Day #451 (Wed., Mar. 30, 2011) – Katie And The Laptop Repairman
My wife’s laptop is not working so we had to take it to the guy who sold it to her. Katie came along and while she was quiet at first, she soon warmed up. She was walking around the living room, trying to touch the painting and pick up this and that. He had to reinstall the operating system, so we decided that we had better leave and I would come back to pick it up when he was done. Katie is tired and needs to go to bed…
My wife purchased a book “Light Up Your Child’s Mind” from Amazon (see photo to the left). We are going to read it and see how we can apply the principles as we bring up Katie. Here’s what it says:
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Renzulli, whose model for the education of gifted children has been widely adopted, presents a program for parents to identify and foster their school-aged children’s interests and abilities. Inspired in no small part by education pioneers John Dewey and Jean Piaget, he tells parents how to help their children acquire new skills and interests and fully utilize the ones they have. Every child, gifted or not, has unique talents and strengths, not always apparent in the classroom, that can be cultivated through a variety of parent-directed exercises in creative thinking and productivity. Part I of this volume investigates academic giftedness vs. out-of-the-box gifts, and looks at kids whose learning styles and intellectual curiosity go against the current definition. Part II, the bulk of the book, offers practical paths to recognizing and developing those gifts and talents, and includes bulleted lists, dialogues, checklists and evaluations, chapters full of concrete advice, dozens of ideas and activities, plus case studies of individual kids’ creative-productive projects. Part III covers special considerations: the twice exceptional, i.e., kids with gifts coupled with learning disabilities, ways to reclaim the underachiever and how to partner with teachers and schools. While Renzulli’s discussion of giftedness is nothing new, the authors offer excellent step-by-step advice for parents of all children.
WHAT I LEARNED TODAY
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1) Katie met her first laptop repairman tonight.