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Parent/Family Tip Sheets

The Timely Information for Parents (TIP) Sheets are for parents/families of gifted children to download, read, and share as their children’s needs change.

Advocacy
Students need to know how to speak up for themselves to find the right opportunities to fit their needs.
Steps to take when your school doesn’t have effective gifted programs and services.
Working collaboratively with the teacher will be important to your child’s success in school.
Creativity
Supporting your child’s creativity often depends on those at home.
Build critical and creative thinking and expression through the arts.
Giftedness
Why it is important to support cognitive, social, emotional, physical, psychological needs in gifted children.
Many parents and caregivers question how to talk with their high-ability children about giftedness.
What does gifted and talented mean for your child?
Your young child is showing signs of advanced abilities, what do you do next?
Giftedness in the Classroom
Why, when, and how do you have your child tested for gifted identification?
Experiences in after-school activities may be the most important of the day.
African American children may exhibit giftedness differently than others and need some different types of support.
A proven strategy to ensure the level and pace of your child’s academic needs are met.
Social Emotional Development
Help your child avoid unhealthy perfectionism which can can cause excessive stress and anxiety.
The important role of grandparents and special people in nurturing and supporting gifted children.
Friendships might be more related to mental age than chronological age.
Gifted children can develop at an uneven rate, confusing parents, friends, and teachers.
Learn how to recognize and combat cyberbullying.
How do you find a counselor, psychologist, or therapist for your gifted child?
Recognize warning signs and provide support for children who are being bullied.

 

 

 

Parent/Family Resources and Organizations

  • Parent Resource Materials: The Office of Advanced Academics and Talent Development provides a mini-library of resources to the families through the (PRC). The PRC is located at the Syphax Education Center, 2110 Washington Boulevard, ÐÓ°ÉÊÓƵ, VA 22204. Please call before visiting as hours fluctuate, 703-228-7239. Your school¡¯s Advanced Academics Coach may also have resources to share with parents.
  • ?NAGC is a non-profit organization of parents, teachers, educators, other professionals, and community members who unite to address the unique needs of gifted children and youth. NAGC publishes a quarterly journal, a parenting magazine, and holds an annual conference.
    • : The Timely Information for Parents (TIP) Sheets are for parents and caregivers of gifted children to download, read, and share as needed. Please keep in mind these are developed for a national audience and each school district will varying in implementation.
  • This web site contains information about gifted education, links to the state regulations and state and national organizations related to advanced learners.
  • VA Gifted advocates for gifted children and services at the state level, publishes a quarterly newsletter, and holds bi-annual conferences.
  • : An annual career and academic planning event sponsored annually in January by The Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary and held in Williamsburg, VA.
  • : Offers a variety of information from the Virginia Department of Education Web site. The Commonwealth of Virginia provides services to identified students, K-12.
  • ?SENG is dedicated to fostering environments in which gifted adults and children understand and accept themselves and brings attention to the unique emotional needs of gifted children.
  • CEC is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving educational outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities. CEC includes a TAG (Talented and Gifted) division.
  • Formed in 1999, the Davidson Institute is a 501(c)3 private operating foundation funded by Bob and Jan Davidson to recognize, nurture and support profoundly gifted students and to provide opportunities for them to develop their talents. A variety of free brochures that can guide parents in the support of their children. The Foundation also provides a variety of scholarship opportunities.
  • offers excellent online webinars targeted toward parents of gifted students.
  • The Jack Kent Cooke Scholarships are designed to encourage and support outstanding students from 7th grade through graduate school who have a breadth of interests, work hard, demonstrate a strong will to succeed, and have financial need.
  • The Emerging Scholars Program (ESP) is designed to encourage and support outstanding students with financial need in grades four through six. ESP was established in late 2002 by a consortium of seven independent schools serving the Washington, DC area. Emerging Scholars Program Graduates undergo 14 months of rigorous academic and leadership training. Graduates have been accepted into grade six at independent schools where they will receive need-based financial aid or graduates go on to greater success at their home public schools.
  • This Web site is an ¡°all-things-gifted¡± resource for parents, educators, and gifted teens.
  • Early entrance programs, often referred to as radical acceleration, provide an opportunity for groups of students who have yet to complete high school to become a part of a supportive peer environment within a collegiate setting. Various college early entrance programs allow these students to work toward either a full college degree or a high school diploma plus transferable college credit.
  • , at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, offers an opportunity for bright and accomplished young women to complete college during their high school years.

