Podcast - Raising Lifelong Learners

The Raising Lifelong Learners podcast helps parents — especially homeschooling parents — encourage their differently-wired kids to learn, explore passions, cultivate creativity, and become fascinated by the world around them. Join host Colleen Kessler — educational consultant, gifted specialist, author, and speaker — for interviews, audioblogs, tips, and encouragement to help your differently-wired kiddos become lifelong learners — children who know that they can find the answers to anything they want to know if they can just view their world with play, passion, and fascination.

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Parents — got a question you’d like Colleen to tackle on an upcoming episode of the Raising Lifelong Learners Podcast? Leave it here:

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Kids — you can use the button below to be featured on an upcoming episode of the Raising Lifelong Learners Podcast. When leaving your message: say your name, age, and home state. Then tell what you wish other people understood about your brain, how it works, or how you think about things.

Building Self-Esteem in Kids

Building your child’s self-esteem or sense of self-worth is an important aspect of raising resilient kids. While healthy self-confidence is a part of positive self-esteem, these two terms are not interchangeable. Self-confidence applies in specific contexts, subject areas, or social situations where your child has developed a particular strength or learned to face new challenges…

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Test Your Homeschooled Child

I remember struggling with the question so many parents come to me online or in-person to ask… Should I test my child for giftedness? Should I test my child for dyslexia, ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, anxiety, or any number of things? If you are homeschooling your child, it’s important to keep a couple of things…

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Motivating Your Struggling Learner

Homeschooling your gifted kiddo was supposed to be a breeze, right? After all, they’re super smart, driven, and independent… right? Well, maybe not. Gifted kiddos are just as different from each other as they are from neurotypical kids, and they’re often 2e, or twice-exceptional, too. 2e kiddos are hard to tease out because their struggles…

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Should I Homeschool My Twice-Exceptional Student?

A reader shared that she is considering homeschooling her twice-exceptional student after watching her daughter “crumple” in the public school system – loosing her enthusiasm for learning and her ability to thrive in a public school setting. What about you? Are you considering homeschooling your twice-exceptional, gifted, or otherwise quirky kiddo? Public Schools and Twice-Exceptional…

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Comparison: A Toxic Parenting Trap

It’s easy. It’s so easy to slip into comparing our kids to other kids. And usually we’re doing it with good intent. Maybe we want them to feel better about themselves. Maybe we want to help them build confidence in their own abilities or gifts. But is comparison really the best thing to use to…

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Celebrating Your Child’s Neurodiversity

Homeschooling neurodiverse children comes with its share of challenges, and also benefits. If we’re going to help our children to recognize their unique strengths while also supporting their special needs, we’re going to have to embrace their neurodiversity and celebrate it! Neurodiverse Kids Know They Are Different Often times it doesn’t take long for our…

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