Monday, December 21, 2009

"B" is for Busy not Bored...

Despite the curriculum often not being commensurate with their abilities, most gifted children love being in school. There are always curiosities to satisfy, things to investigate, and learning (on at least some level) to be done. As a result, for many parents of gifted kids extended periods at home like winter break can be a challenge. I thought I'd throw out a few ideas to help keep the dreaded "B" word (B O R I N G) from arising this holiday season.

First of all, the antidote to boring is busy. While I'm there, my first suggestion is to involve your kids in two more "B" words, budgets and buying. Many families already do this but I saw on on TV recently a holiday shopping suggestion that would be great for the kids. Set a budget amount for them to be able to spend on presents. Then, give them that amount in cash in small bills. Before leaving the house, have them make an envelope for each person they want to buy for and put in an amount they want to spend on each person. Now, many of your little rascals will immediately conclude that if they don't spend it, they will be able to keep it. Be sure to inform them otherwise- that anything left over comes back to you. If they end up wanting to overspend on one person, they need to pull the extra money from another person's envelope. Now I warn you this will slow down shopping considerably. Still I think it's a valuable exercise on several levels. It teaches basic budgeting, responsibility, problem solving, and even has them wrestle with the ethical dilemmas of pulling money from one person to spend on another. My suggestion would be to do it on a day separate from when you are trying to do your own shopping.

Similar activities can be done around planning holiday meals and grocery shopping. There are tons of opportunities for some pretty heavy mathematical calculating here. They can investigate everything from costs of items, coupons, measurements, quantities needed based on the number of people eating, comparing supermarkets, to comparing the cost of eating at home to dining out. Of course not all kids will be interested in this but many will enjoy wrestling with the complexities of this type of planning. It will also give them a better understanding about all that goes in to what you do for them!

A couple of other suggestions involve technology and having the kids go through the important skill of conducting research. Many gifted children are extremely empathetic and have a keen sense of justice. The holidays can be an opportunity to expose them to the world of non-profit and charitable organizations. A great use of a day would be offering them $5 or $10 that they can donate to the charity of their choice but they first need to research a certain number of organizations and explain to you why the funds should go to that cause. Depending on the age and computer skills of the child, you could pre-plan it by creating list of websites you have already checked out. This is another project that has kids reading, analyzing, making decisions, and justifying those decisions.

Another way to have children do some research is to mark a day on the calendar and ask your child to plan a family outing for that day. Instruct them they need to take into account everyone's interests and ideas of fun, give a budgeted amount that can be spent, and ask them to write up how you all should spend the day. They can research about places, calculate traveling times, plan out a schedule, and propose it to you at a family meeting. Again, for younger children, it will be useful to offer up some alternatives first to focus them (i.e. family movie day, family hiking day, etc.).

One of the areas in which children are identified as gifted is in the area of leadership. All of these activities offer an opportunity for kids to take on the role of leader and exercise critical and creative thinking. Hopefully they will be positive family experiences and grow brain cells at the same time. Would love to hear any suggestions any of you have too!

2 comments:

  1. We at Free Spirit Publishing are delighted to see our books cited in your book lists! Thank you for your support. I would be happy to send review copies of any book you'd like to see. Your support, given your area of expertise, means a great deal to us. That real people find and recommend our materials is all we could hope for!

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    Jenni Bowring
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    Free Spirit Publishing
    http://www.freespirit.com
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  2. My dad was really ahead of his time. When I was a kid, every time I suggested an activity he always said, "plan it, I'll support you". I planned backpacking expeditions for the two of us, biking trips, and even a class trip that involved a group of 30 8th graders going to Taroko Gorge (I lived in Taiwan) I remember having to figure out 3 meals a day for over 30 for five days. I planned, shopped, the whole thing! As a result, I always had a keen sense of the behind the scenes work that goes into planning any activity: Probably the best educational experience of my life!

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