For Parents of Gifted Children
Since its inception in 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) appears to be meeting one of its major objectives: to close the achievement gap between high- and low- achieving students nationwide. The situation, however, is a bit...
Volume 9 / Issue 1 / Fall 2008 Legislation/Law Research Briefs Research and Theory
Just as educational programs and curricula for gifted children differ widely from state to state, so too do the requirements for teachers of gifted children. Since no national degree or certification requirements for gifted educators exist, all policy and funding...
Volume 8 / Issue 4 / Summer 2008 Legislation/Law Research Briefs Research and Theory
For hands-on summer fun and hours of discovery learning, invest in one (or all) of these try-it-at-home scientific experiment books*: Stomp Rockets, Catapults, and Kaleidoscopes: 30+ Amazing Science Projects You Can Build for Less Than $1, by Curt Gabrielson (Chicago...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 8 / Issue 4 / Summer 2008 Product Tips
The team approach—parents, teachers, and administrators—in meeting the needs of gifted children is the focus of Best Practices in Gifted Education: An Evidence-based Guide, by Ann Robinson, Bruce M. Shore, and Donna L. Enersen, Prufrock, 2007. The authors, veteran...
Navigate the world in a fun and informative way with interactive globes. Three good choices include GeoSafari Talking Globe, Jr., and GeoSafari Talking Globe by Educational Insights, Inc., and SmartGlobe Deluxe Edition by Oregon Scientific. GeoSafari Talking Globe, Jr.,...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 8 / Issue 2 Winter 2008 Product Tips
Few issues have stirred as much controversy recently as school calendar reform. In school board meetings and district forums across the country, educators, parents, and community leaders debate the educational, social, and financial impacts of year-round and traditional calendars....
Educational Strategies Volume 7 / Issue 4 / Summer 2007 Special Focus
Interest in forensic science has boomed in recent years, partly due to the popularity of crime shows such as CSI that follow a crime from the early identification of likely suspects to the scientific confirmation with hard evidence. Three...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 7 / Issue 4 / Summer 2007 Product Tips
Despite the onslaught of computer and video games designed to exercise spatial cognition, three hand-held manipulative puzzles remain popular: Rubik’s Cube, by Winning Moves, celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary this year; the Retro Bedlam Cube, by Bedlam Puzzles, Ltd.; and Thinkfun’s...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 7 / Issue 3 / Spring 2007 Product Tips
For family fun, try an ingenious brain game. Three excellent choices are Cranium: The Family Fun Game, by Cranium, Inc., The Whole Brain Game, by Creative Mind Games, and Evolution, by Platypus Games. Cranium Family Fun Game is played...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 7 / Issue 2 / Winter 2007 Product Tips
The desire to provide optimal and appropriate educational challenges has prompted many parents to consider homeschooling their gifted children. Parents routinely supplement their children’s formal education. However, the choice to withdraw them from the traditional classroom for all or part...
Educational Strategies Volume 7 / Issue 1 / Fall 2006 Parenting/Advocacy Schoolhouse Options
Your child doesn’t have to be an aspiring artist to reap the benefits of a creative life. Creativity enhances all facets of existence because it opens us up to boundless possibilities: professionally, educationally, socially, and personally. Whether playing the violin,...
Creativity Volume 6 / Issue 4 / Summer 2006 Special Focus Talent Development
For budding creative artists, two excellent products are available. Silver Dolphin’s Fine Arts Studio Drawing, by Jim Bradrick, is a pencil drawing kit, while Chronicle Books’ Sumi-e: The Art of Japanese Brush Painting, by Shingo Syoko, uses ink as...
Creativity Educational Products & Tips Volume 6 / Issue 4 / Summer 2006 Product Tips
For a fun approach to logic and deduction, try two decoding games: Mastermind, by Pressman, and Coda, by Winning Moves Games. In Mastermind, the Codemaker uses color and sequence to create a code that the Codebreaker must solve. The...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 6 / Issue 3 / Spring 2006 Product Tips
Despite increasingly stringent federal regulation of public education, the individuals who influence children’s education most directly may be local school board members. As elected officials, they represent their constituencies at the grassroots level, balancing their districts’ needs against state...
