Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Need help helping my 'gifted' 2nd grader?

My son, 7 years old, is currently in second grade and ever since Kindergarten my wife and I have been told that he was 'gifted'. I always knew he seemed to be a little ahead of the other kids in his class, especially in his reading skills, but I never really thought of him as 'gifted'.

I teach 7th grade Math and those AIG students are the only ones I've really been around so I'm not sure what I was looking for as far as a 5, 6, or now 7 year old being 'gifted'.

However, during the past two months I've starting seeing some signs that he may in fact be 'gifted'...him reading more advanced books (currently in the second book of the Harry Potter series) and understanding words I never even thought he knew, asking questions about all types of topics (that I have to google the search to), coming up with 'out of the box' solutions to various things we discuss, and him going about solving Math problems similar to myself (ie: 4 x 96 would be 4 x 100 minus 4 x 4).

I also recently spent 2 days at an AIG workshop for teachers and many of the things they talked about there described my son.

I have a daughter who just turned 18 and she never showed signs of being gifted so all of this is brand new to me and my wife...and to be honest we are both at a loss as to how to help him 'expand' his giftedness and how to best meet his needs at home as his parents.

I've ordered three books in hopes of learning as much as I possibly can: a) Raising a Gifted Child by Carol Fertig, b) Smart Parenting for Smart Kids by Eileen Kenedy-Moore, and c) Guiding the Gifted Child by James T. Webb.

What other books or resources would you recommend to help me?

What advice would you give me?

Thank you for any and all help!!!

TripleB

- I highly recommend "Living With Intensity: Understanding the Sensitivity, Excitability, and the Emotional Development of Gifted Children, Adolescents, and Adults" by Susan Daniels (Editor), Michael M. Piechowski (Editor): http://www.amazon.com/Living-With-Intensity-Understanding-Excitability/dp/0910707898

- math: "Great Source Math to Know" and/or other books in this series: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Source-Math-Know-Mathematics/dp/0669535966

- science: "The New Way Things Work" by David Macaulay: http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Way-Things-Work/dp/0395938473

- human biology: "The Way We Work: Getting to Know the Amazing Human Body" by David Macaulay (caution: there is one picture on human reproduction at the end you need to check first): http://www.amazon.com/Way-We-Work-G...13315352&sr=1-1&keywords=the+way+we+work .

In general, make more advanced resources available to him and see what "clicks" with him.

I also always recommend Stanford EPGY Math K-7 (Open Enrollment) and AOPS Prealgebra books.


AOPS is great with this kind of problems. You can find the pretest for AOPS Prealgebra here: http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Store/viewitem.php?item=prealgebra .

ETA: There are also AOPS Beast Academy math books for younger readers, but these are new and we have not used them: http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Store/viewitem.php?item=beast:3A-Guide .

Thank you very much for your reply with recommendations and the links to the various books...I've added them all to my 'wish list' and will take a closer look at them when I get home.

Question concerning the AOPS...currently I would say his Math skills are slightly behind his reading skills (but still well ahead of the students in his class)...would the Beast Academy books be the best place to start?

Again, I appreciate all the information and you taking the time to respond. This is definitely uncharted territory for me...I was labeled 'gifted' growing up but his thinking is already beyond what I remember mine ever being.

TripleB