I personally like to keep my awareness, definitions, and knowledge of giftedness fluid, robust, and evolving. This allows me to have an identity as a gifted person that is not absolute, constraining, or preventing me from wondering about myself as gifted. People wonder about their giftedness. And they do continuously question the validity of being gifted. In the late … [Read more...] about Don’t Stop the Wonder
First Edition - Our Relationship to Giftedness
Winter 2020, Volume I, Edition, I.
In our first edition, we asked our writers to share their connection to giftedness.
Building Metacognition in Gifted Students for Future Success
The ultimate goal is to empower your child with a positive self-identity, an exercise crucial to a healthy and centered child. Indeed, with and through this foundation, the child can develop social skills, learn emotional regulation, develop an expressive vocabulary to communicate deep thoughts and emotions, and learn executive functioning skills necessary for lifelong … [Read more...] about Building Metacognition in Gifted Students for Future Success
The Insecurity of Intensity
It takes a lot of support to view intensity as acceptable rather than an inconvenience. The truth is that the intensity that springs from giftedness will be too much for some. We will find ourselves on the outside sometimes. We will come on too strong, scare others away, or even get so lost in our thoughts and feelings that we distance ourselves on our own. If ever there … [Read more...] about The Insecurity of Intensity
Gifted Feelings
This is the eternal balancing act: being grateful for the superpowers we have as gifted humans and practicing self-love, patience, and perspective when our intensities take over our brains and bodies. In the end, it’s my hope that gifted people realize their giftedness as a gift rather than a guillotine. I love the question posed in this inaugural issue of The GHF … [Read more...] about Gifted Feelings
When Giftedness is Underachievement
I’ve discovered that I’m blessed to be different. Homeschooling my twice-exceptional kids, and creating a life for them I never had, I’ve found peace. I’ve found belonging. I’ve found a tribe. I’ve found acceptance. My hope and my prayer for the entire gifted community is that everyone in it finds their peace, too. I’m still different. It’s just now that I know and recognize my … [Read more...] about When Giftedness is Underachievement
There’s No One Way to Be Gifted
Whether giftedness itself is a burden depends entirely on whether you have experienced true understanding from others. Feeling grossly misunderstood your entire life is most definitely a burden. There may also be aspects of asynchrony and intensity that make life more challenging. I recently found a file of old journals. My senior year journal, shared only with my … [Read more...] about There’s No One Way to Be Gifted
Resolution Reframe
It was during the eight weeks of the SENG Parent group that I began to reflect on my experiences as a gifted child. I realized that I had let my gifted identity go underground, as many gifted girls do. This really gave me the tools to help my daughters think and talk about their giftedness. My New Year’s resolution is the same this year as it has been for much of my … [Read more...] about Resolution Reframe
Living Life in a Neurodiverse World
I definitely didn’t look like a typical gifted kid, but my mom was a special education teacher and had insisted I was tested for the gifted program in second grade. In fifth grade, she refused to believe my teacher’s opinion that I was unmotivated to learn. We ended up in a neurologist’s office who diagnosed me with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. I often wonder how I … [Read more...] about Living Life in a Neurodiverse World
Building an Online Gifted Learning Community
Online G3 has been a way to give not only my own daughter but also many students in the broader gifted community a means to find their own identities as gifted individuals in an active, diverse community that inspires friendship and support daily...Without this unique opportunity to give back to the gifted community, my own ties to my gifted identity would have never been so … [Read more...] about Building an Online Gifted Learning Community
The Gifted Journey: How My Definition of Gifted Has Changed Throughout My Life
I’ve seen the many ways that the word gifted can affect an individual, whether it’s a newfound sense of identity, a sense of relief, or, my favorite, a realization that there are other people out there like you. In seeing this over the last few years, I’ve learned that for many, the word gifted is a community. It is a place to call home. It is a safe space. It is a place to be … [Read more...] about The Gifted Journey: How My Definition of Gifted Has Changed Throughout My Life