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Since it appears my 2e won't be getting into our GT program, it has made me wonder what others are doing for enrichment with their children. I already do all kinds of stuff with my kids, but part of my wanting him to be in the GT program is because I think they will come up with stuff I will never think of!!! :-) Anyway, I would be interested in learning what types of things all of you do with your kids to enrich their learning. Puzzles, games, going places, books, etc. Basically anything. Thanks!

Hi EandC,

I forget how old your child is. Strength areas/interests? Depending on those, there are several things that can be done:

1. Competitions (math or essay or art). We've found local poetry and art contests, but also ones on the internet.

2. Definitely field trips & museums, factory tours

3. Reading many different genres

4. Talent searches (from about 4th grade up they can do above-level testing)

5. magazine subscriptions, camps, clubs pertaining to their interests

Just a couple ideas.

I think the best thing to do is watch what interests him and follow up on that to the full extent of his interest. For some kids in some areas of interest, they're just mildly curious and a quick bit of Internet research or one library book will suffice. But for some kids in certain areas of interest, they'll go nuts with a subject for YEARS, soaking up every bit of information they can find on it.

I'm not the most creative mom in the world (!), but I've found that if we follow my kids' interests, there are some activites that become obvious, even though they probably wouldn't seem like obvious "enrichment activities" to someone else. When DS6 was obsessed with mazes, we checked out every maze book the library had, he drew mazes for me to solve, we read the Greek myth about the labyrinth and the Minotaur, and we visited a giant cornfield maze. When he was 2 and was obsessed with cars, we read the Consumer Reports annual auto issue to him on the potty and he studied the photos; in this way, he wound up memorizing the makes and models of effectively every car on the road! So visits to auto dealerships and even jaunts around parking lots were great fun for him and suited his interests.

Were trips to the parking lot what I would have picked as enrichment? Of course not! But he was in heaven. We followed similar paths with NASCAR (no one else in the family is a fan), Transformers, and now it looks like we're on to foreign language--a change I greatly appreciate! So now I'm researching opportunities for foreign language study and introducing him to foreign words used in English and every bit of foreign language I can remember from my own education.

Follow their interests until the interests peter out, and you'll probably have the best luck (and the most fun!) with them. Just don't invest a lot of money until you're sure it's not one of those mild interests!

Thanks for the suggestions!!

cym - I have 2 boys, one 9 and one 6. I wasn't familiar with the talent searches you mentioned. What are those?

Kriston - girl, if I had only HALF the money back that I spent on all the "passions" that didn't last. LOL!!!! I'm older and wiser now - but it is still hard to know which interests they will keep for a while and which will just hang around for a very short time. My DS6 is really into mazes too and I think the foreign language idea sounds great. I had 4 years of Spanish and don't know nearly as much as I should. I hope you enjoy working with your kids on that! :-)

This is very cool!!!! The only test we appear to be eligible for is the Duke test. However, it says you must have a 125 over all IQ or 95% in the achievement testing. He, of course, has neither. sigh..... And it looked so good!!! :-)

Thanks for letting me know about it though. I have a feeling when my younger child tests next year he will test as gifted and he doesn't appear to have any of the 2e issues (thank goodness!!!) so it will be something worth remembering for the future.

sigh again...........

It would be so nice if we had of the Talent Searches near us that were for dd's age. I would love to be able to have her go to summer activities etc!

Tammy,
I know it sounds odd, but I have heard of parents who plan their summer vacations so that the kiddos can attend class and the adults can relax by the pool. My Son did a day camp for two years that was wonderful the first year and "ok" the second. You guessed it. The first year he was the one the younger side of the multiage group, and the second year he was on the older side. Also, he can complain all he wants about the second year, and we didn't send him back last year, BUT, the writing class was the breakthrough moment when he discovered -
1) that carrying around a laptop and using it is hot stuff!
2) that he can enjoy writing and do well with it.

He creamed the writting assignment on the enterance test to his new school not a month after the summer camp. BTW - he was so mad that I insisted that he could choose 2 classes, and I would choose the third - against Camp advice! The writing class I choose was his favorite of all. Score on for Parental Wisdom!

