Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Have to have resource for GT kids

As in the other thread, I set aside a few dollars of my tax return to buy book and resources for my kids. If you could, please recommend your must have book or resource for your kids.

That's scarily broad but OK....

Descartes' Cove.

For a 5yo?

Pattern blocks. No question.

They cost in the $15-20 range for a big bucket of them. They're sold on educational websites (and stores, presumably) like www.didax.com. They're like a big ol' bin of tangram shapes that can be used for geometry, fractions, multiplication and division practice, art, imaginative play, etc.

My kids were OBSESSED with them for a year or two around age 5-ish. (Older for DS8, younger for DS5.) We did math with them, but they loved them best for making Transformers out of them. They still get them out occasionally to make Batman or Star Wars characters out of them. Best money I ever spent!

Legos, Knex and Playmobile sets have been well used in our home. My kids always threw away the directions for the building sets. They preferred to come up with their own designs.

All the above and zome tools. DS6 got some for his birthday and he loves them. http://www.zometool.com/ DS also likes the books in the DK Eyewitness series.

My DS loves this book. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Th...81579128142/?itm=1&USRI=the+elements

This one is on our dining table. http://www.hometrainingtools.com/product.asp?pn=CM-ELEMATS&bhcd2=1265160767

We have that one too. It is very visually appealing.

In terms of other educational books, we like Diane Draze's Red Hot Root Words and others in that group (she has at least one sequel). For math, we're quite fond of Edward Zaccaro's books.

I haven't come up with the $ for the Descartes Cove CDs yet, but they do look interesting. I'd like to give a try with the Art of Problem Solving online math classes at some point, too, but it isn't in the budget right now (and time is limited as we are partially hsing dd#2 and dd#1 is still in school ft).