Saturday 2 May 2020

ACTIVITIES FOR GIFTED STUDENTS WHILE PRACTICING SOCIAL DISTANCING



The Summer Institute for the Gifted has complied this list of several activities for gifted students while your family practices social distancing.

40 social distancing activities for gifted students:

  1. Read a book that you have been curious about.
  2. Read a book that you think will not interest you and see if there is indeed something in it of interest to you.
  3. Write a book or booklet about something you know a lot about.
  4. Create a brochure, flyer, blog, article, or video about something you really enjoy and know a lot about. Share it.
  5. Write a story about your experiences with social distancing; illustrate it.
  6. Write a futuristic story about the long-term effects of social distancing.
  7. Find a pen pal among your relatives and start a correspondence.
  8. Create a personal logo that you can start to incorporate into social media, if that’s appropriate for your age and situation, or for a business you might want to start at some point.
  9. Start a family or neighborhood newsletter by writing articles about what’s happening in local areas of interest to your audience.
  10. Make up a board game.
  11. Make up a physical activity or sport you can enjoy inside or in your yard or neighborhood.
  12. Write a thank you note to someone you appreciate.
  13. Design a flag for your family that expresses what you’ve learned about each other while spending more time together.
  14. Create a comedy routine and entertain those you are spending time with.
  15. Write a song about your experience with social distancing. Share it.
  16. Plan a meal for your family that creatively uses ingredients you already have at home.
  17. Plan a future vacation or reunion when you can get together with new friends and family you won’t have seen for a while.
  18. Design a T-shirt for the times.
  19. Write to someone in public office regarding a strong opinion you have on an issue.
  20. Create a decoration for a door in your house that creates awareness about something you are feeling strongly about now.
  21. Create a new project for one of your classes that is unique to you and propose it to your instructor.
  22. Write a poem about something important to you.
  23. Learn about your genetic family tree. Create a “family tree” of those people who are close to you but are not genetically related.
  24. Design a special backpack for your fresh air outings in days of social distancing.
  25. Draw the room you are sitting in to scale and figure out the area of the room.
  26. Draw people you know from memory.
  27. Draw a self-portrait.
  28. Plan an exercise program that is individualized for your current needs, situation, and goals.
  29. Set your goals for the next school year.
  30. Write a scene for your family to act out.
  31. If you know someone who is taking a class that you are not taking but are interested in, write questions related to that class and give them to that someone to answer for you.
  32. List the leadership qualities you would like to have and assess where you need to set goals to improve your leadership ability. Have your opinions about leadership changed during the current pandemic?
  33. Research viruses, vaccines, and public health policies. List the five most surprising things you learned.
  34. Write an editorial about a current event that you have strong opinions about.
  35. Design a new fashion item reflective of the pandemic and survey your friends about whether they like it or not.
  36. Create a new fad and see if you can get others to join in while at home.
  37. Create a new riddle and see if others can solve it.
  38. Create a crime mystery for others around you to solve.
  39. Try out various methods of meditation and determine whether there is one method that particularly works to release stress for you.
  40. Add your own ideas to this list!
Looking for more social distancing activities for gifted kids? Click below for even more ideas and tips!

Helpful Resource from Bright and Quirky: Pandemic parenting, 2e Autism, Siblings


Helpful opportunities being offered from Bright and Quirky during May:

If you're like most bright & quirky families, online schooling and sheltering in place have been challenging. Here are a few resources that may help:
How to Help Bright Kids with Autism Cope During Challenging Times: Free webinar with Dr. Barry Prizant, author of Uniquely Human
If things feel challenging at home, without the typical supports in place during COVID-19, you're not alone. Navigating these uncertain times, with 2e kids on the spectrum, can present unique challenges. That's why we're organizing this very special opportunity to pose your questions to Dr. Barry Prizant, leading autism expert and author of Uniquely HumanSign up is free.
Has sibling rivalry gone up in your home as you and your family shelter in place? While most of us understand that sibling rivalry is normal, there comes a point when many of us wonder whether the fighting and teasing that goes on between our children could be harming them emotionally--or physically, when frustrations take the form of physical aggression. In truth, research suggests that despite longstanding attention on how the parent-child relationship affects childrena youngster's relationship with his or her siblings may have an even greater long-term impact on their development. Enroll here.
Join 20 experts, including Debbie, to discuss challenges related to the pandemic. We'll discuss: How to survive and thrive during the pandemic, how to reduce your family’s stress levels, how to recognize and understand your child’s behavior, and how to apply simple, actionable steps. Regisration is free.

Thursday 23 April 2020

At-home Learning Resources for Kids from the Mensa Foundation

A mother embraces her son in their living room.

During these interruptions to learning, the Mensa Foundation is proud to provide you with resources that can offer enrichment and educational opportunities for your child. Mensa for Kids, powered by the Mensa Foundation, is full of lesson plans, activities, TED Connections, and other learning opportunities.

