The formula for keeping gifted children engaged is typically to place them into scenarios which are one or two levels above their current abilities. This arrangement provides them with the personal challenge level to stay interested, while allowing them to see the potential finish line of mastery.
If the levels of challenge are too low, the gifted child will be bored and disinterested.
If the bar is set too high, the gifted child may invoke the academic laziness which stems from being accustomed to obtaining knowledge without extending much effort.
Goals which appear too tedious to reach can seem just as pointless to the gifted child as those which are too easy. The trick is to find that “Zone of Proximal Development,” or “sweet spot,” for our gifted kiddos.
While at home, there are a myriad of ways to meet the individual interests, academic levels, and challenge ranges for your child. Methods for stimulating their growth can be customized to your own levels of time, resources, and energy.
The goal is to not let their talents go uncultivated.
1. Share What You Love
For parents who have their own passions – and the time to share them – there is nothing better than acting as a respected mentor for your gifted child.
Our own passions, as a parent, can be extremely infectious, and there have been many prodigies who have credited their own mothers or fathers for being that spark which propelled the gift toward greatness. Sharing our own talents and insights with our children is one of the ways that parents can leave a lasting legacy.
Mentoring effectively is an art form.
Mentoring a gifted child can present its own set of challenges, as information will need to be presented in a way which invokes the child’s heightened need for curiosity and stimulation.
If you are starting early, you may have the advantage of instilling that love for what you hold dear within your child from the beginning. Otherwise, you may find yourself developing creative ways to catch – and keep – their interest in your passions.
An alternative to doing the job, yourself, is to find good friends and relatives who possess a certain skill, or who are involved in a career your child would like to aspire toward. Find out whether these valuable people are available to instruct your child in the ways of a master.
Going this route of shared mentoring can provide the gifted child with a smorgasbord of experiences to draw from.
2. Utilize Subscription Resources
For the busy parent, outside resources can provide your child with a range of self-directed experiences.
Signing up for subscription services can take some of the energy necessary for curriculum planning out of the equation, and can supply the gifted child with the minimal amount of guidance that they so often prefer. For the gifted child who is in exploration of interests mode, trying out a specific program on a month-to-month basis allows for a convenient method of experimentation.
The following is only a small sampling of available subscription options for personal development:
Cooking
For the child who is interested in exploring the world of culinary art – and developing the skills necessary to wow the eyes along with the taste buds – he or she can find that there is a lot more which goes into mastering chefery than meets the eye.
With the convenience of our modern society, there have arisen subscription services which provide the recipe, and the ingredients, for crafting restaurant-quality dishes at home. The materials are shipped on weekly basis, but the knife and palette skills are left to the aspiring chef to develop.
Some sites to explore for pursuing this option include Blue Apron and Plated. The latter option allows for increases in difficulty levels.
Computer Programming
There is no escaping the impact of technology on our current society (you are utilizing it just to read this article!)
There is also a massive range of potential in it for our gifted children.
Their capacity to pick up on new information quickly – combined with the propensity toward logic which is often present – makes them prime candidates for thriving in this world of digital progress. Companies such as Bitsbox and Tynker have made it easy for parents to provide their children with self-directed development in this area, regardless of the parent’s own skill level.
Both services allow the child to select from a range of specific interests and ability levels in the area.
Math
In a similar vein as computer programming, many gifted children excel at mathematics.
In this STEM based culture, having exceptional knowledge of mathematical computation can provide our children with an edge in several areas of eventual occupation. Apart from its diversity in usage, one of the beautiful aspects of math is that it is a universal language. The basics of it never change, and there are always possibilities of expanding our knowledge of it.
Two great resources for self-pacing mathematical development are Aleks and Khan Academy.
The former provides comprehensive, multi-level, curriculum. The latter is no cost. Your child can determine which type of presentation of information is preferred.
3. Encourage Them To Prep Their Social Skills
As has been repeatedly noted, gifted children are not always top of the class when it comes to socializing with peers. A lot of time is spent in their own heads, hashing out formulas and developing hypotheses.
For some, learning to operate effectively in a social setting may be the most difficult course content, of all, to master.
Being at home is a great, safe, space for gifted children to prepare themselves for being social elsewhere. They can:
- Use the internet to research trends, and to develop knowledge of peer-related interests.
- Study social psychology theories, and learn what it is that makes for successful human interactions.
- Use their home time to prepare experiments toward making friends at school.
Then, they can test out their hypotheses; analyze results; and make adjustments toward relating to peers, as necessary.