Connections Volume 6 / Issue 2 / Winter 2006 Parenting/Advocacy
Two new board games combine language skills with playing strategy. For immersion in the complexity and uniqueness of the English language, Bethump’d with Words (Discovery Edition) by Vermont Word Nerds is an excellent choice. For spelling and vocabulary enhancement,...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 6 / Issue 2 / Winter 2006 Product Tips
The new school year means new and not-so-new textbooks coming home to be wrapped in protective coverings. While they’re within reach, familiarize yourself with their content and organization, educate yourself on how they ended up in your child’s book bag,...
Volume 6 / Issue 1 / Fall 2005 Legislation/Law Special Focus
For honing mathematical and critical thinking skills, two board games—Space Tivitz, by SAS Games, and Equate, by Conceptual Math Media—get a thumbs-up. Space Tivitz provides multilevel options ranging from simple addition and subtraction to multiplication and division with fractions,...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 6 / Issue 1 / Fall 2005 Product Tips
Planning a car trip this summer? Cruise the miles with a few ingenious travel games designed for family or individual entertainment. Lateral thinking puzzles, or word puzzles that require a unique approach to problem solving, are classics. They require...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 5 / Issue 4 / Summer 2005 Product Tips
Most parents have instilled in their children safety rules for venturing into the world beyond their homes. Many, however, have not taken similar precautions in educating them about the world that enters their homes via the Internet. The Internet...
Volume 5 / Issue 3 / Spring 2005 Technology Technology Matters
Spring is a great time to cultivate an interest in the natural world by investing in children’s field guides. Young nature enthusiasts have two excellent choices: Fandex Family Field Guides, by Workman Publishing, and Peterson Field Guides for Young...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 5 / Issue 3 / Spring 2005 Product Tips
Midwinter—that gray eclipse between New Year’s and spring break when we’re tempted to hibernate.With the winter holidays over, academic rigors and extracurricular activities reconvene full force. However, the afternoons are short and often dreary, and long winter nights can become...
Educational Strategies Volume 5 / Issue 2 / Winter 2005 Special Focus
For teens and preteens interested in theater, film, and screenwriting, I recommend three books: Break a Leg! The Kids’ Guide to Acting and Stagecraft, by Lisa Friedman (Workman, 2002); Screen Teen Writers: How Young Screenwriters Can Find Success, by...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 5 / Issue 2 / Winter 2005 Product Tips
Parents of school-aged children have been inundated in recent years with discussions of standards and end-of-grade testing. While standards themselves are not new, much of the current emphasis on testing and standards-based education has grown out of the 2002 enactment...
Connections Volume 5 / Issue 1 / Fall 2004 Legislation/Law Tests & Testing
This fall is the perfect time to invest in presidential-election board games. Two strong choices for integrating history, politics, and current events with the electoral process are Oval Office: The Race to Be President, by Talicor Inc., and Hail to...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 5 / Issue 1 / Fall 2004 Product Tips
For parents interested in teaching their children the complexities of the stock market, two popular board games, Bull Market, by the Great Canadian Game Company Inc., and Stock Market Tycoon, by Vida Games LLC, are good ventures. Bull Market,...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 4 / Issue 3 / Spring 2004 Product Tips
Board games are back! For tons of fun this holiday season, I recommend three strategy games that stimulate critical thinking and provide hours of enjoyment for the whole family. All are suitable for gifted children. Gobblet! by Blue Orange...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 4 / Issue 2 / Winter 2004 Product Tips
If you want history to come alive for your children, I recommend two excellent series of activity books. These series target elementary and middle schoolers; although some of the activities require adult supervision, the works themselves ingeniously address the...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 4 / Issue 1 / Fall 2003 Product Tips
For hours of entertainment and intensely complex critical thinking, robotics are ideal. Three good choices for robot building kits are LEGO MindStorms Robotics Invention System, TAB Electronics Build Your Own Robot Kit, and MOVIT Robotic Arm Trainer. For help...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 3 / Issue 4 / Summer 2003 Product Tips
Need some fun and challenging games for spring break? Visual thinking games may be the answer. Dozens are available, but I have chosen for evaluation some of the more unique and challenging ones. Visual Brainstorms: The Smart Thinking Game and...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 3 / Issue 3 / Spring 2003 Product Tips
Need a worthwhile, hands-on activity for your children? Archaeological excavation kits might be just the thing. For younger children, second- to fourth-graders, my pick is GeoSafari’s Buried Treasure kits. Each kit contains a block of porous clay, four buried...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 3 / Issue 2 / Winter 2003 Product Tips
The motto of Hathaway Brown, Ohio’s oldest and most prestigious college preparatory girls’ school, is “We learn not for school but for life.” Nowhere is that motto more closely observed than in the school’s innovative Student Research Program. At...
