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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.