November Fall Back

I had hoped to have a blog post for November, but most of my energy has been focused on meetings and I had difficulty coming up with a topic. It's not like I haven't been reading or talking about gifted issues, but I usually need to have that inspiration to post which just didn't happen. I have been bitten by the library bug though and have a stack of books which I need to get to. Not only have I been choosing reference books about cells, a DVD on the Galapagos Islands, The Cricket in Times Square, and a collection of Leo Lionni for both of my boys from the library, but I've gotten some books for myself which I need to get to. Some of these are my signed prize copy of Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students: Helping Kids Cope With Explosive Feelings by Christine Fonseca (which I mentioned in my previous post), Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults: ADHD, Bipolar, OCD, Asperger's, Depression, and Other Disorders by James. T. Webb, et al., and Good Friends Are Hard To Find by Fred Frankel, Ph.D. I've been having too much fun browsing the library and making use of the interlibrary loan which I highly recommend!
So November was filled with meetings. I had high hopes for our rescheduled Parents of Gifted Children Resource meeting, but attendance wasn't up to the previous month's so that was a little disappointing. We did talk about books, shared favorites, and the kids got to talk and share too so that was nice to see. We will be having our next meeting in January so I'll need to start planning that fairly soon. I was also looking forward to the Governor's Advisory Council for Exceptional Citizens (GACEC) meeting but Ron Russo, who is on the Children and Youth Committee advocating for gifted children, wasn't there. I did try to speak up for gifted students; however, I didn't get much of a positive response and feel that the majority of folks are just there to support the needs of special education students. I'm reconsidering my participation at the GACEC meetings unless I can contact Mr. Russo to get some encouragement to continue.
Two members of our Parents of Gifted Children Resource Group and myself had a brainstorming session before Thanksgiving to come up with ideas on what we could present to the GACEC at their January meeting. We came up with lots of ideas and are going to meet again to talk, but I still feel that we need to have more people from our group or others involved before going forward. I feel that it is important to have an advocacy component to our group's mission. Just take a look at the US map on the davidsongifted.org website where you will find Delaware in the red. What this means is that gifted programming is not mandated, funded, and so it is up to the local school districts to decide what to do with their gifted population. Some have programs that start in kindergarten such as the Brandywine school district, while others start in 3rd grade. Some have only after school programs while others have self-contained classrooms, and or pullout programs once a week.
Looking ahead I anticipate good things. I'm inspired by Deborah Mersino's work with ingeniosus.net and the joining of forces for gifted education on the internet via facebook and twitter (which I still haven't gotten the hang of yet). People are coming together and that is powerful!
Thank you for reading and all the best in 2011!
Monica

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

So the title to this post might be a little too hokey, but it is 10:30 pm as I write this so please cut me some slack. I've been doing a fair amount of writing and reading this past week. I won the super prize pack after following and leaving numerous comments on other blogs for Christine Fonseca's blog tour to celebrate her newly released book, Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students: Helping Kids Cope With Explosive Feelings. (www.christinefonseca.com) She has even graceously given me more items to spread the love with members of our Parents of Gifted Children Resource Group. I have been reading her book and have to say that it is nice to finally have a resource that goes through the what you can do as well as the why and what is emotion intensity. It is also easy to read and breaks things down into chunks making it easier to put ideas into practice. I'm hoping to try the strategies out as soon as I finish the book. Stay tuned for a more in depth review of the book later.
As I was trying my best to increase the odds of winning Christine's awesome swag pack, I was finding lots of new exciting blogs. One of those blogs was Lisa Rivero's, who has written books on guides for gifted teens and their parents and homeschooling. (www.everydayintensity.com). While I was posting on Lisa's blog I found an excellent interview she did with Dr. Deborah Ruf, author of 5 Levels of Giftedness: School Issues and Educational Options (www.educationaloptions.com) and it was so thrilling to get a reply from Dr. Ruf on my comment. I have also enjoyed reading the amusing posts of Jen, a mom of two gifted boys at www.laughingatchaos.com.
Lastly, I want to mention another brush with an author and all around creative person- Karen LJ Isaacson (www.kisaacson.com), who I really just left a facebook comment about a painting she did which gave her an idea on another technique to try so I'm pretty chuffed. :)
So this leads me to a few of my favorite things.....BOOKS which is the topic of our next Parents of Gifted Children Resource Group meeting!
Our meeting will be once again held at the Dover Newsstand and the discussion is about your and your children's favorite books. You are encouraged to bring a list or actual copies to share with everyone. This will give everyone new books to look out for and I'll have a list of parenting gifted chidren books available too. Meeting date is next Wed. 10/27 and will start at 6:30pm. I hope to see lots of parents and children there, sharing one of my favorite things.

Thanks for reading,
Monica :)

Back to School Kick-off Meeting Success!

I'm still buzzing from the success of last night's Parents of Gifted Children Resource Group meeting. The turn out was the best we ever had with 9 parents (including myself). We gathered around two tables at the Dover Newsstand, which has a great cafe atmosphere, for an informal chat about ourselves, our kids, and school experiences. I had a great time and it was so nice to talk with parents who know where you are coming from, don't think you are an alien from outerspace, or a pushy parent :)

I shared a helpful online resources list handout (which I hadn't made enough copies of). Most of them are listed on the side of this blog.

Other members shared information about activites such as starting a LEGO club, joining a Chess club at Our Game Table on Saturdays from 1-3, and going to the Delaware Mineralogical Socieities Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show the first weekend in March.

I'll keep you posted on the next meeting date/time/location and I'm hoping that we can discuss books that you and your children enjoy (with the kids joining in on this meeting).

Thanks for reading,
Monica

Back in the Saddle!

Yea -haw! The new school year started for my 9 year old 5th grader and our whole family was so excited. I knew it was going to be a little rough the first week and boy was I right. There were lots of new things for him, such as getting up an hour earlier, riding on a bus with lots of noisy kids, a new school with two new teachers and classmates, lockers, and a totally new routine which can be hard for anyone to cope with.

For my emotionally intense gifted son, a little thing like not having eaten in 5 hours can put him into a meltdown situation and couple that with the noise of a school bus complete with driver shouting and doing a write up, I had a mass of emotions flying which caused stress for the majority of the family.

I'm happy to say that today was much improved. I pumped him up on carbs and protein as soon as he walked in the door and he was in a jolly mood. It also helped that it is a Friday and he can unwind a bit more.

It's also back in the saddle for this blog. As you may have seen by the date of my last post, it has been awhile. I guess I got a little discouraged with not many people commenting, but I got a little pep talk at an oline seminar with Deborah Mersino from www.ingeniosus.net to keep at it. Thanks Deborah for your help and advice. Sorry I haven't figured out how to shorten the url. :)

I'm also going to start the face to face meetings next month for our parents group. If you are interested in attending the meeting (date, time, and location TBD), comment or send me an e-mail with a day and time that works for you.

Thanks for reading and if you would like to share your back to school stories that would be great!