Podcasts & Webinars

Podcasts

  • This podcast focuses on multiple topics about parenting and educating bright and curious kids from the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth.
  • This podcast features discussions with leaders in the fields of psychology, education, and beyond, with?an emphasis on gifted/talented and 2e (twice-exceptional) children and adults. Mind Matters explores parenting, counseling techniques, and best practices for enriching the lives of high-ability people.
  • This podcast is for parents of strong willed children.
  • This podcast aims at helping parents raising ¡°differently-wired¡± kids do so from a place of confidence, connection, and joy.

Webinars

  • (UConn) Webinars on Helping Your 2E Child, Talking with Children About Their Giftedness, Perfectionism and Productive Struggle, and more
  • (*this webinar is streamed on Facebook) Parents will learn about self-regulation for learning and be offered useful strategies to help their children be better prepared for the complexities of life on-line and beyond the K-12 setting.
  • (*this webinar is streamed on Facebook) The writing process is frequently stressful for students and may become an additional source of frustration for families during quarantine. Join Cori Paulet to discuss simple strategies you can use to reduce tensions and support your child¡¯s writing without needing to be the expert.
  • Perfectionism ¨C What It Is, and How to Help How do we encourage kids to ¡°be all they can be,¡± without creating perfectionists?? Pursuing excellence, while leaving behind perfectionism¡¯s destructive anxiety, begins with an understanding of the psychology of perfectionism.? Learn how to use this understanding to create perfectionism¡¯s antidote.
  • Let¡¯s talk about getting ready for home-based learning!? Students and parents both benefit from developing temporary home-based learning structures because they provide consistency and reduce stress on everyone.? In this live chat Melissa will talk about how to ¡°do school¡± from home by setting a consistent daily schedule, creating learner workspaces, and organizing information.

Online Programs

Online Resource Brief Description/Additional Information?
Resources for Parents and Mentors Getting started with Khan Academy with a parent quick start guide.
Free standards-aligned videos, interactives, lessons plans and more
Sign up for free account; free interactive platform for discovering millions of authenticdigital resources, creating content with online tools
Lessons Plans, Activity Plans, TED Connections
Feed your child¡¯s curiosity. Everything you need to spark and celebrate your child¡¯s ideas.TED talks for students; TED talks by students
Day-by-day projects to keep kids reading, thinking, and growing.
Each day a new ¡°wonder¡± is posted with follow up resources and guidance. Over 2000questions from many disciplines to search. It says it is for learners of all ages, youngerchildren will need reading support. Families can sign up to receive an email each dayabout the new ¡°wonder¡±.
K-12 Digital games around a variety of topics
YouTube:? Created for high schoolers; huge library of videos across most major disciplines,including playlists of forty-eight videos on U.S. history, seventy-two on world history, andfifty on U.S. government and politics.
An interactive online system that provides a personalized learning environment forchildren and leads to higher academic performance. Once students do the RenzulliProfiler, personalized activities and?resources are shared around these major themesof Learning Style, Expression Style and?Interest Areas
20 virtual field trips plus lesson ideas, activities and book suggestions to extendthe learning?for each type of destination.
This video shows the basics of how all the pieces are set up and move on the board.
For grades 3 ¨C 6, this is a compilation of logic puzzles, math bafflers, and more.
Arts
Visit 12 famous museums virtually
Free Series starting Monday, March 16th ¨C 7:30 PM (each opera will remainonline for 20 hours)
15 Broadway Plays and Musicals You Can Watch on Stage from your Home
App contains eight interactive activities inspired by works in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, plus a sketchbook for freehand drawing and a personal exhibition space where users can save and display art created with the program.
The Kennedy Center is offering doodle lessons each day at 1:00 PM led byMo Williams.
MoMA Art Lab is a creative art app from Museum of Modern Art. It helps kids learn about modern art: how to create and how to appreciate the art.
Selection of artworks you can zoom in on and learn information about painting as it appears; there are also questions for students
?Various classes around different art topics such as animation, illustration, design. May be designed more for high school and above.
Mathematics
Designed to appeal to diverse learners, these resources provide real-world connections, opportunities to think more deeply about mathematics, and ways to use both logic and computation to solve problems.
Provides information to help you learn about schools; decide on a college; engage in several games, quizzes and skill building about math, probability, graphing, and mathematicians.
Step by Step guide? and videos to master the Cube!
? ?Puzzles that make you smarter.
Using card games to capture children¡¯s attention and teach mathematical concepts.
? ?Build quantitative skills in math, science and computer science with fun and challenging interactive explorations.
Language Arts?
Parents can use these questions to support deep thinking while reading around different elements of a story and around big ideas or concepts such as power, courage, integrity, growth and change and more.
Online read alouds and literacy resources are shared on this site.
Collection of favorite quality children¡¯s books read aloud for kids as young as preschool and up to early elementary years.
50 Read-Alouds for Elementary School KidsAuthors are offering read-alouds of their books and books by their favorite authors.
Various classes around different aspects of creative writing.Free trial for two months.May be more appropriate for high school and above.
Science?
NBC4¡¯s Doug Kammerer hosts daily Facebook live each day at 2:00 PM focusing on a weather related topic.
Online events with live instructor teaching students to Code, Build, Invent and Animate
K-5 STEM activities using household items; 6th ¨C 9th grade System Alert share everyday?STEM fast facts, trends and related topics
Design Thinking 10 Days of Design Thinking Challenges using Recyclables (K-5)
 