In addition to the myriad resources the Mensa Foundation offers at Mensa for Kids, including robust lesson plansactivity plans, and TED Connections, they are offering additional resources to engage your young learner. The curated list will be regularly updated as they find quality material that might be meaningful to you in the coming days and weeks.

How to Help Your Child with Negative Self Talk, with Dr. Marc Brackett

Bright & Quirky
It's very sad when our bright and quirky kids develop negative self talk, thinking they're bad, broken, dumb, or a failure. Dr. Marc Brackett, Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, shares a very important and powerful conversation you can have with your child to shift their self talk to be more positive and healing. This conversation can be helpful whether the challenges your child is facing are social, emotional, academic or behavioural. 

Click here to listen.

Free SENGinar recording: Gifted School-at-home during COVID-19

 This is a link to a webinar presented recently by SENG, exploring how we can help support our gifted students through these challenging times: https://vimeo.com/410207654
'Supporting academic resilience with our gifted children requires parents and teachers to first examine the intersection of individual and family support characteristics of each child. Gifted students who possess a deep sense of justice or empathy for others may not be available to learn at the same rate and depth as before the pandemic started. Reassuring these children that it’s okay if their learning slows down will be critical to their overall health, well-being, and ability to successfully return to academics once the coronavirus crisis passes.

Alessa Giampaolo Keener presents the basic principles of trauma-informed learning, as it applies to school-at-home and homeschooling during COVID19; address the social-emotional needs of three different categories of gifted families; and offer tips and reassurance on how parents and teachers can support a gifted child’s learning needs during a time of crisis.'



Sunday 19 April 2020

Supporting children’s wellbeing during COVID-19

Supporting children’s wellbeing during COVID-19



Professor Elizabeth Fernandez, Professor of Social Work at the School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UNSW Sydney, offers a number of helpful strategies to enhance children's emotional health and wellbeing during this pandemic in her article.

USEFUL WEBSITES FOR GIFTED PRIMARY STUDENTS

Useful Websites for Gifted Primary Students


 This list was sourced from the GERRIC Update - Resources to support home and online learning


Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page offers resources for parents, educators and children

Khan Academy is another excellent website, they have recently added daily schedules for those
currently unable to attend school

STEM
Byrdseed TV offers maths activities suitable for students in late primary school
The Museum of Life and Science has some great science-based activities to do at home that are suitable
for a wide range of ages, as well as an interactive Q&A and a suggestions page to share what you'd like to
see
Tynker have student self-paced coding courses and they have now made Pro Access with even more
resources available for free
Linda Sheffield, Ph.D. from the Kentucky Association of Gifted Education (KAGE) has shared Maths
resources for a range of topics and ages, targeted specifically to Gifted students
NASA has STEM Activities for K-12 students
Hooked On Science has a range of activities plus an experiments archive organised in categories including
Engineering, Physical Science, Life Science and Earth Science

HUMANITIES
Bring history to life with DocsTeach which hosts learning activities for all ages using documents from
the National Archives
Poets.org has resources for learning about and writing poetry

CREATIVE ARTS
Fast Company has put together a list of free art classes online
Several galleries and foundations share free content on Youtube, such as the
Frist Art Museum and the Art Assignment - a weekly production about art and art history, hosted by curator
Sarah Urist Green
Adobe is offering its Creative Suite free for 60 days
Google Arts and Culture allows you to explore iconic locations in 3D
The Kennedy Center Artist-in-Residence's virtual workshop shares content daily about art and exploring new ways of writing

100 RESOURCES FOR GIFTED KIDS (FROM THE ARTS TO THE SCIENCES AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN)


A re-post as this is a fantastic resource with wonderful links to all sorts of amazing websites - 100 of them, in fact. Talk about rabbit holes worth exploring!!
Feel free to send me some reviews from the kids (or yourselves) to share on the blog.

Are you looking for some great virtual cultural experiences?

Here's a list I have bene compiling of many of the great virtual opportunities we can access at the moment, right from our living rooms.

Theatres: Plays, Ballet, Opera, Musicals


  • The Metropolitan Opera is streaming a different opera each evening. Find the link here.
  • The National Theatre (London)is going to stream a free play every Thursday night: It will be available to watch for a week. Click here for more details.
  • From our House to yours: Bringing the Sydney Opera House stages to your sofa, they are bringing their new digital program to you weekly from their House to yours.

Museums and Galleries

Man Made and Natural Wonders
Zoos

SENG: Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted


SENG: Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted, is a nonprofit network of people who guide gifted, talented, and twice-exceptional individuals to reach their goals intellectually, physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually.

SENG provides support through a variety of programs, all aimed to be inclusive and accessible. They offer online support groups for gifted, talented and twice-exceptional individuals and their parents/guardians, online SENGinars with leading experts, in-person regional mini-conferences and an annual conferenceSENG Model Parent Groups (SMPG) and Facilitator TrainingSENG LibrarySENGVine e-newsletter, Continuing Education courses for professionals, workshops, and more!

Explore their website to find out more: https://www.sengifted.org/