Volume 3 / Issue 1 / Fall 2002 Magna Cum Laude Model Program/Schools
Literary magazines—periodicals that offer talented young writers, photographers, and other artists a venue for their creations—are the topic of this issue’s review. With gifted middle schoolers in mind, I looked at two periodicals targeted at girls and two at...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 3 / Issue 1 / Fall 2002 Product Tips
Does your child want to learn Spanish? Or improve his or her Spanish-speaking skills? Language-learning programs overwhelm both the educational products market and the parents and teachers trying to match products to their children’s and students’ needs. With help...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 2 / Issue 4 / Summer 2002 Product Tips
Whether you are homeschooling or seeking enrichment for your child, these activities focus on the individual child’s educational needs, and gifted children clearly have individual educational needs. Parents may find themselves stretched to meet the challenges posed by their...
Educational Strategies Volume 2 / Issue 3 / Spring 2002 Technology Technology Matters
Architectural design kits are among the more sophisticated manipulatives on the market today. Look for kits that reinforce principles of geometry and physics, require attention to detail (symmetry, balance, and aesthetics), and allow for creative exploration. The Museum Building...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 2 / Issue 3 / Spring 2002 Product Tips
If mystery games are on your children’s wish list, you might want to consider the following, all of which I recommend. Art Fraud Detective, by Anna Nilsen In Art Fraud Detective Nilsen catalogs six centuries of art masterpieces. Published...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 2 / Issue 2 / Winter 2002 Product Tips
If your children are interested in the night sky, I recommend two astronomy kits, Star Explorer, by DaMert Company, and Star Theater 2, by Uncle Milton Industries. Star Explorer is fun and versatile. The kit consists of the Celestial Seeker...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 4 / Issue 4 / Summer 2004 Product Tips
Gross anatomy doesn’t have to be gross anymore. Three-dimensional, interactive anatomy software allows for intricate, in-depth study of the human body with the click of a mouse. The Ultimate Human Body Deluxe Edition, by DK Interactive Learning, provides three “scanners”...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 2 / Issue 1 / Fall 2001 Product Tips
Few authors have matched William Shakespeare in creativity, insight, and intellect. I have been playing with Shakespearean activities for fourth- through eighth-graders and have chosen two for an in-depth look. Shakespeare for Kids: His Life and Times, by Colleen Aagesen...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 1 / Issue 4 / Summer 2001 Product Tips
In this issue I evaluate three mathematics software programs that cover a rigorous curriculum from prealgebra to advanced calculus: Math Advantage 2001, by Encore Education; Excel@Mathematics, by Knowledge Adventure; and StudyWorks! Mathematics Deluxe, by Math Soft. These programs use different...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 1 / Issue 3 / Spring 2001 Product Tips
The Holocaust Library is a seven-volume set covering one of the most horrific periods in history. Appropriate for middle-school-aged gifted students, it provides a critical examination of the people and events of the Holocaust. Each volume focuses on a specific...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 1 / Issue 2 / Winter 2001 Product Tips
Have you ever bought an educational toy or game that promised to challenge your children’s intellectual curiosity? Has that toy or game eventually cluttered the attic? “Product Tips,” a regular column of the Duke Gifted Letter, aims to help parents...
Educational Products & Tips Volume 1 / Issue 1 / Fall 2000 Product Tips