter who has just been placed in a new school away from the teacher who tore up her work publicly for forgetting to put her name on it. that's the kind of mistreatment that such kids endure.

 

by the way there is a Torrance Center for gifted education at UGA in Athens, GA. We had our kids tested there and it might be convenient for some of you who live in the general area.

[Alte Veste Academy]

Strong Willed Child or Dreamer has been very helpful in understanding 2 of my kids. I'm revamping how I approach some subjects because of it. It even has useful strategies for my child that doesn't fit in the same profile.

 

This book was the one perfect book that helped me understand my DD. It gave me lots of insight into my boys as well.

 

My favorite book that helped me understand my kids is Linda Silverman's Upside Down Brilliance, which is out of print (it's about VSLs).

 

:iagree:

 

My other favorites...

 

Dreamers, Discoverers and Dynamos

 

Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World

 

The Myth of ADD

 

Superparenting for ADD

[mathwonk]

for those simply must have linda silverman's book, here are some used copies, but they are enormously overpriced as I have noticed are many books targeted at the home school market.

 

http://www.abebooks....down brilliance

 

I

would suggest branching out a bit in search for books on this subject. Paul Torrance wrote over 80 books, admittedly not all so helpful, and is the originator of the science of the subject of creative giftedness, which Silverman's book seems to treat.

 

I can believe her book is extremely good, but at the price I would look around for alternatives. or maybe someone here who has a copy they have finished would start a sharing circle.

 

Aha! I misread the previous quote/post. it does indeed give several alternate suggestions!

 

By the way although I have not read silverman's book, the title reminds me of an art class my kids took at their excellent private school, the Paideia School in Atlanta, in which the kids drew a picture upside down. I.e. their own drawing was upside down, maybe not the model they drew from.

 

The results were very interesting. the child whose right side up art abilities were good but maybe not as precociously so as the other child, did a beautiful upside down drawing.

[wapiti]

I would suggest branching out a bit in search for books on this subject. Paul Torrance wrote over 80 books, admittedly not all so helpful, and is the originator of the science of the subject of creative giftedness, which Silverman's book seems to treat.

 

Silverman's book is about visual-spatial/"right-brained" learners with special emphasis on the gifts involved. While creativity might be discussed, I wouldn't put it as the main emphasis. My favorite other books on that topic would be the Eide's The Dyslexic Advantage and Freed's Right Brained Child in a Left Brained World. I'm looking forward to seeing what Silverman includes in her new book, Giftedness 101, that is due out Dec 14th (it's supposed to be a present "from DH" so I'm not sure when I'll read it, though certainly I can peek when it arrives :)).

 

I'll have to check out the Torrance books - I'm sure I've seen his name somewhere before.