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The Unmeasured Executive Functioning Issue
My oldest. Pause for a deep sigh. If you have a child with executive functioning issues, you know that deep sigh. It’s equal parts irritation, frustration, and humor, incredulous, exhausted, and determined. Kids with executive functioning deficits or issues...
RLL #50: Homeschooling a PG Kiddo from a Teacher’s Perspective with Mariel Howsepian
Think all teachers are against homeschooling? That’s actually pretty far from the truth — I’ve met many current and former teachers who have chosen to homeschool their kiddos just like today’s guest. Mariel Howsepian and her husband Pete...
Does My Gifted Child Really Need a Label?
I know, I know. We’re in modern times and people aren’t really into labels these days. Never before in history have we enjoyed a society so willing to acknowledge and embrace an individual’s uniqueness. Personality tests and enneagrams and DNA...
Great Gifts for Backyard Scientists
These gifts for backyard scientists will keep your explorers on the path to discovery. From bird guides, rocks, gems, telescopes, and cooking on a stick all of these ideas foster a love for learning about nature and all it has to offer. When gifting gifts of...
101 Reasons You Need Audio Books in Your Homeschool
“Alexa, play Harry Potter and the Sorcer’s Stone from my Audible library.” My eight year old daughter grabs her portable easel, some felt tip pens, and her sketchbook and settles into a pile of pillows on the family room floor to listen to our...
RLL #49: Reflections About Anxiety
Over the years, Colleen has talked extensively about her youngest daughter’s struggle with anxiety, and so has her daughter. Today, Sara writes in with a great question, prompting Colleen to reflect on the earlier years in their anxiety journey. Listen to...
Why Should You Homeschool Your Gifted Children?
The longer I homeschool my gifted children, and the more I see and talk to other parents of gifted and twice-exceptional kids, the more I believe that homeschooling is the best educational option for our nation’s above-average children. Just to clarify something,...
Giftedness Disguised
School was going to be amazing for my son. I just knew it. He was a thinker. A tinkerer. A doer. He loved learning and had an insatiable thirst to know everything about everything. Always asking questions. Always starting a project. Always wowing those he met with his...
Games to Help Your Kids Learn Mindfulness at Home
Teaching kids about mindfulness is an important skill for them to master. It will help them navigate the world and everything it can throw their way. Including mindfulness tasks and activities throughout the week is an essential step. One way to do this is by using...
Equipping Parents to Help Children with Language-Based Learning Disabilities
Before I began this journey of advocating for my differently-wired kids, I used to think that “learning disabilities” meant dyslexia. Just dyslexia. It was the only disorder I’d ever heard mentioned in a classroom, and my knowledge of it was severely...
When You Just Aren’t Comfortable Getting Help for Your Child
I love talking with parents of gifted and twice-exceptional kiddos. Apart from the comradery and the peace that comes with knowing you’re not alone in this often-difficult journey, it’s so uplifting to encourage them, hug them, to be there when the...
Teaching Character Through Literature | Beautiful Feet Books
A few years ago, my daughter (then nine) stumbled across a table filled with the most beautiful books she had ever seen (her words) at a homeschool convention she was attending with me. She begged me to stop everything I was doing and go over to the booth with her to...
RLL #47: The Introverted Homeschool Mom with Jamie C. Martin
Are you an introvert? Guess what?! You’re not alone! Today’s guest, Jamie Martin, is the brilliant mama behind the website Simple Homeschool and has just released a new book called The Introverted Mom: Your Guide to More Calm, Less Guilt, and Quiet...
The Anxious Parent of the Anxious Child | The Guilt of Passing it On
It’s late. Really late. I should have been in bed hours ago, but instead I’m sitting up, trying to calm the fears, trying to shush the irrational thoughts, trying to calm the breathing, trying to wipe away the tears. Anxiety has reared it’s ugly head...
RLL #46: Homeschooling Quirky Kids with Cynthia Heren
Cynthia Heren joins Colleen today to talk about what it’s like in the trenches homeschooling differently-wired kiddos. She gives us a peek into her schedule, the rabbit holes her family dives down, and how they incorporate online learning and Minecraft...
Gifted Kids Are Gonna Gift
I shrug a lot, shake my head with a smile, even chuckle. My kids are a blast. They’re different and difficult and quite the handful, but at the end of the day I don’t know what I’d do without the constant excitement of their excitabilities or the...
Amazing Gifts for Book Lovers
Throughout the year we are met with a list of loved ones to buy gifts for…. this takes thought, time, and creativity to find that perfect gift. The goal is to find that meaningful gift that they will love and use. This list of gift ideas can help you do just...
The Best Homeschool Typing Program | Typesy Homeschool
I cringe every time I sit near my kids as they use their chromebooks or the shared desktop computer. Hunt and peck. Hunt and peck. It’s excruciating. In fact, since typing takes them so long, in most cases my kids just use talk-to-text when they need...
Surviving Different Weather Conditions | Think Outside Boxes
“I see a bulldozer!” “I see a dolphin!” “Well I see a jet ski being ridden by a rabbit.” Cloud-watching is almost a childhood rite of passage. Lying back on the plush grass or looking through a car window, there is just...
Smart Kids Still Need Help
Parents, teachers, friends and mentors… let’s talk. We have a generation of brilliant, gifted, amazing kids who are having (and are going to have) significant crises over the next days, weeks, and months. These kids, the ones we’ve nurtured and shuttled from...
RLL 45: Homeschooling Special Needs Kiddos with Faith Berens
Are you homeschooling a kiddo with special needs? You’re not alone. It can be a challenging adventure, for sure, but today’s guest, Faith Berens, has some wonderful insight and tips for parents who are homeschooling their special needs kids. Links...
Books to Help Your Kids Learn Mindfulness at Home
To help keep all of these wonderful mindfulness resources in one place, I have gathered some of the best books to help your kids learn mindfulness at home. We already know how reading can help children learn. So why not combine the incredibly helpful topic of...
Taking Care of Injuries on the Trail | Think Outside Boxes
It’s no secret that anxieties are strong in my home. With creativity and intelligence abounding, my kids have no trouble imagining plenty of worst case scenarios or developing healthy fears of illness and injury. If I’m being honest, I’ve been known...
Passions, Pressure, and Letting Our Kids Let Go
When my son was about 5 years old, he fell in love with birds. I can’t remember now how it all started, but suddenly, he was a tiny John James Audubon, pointing out species and identifying calls. He spent hours emerged in bird books, and once, when he met a volunteer...Welcome!
Hi! I'm Colleen, gifted specialist, educational consultant, author, speaker, and homeschool mom of four gifted/twice-exceptional kids.
Grab a cup of coffee, some of that chocolate you're hiding from the kids, and join me as I learn, experiment, and explore with my kiddos -- and hopefully inspire you a little in your journey alongside smart, quirky, creative kids, too!
Inspire Creativity… Effortlessly!
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