K-12 STEM activities around multiple science topics
K-12 engineering games covering topics ranging from inventing and coding to environmental and electrical engineering
YouTube: Old school science videos
Social Studies
America¡¯s Library, Recorded Authors, Poetry 180, Everyday Mysteries -Fun Science Facts,?Today in History, etc.
Documents, Photos, Records; educator resources, America¡¯s founding documents
Students can virtually curate their own museum
Historical documentary films organized by era and by film
YouTube: Narrative account of American Revolution cartoon style
YouTube:? Videos on history especially military history
Amazing facts about animals, science, history and geography
Explore the US through virtual field trips
Podcasts for Kids
Introduce female characters in history, factual or fictional via our podcast and show-notes. An introduction, an overview and a little push to explore and learn more on your own.
Fairy tale podcasts about the extraordinary women who inspire us.
NPR podcast guides curious kids and their grown-ups on a journey into the wonders of the world around them.
But Why is a Vermont Public Radio show led by you, kids! You ask the questions and we find the answers. It¡¯s a big interesting world out there.
Well written short weekly podcast on word origins, idioms, grammar and more.
Various podcasts around different topics for kids.
Podcasts about various science related topics.
? A debate show for kids and families.Every episode takes two cool things, smashes them together and lets you decide which is best.
History show that explores the origin of just one thing ¡ª like sandwiches, video games, clocks and more ¡ª while teaching listeners to think critically about history.
Each episode is filled with fascinating information from scientists and educators from around the globe.
Each episode is focused on improving the political discourse in this country through conversations with politicians, government officials, political scientists and historians.

Critical & Creative Thinking Choice Boards

What are choice boards?

Choice boards were designed during the pandemic to provide home activity examples that follow the APS Critical and Creative Thinking Strategies framework. Each board concentrates on a few of the strategies in order to provide enrichment and creative thinking opportunities for gifted students.

Learn more about the strategies and what they mean

Critical and creative thinking choice boards are listed below based on publication date, but can be accessed and used any time.

September 28

  • Encapsulation
  • Point of View
  • Plus, Minus, Interesting (PMI)
  • Fluency, Flexibility, Originality and Elaboration (FFOE)
  • SCAMPER

October 5

  • Big Ideas
  • Making Connections
  • SCAMPER
  • FFOE

October 12

  • Big Ideas
  • Visualization
  • PMI
  • FFOE

October 19

  • Habits of Mind
  • Making Connections
  • PMI
  • FFOE

October 26

  • Big Ideas
  • Questioning
  • Visualization
  • FFOE

November 2

  • RAFT
  • Habits of Mind
  • FFOE

November 9

  • Big Ideas
  • Questioning
  • SCAMPER
  • FFOE

November 16
November 16 SPANISH
November 16 ARABIC

  • Habits of Mind
  • Visualization
  • PMI
  • FFOE

November 30
November 30 SPANISH

  • Habits of Mind
  • Encapsulation
  • PMI
  • Questioning
  • SCAMPER

December 14
December 14 Spanish

  • PMI
  • HOM
  • Visualization
  • See Think Wonder
  • SCAMPER

January 15

  • RAFT
  • Questioning
  • Making Connections

February 15

  • Making Connections
  • See, Think, Wonder
  • Questioning
  • Visualization

March 15

  • Visual Thinking Routine: Compass Points
  • PMI
  • See, Think, Wonder
  • Questioning-Ranking

April 15

  • Encapsulation
  • Visual Thinking Routine: 10 X 2
  • Fluency, Flexibility, Originality, Elaboration
  • Habits of Mind: Thinking Flexibly