Trinity
BTW EandCMom - get your application in. You've got both the scores AND my personal permission! ((wink))

Trinity - That may be something to consider. I know how much dd would love something like that during the summer. It would give us a good reason to go somewhere we otherwise wouldn't, too!

((wink))
Have some fun!
Trinity

Well Trinity, since I have your permission I am definitely going to get my application in!! LOL!! Seriously, you think that the one area counts?? I guess I could try, it wouldn't hurt. I asked him if he'd like to take a test just for fun to see what he knows and that it wouldn't really matter for anything other than just for us and he thought it sounded like a great idea!! So I guess I will see what I can do. Thanks for the encouragement - ya'll are all great!!!

We don't have any of the day camps near us but we did do a Camp Invention last year at the kid's school that was really fun. They're doing it again this year and I know they have those all around the country. If you're interested go to campinvention.org and then put in your state and it will tell where they are going to be. I don't know if they have the list up yet for next summer though. My kid's will definitely be going again as they LOVED it. It's not as academic as the things ya'll are talking about, it was just a fun science camp, but they did really enjoy it.

Hi Tammy and Trinity,

I too put DD7 in a situation at a gifted program in sit. where she would pick two classes and I would pick one. She was not happy.... Guess which one she loved best? I actually had the director push her up to a class with older gifted kids and I was feeling a lot like pushy/crazy mom and a little nervous/guily. It ended up being the best hard decision I have made so far for her. It's amazing what the kids can do if given the opportunity to excell, she will never get this same opportunity at public school. She ended up falling in love with chemistry, was happy, and had that love of learning look on her face I hadn't seen in a while. She is now totally into DNA and body chemistry, neither of us would have know she had that interest because they don't do that stuff in second grade. I guess what I'm trying to express is....If you can swing traveling to a good program, don't be afraid that it won't be worth your while. If you find a good one for your dd, it will be worth it's weight in gold.

Incog

so how do you go about finding a good program? what is sit?
are there programs that are good for 2e kids?
others have discouraged me from sending dd to gifted camps because she might be frustrated if she is required to write or do things really fast.

DD7 has always expressed a great interest in science, particularly chemistry and biology. But there are absolutely no classes that she could attend to learn more about them. She would be over the moon if she could attend a class to learn more about chemistry. I'm really going to look into this. Thanks for the advice, ladies!

Calling all Moms of science loving seven year old girls...

Even if you don't homeschool, you can sign up for these GREAT Cyber-ed online courses through the Homeschool Buyer's Co-op. The co-op folks would then consider you an "afterschooler" and allow you the same benefits. My PG seven year old is loving the "middle school" life science and will start physics in a couple weeks once Life Science is completed. If you register through HBC, you pay only a fraction of what the courses cost if purchased directly. I think we paid about $20 per course. Let me see if I can make a link:
https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/index.php?option=com_epp_offer&Itemid=323

best wishes-

Confused,

I am sorry to confuse you more, :), when I typed sit. I was abbreviating situation. I don't have specific information about 2E gifted programming, but you might want to start by looking into what the local colleges are offering. Stanford and Northwestern aren't the only colleges offering gifted progams these days. It seems to be the vogue thing in education to offer these gifted camps, even the local community college here is starting to provide them. You could see if your state has a gifted association. That would be a great way to find resources for your daughter.

Would your daughter be frustrated at a gifted program? You would be the best judge of that. My DD5 attended one when she was 4. She was with 1st and 2nd graders and she wasn't writing at all. She really wasn't even reading fluently. The teachers at these programs are usually pretty awesome and know gifted kids come in lots of different shapes and sizes. DD had alternative things to do when the others were writing, and boy did she love the program. The teacher told me she was amazed by DD4's deductive reasoning skills and that she did well in the class. She got a chance to stretch her intellectual legs, so to speak, even without being able to keep up with the others in terms or writing. It doesn't hurt to talk to the director of a gifted progam and see if they can accomodater your DD. The worst is they say they can't, but what if they say, yes, absolutely, we'd love to have her.

Lastly, resources like the one Lorel just posted, (Thanks, Lorel, I cannot wait to get my DD signed up for this program) can sometimes be the best. Your DD can work at her own pace and have fun, not frustration. There are tons or resources for that kind of thing posted around this site, so keep tuned in and good luck.

Incog

Wow, thanks Laurel! I'll be looking into that link tonight!