Nurturing Your Gifted Child at Home

The goal of an enrichment plan in a school setting is to provide gifted students with the opportunity to practice higher-level thinking skills (analysis, synthesis, evaluation), develop creativity, and enhance problem-solving skills. But this enrichment shouldn't stop at the end of the school day. You can encourage those higher-level thinking skills, even while at home. Best of all, you can do it simply and informally, without your child even realizing what is happening! For example:

§ Ask him/her to compare or contrast the characters or themes in a movie you may have watched together.

§ Choose a common household object - perhaps a fly swatter! - and ask: "How do you think this could be improved?" or "What else could this be used for?"

§ Encourage some creative brainstorming while riding in the car by asking your child to name as many things he/she can think of that: _______________. You fill in the blank! Be creative with your request and encourage your child to think beyond the obvious. For example, name: Things that run and what makes them run (gas makes a car run, a cold makes your nose run, the dream of a gold medal makes an Olympic athlete run….).

§ Ask your child for his/her thoughts on a current issue while watching a news program or looking at the front page of the newspaper. "Do you think the judge made a good ruling in that case?" "Why" or "Why not?" "How do you think this will affect future cases?" "How could this event have turned out differently?" "What if this event had happened 100 years ago?"

§ Read part of a story to your child and stop before the end. Ask him/her to create an original ending.

§ Ask your child to explain a preference he or she has. For example, "Why do you like soccer better than baseball?"

§ Don't discourage questions! Your gifted child probably hits you with innumerable questions! Try to answer as many as you can together by using reference resources at home, on the computer, or at the local library.

§ Involve your in child as many hands-on activities as possible. If his science class is studying osmosis, do an at-home experiment. Even better, let him brainstorm how this concept could be illustrated visually with common household items.

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Development of these resources was funded
by a grant from the NEC Foundation of America

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