RLL #54: Homeschooling Through Tough Times
Let’s face it — homeschooling differently-wired kiddos is challenging. Parenting them is challenging. But, when life hits you from all sides, and you have highly emotional, anxiety-filled, and otherwise differently-wired kids to parent through it,...
Cultivating Creative Thinking
Creative thinking is a crucial skill for kids of all ages. Teachers and parents need to include critical, creative, and logical thinking games, activities, and puzzles into their teaching and conversations with children. No matter how old a child...
Great Gifts for Fortnite Fans
You’ve seen groups of kids erupting into spontaneous dances. You’ve heard the cries of the kids across the street, screaming into their headsets about “Battle Royale” and “Top 10”. You see the faint blue light under the door and...
RLL #53: A Magical Homeschool with Jessica Waldock
Parenting and homeschooling a differently-wired kiddo is tough. When you’re homeschooling a gifted only child, it can be exhausting. You need to stay a few steps ahead of your kiddo as you’re the only one they’ve got to play with, learn from,...
What Exactly is Deschooling.. and Do I Need to Do It?
I haven’t always homeschooled. In fact, I spent a decade and a half working in the public school system and never even considered homeschooling. My brilliant son handled any school work that was handed to him, so I assumed that school would be a breeze for him...
The Perfect Mom Bag | Lily Jade
Fall is my favorite time of the year. It’s cool, but not cold. It’s sunny, but a soft, filtered sun shining through trees with a backdrop of fluffy clouds. It’s the time of the year that kids are back in school, so us weird homeschoolers get our...
RLL #52: Overcoming Perfectionism and Finding Joy in Homeschooling
How do YOU fight back against perfectionism and recapture the joy of the homeschool you dreamed about? In this episode, Colleen tackles a listener question related to this topic and offers some practical tips for keeping the joy and fun alive. ...![Helping Your Child Cope with Anxiety [RLL#51]](https://raisinglifelonglearners.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Helping-Your-Child-Cope-With-Anxiety.jpg)
Helping Your Child Cope with Anxiety [RLL#51]
I’m willing to bet that every person reading this has experienced anxiety, depression, or stress at one point or another in their life. And I’m willing to bet that it wasn’t a pleasant experience. For as many as one in eight children, though, anxiety is a daily...
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...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!
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