Books — Gifted Homeschool Forum

Using Picture Books to Help Little Ones Learn About Themselves by Gayle Bentley, M.M.Ed. and Lin Lim, Ph.D.

Gayle and Lim have created a delightful tool that empowers parents to strengthen their connection with their kids through the time-honored shared joy of reading time. Featuring a selection of carefully curated picture books, parents are guided how to use these stories as a jumping off point to address important issues with their children, such as worry, perfectionism, and managing “big feelings.” Gayle and Lin also provide expert advice to gently lead parent-child conversations using simple, science-backed methods, including ways to help your child develop empathy, self-regulation, and self-acceptance. Parents will appreciate the research-based strategies, and relate to the experiences that Lin and Gayle share from their own families.

Discovering Dyscalculia: One Family’s Journey with a Math Disability by Laura M. Jackson

Dyscalculia impacts about 1 in every 20 children and adults, yet it is not widely recognized or understood. This math learning disability not only affects individuals in educational settings but also impacts their everyday life when it comes to handling money, telling time, measuring quantities, and performing basic calculations.

In this thoughtful and personal narrative, Laura M. Jackson writes about her child’s struggle with numbers, their shared discovery of dyscalculia, and she and her husband’s journey supporting their daughter in school and in life.

Gifted Women: On Becoming Ourselves by Christine A. Winterbrook, Ed.D. and Abby Noel Winterbrook, M.A.T.

In Gifted Women: On Becoming Ourselves, Christine and Abby Winterbrook take us along on their journey through self-discovery, both as gifted individuals traversing unique pathways and as a mother and daughter sharing a common exploration. This is an engaging and informative narrative that inspires us to view gifted girls and women as the complex beings they are. Gifted women don’t just happen; they are the culmination of their years as gifted children, adolescents, and young adults.
By presenting information on a wide range of topics relevant to the development of gifted girls as they mature and reach adulthood, Gifted Women serves as both a welcoming resource for those who may be unfamiliar with the gifted and a reassuring guide for those girls and women forging their own paths through giftedness.

Perspectives on Giftedness by GHF Writers

So, what’s giftedness all about? Well, some of our most popular GHF writers aim to answer aspects of that very question in Perspectives on Giftedness: Sound Advice from Parents and Professionals. This volume presents essays from parents who have been there, educators who are working to get it right, and psychologists and other professionals who understand the rich complexity that is so often part and parcel of giftedness. With a plethora of wisdom, a touch of wit, and oodles of compassion, the writers cover a range of topics related to giftedness, gifted children, gifted education, twice exceptionality, and gifted adults. It’s all about presenting an array of perspectives in the hopes that doing so helps you develop your own and provides a bit of a lifeline in those times when you feel yourself treading the gifted waters. We’re here to remind you that we’re all sharing the same pool and to invite you to jump in—the water’s warm and so is our welcome!

Gifted Myths: An Easy-to-Read Guide to the Myths, Science and History of the Gifted and Twice-Exceptional

In an easy-to-read style, Gifted Myths explores these and other stories on the history, science and lived experience of gifted and twice-exceptional families.

Gifted Myths is a must-read for parents, educators, and professionals

Educating Your Gifted Child: How One Public School Teacher Embraced Homeschooling by Celi Trépanier

What would make a dedicated public school teacher decide to homeschool her own children? In her book, Educating Your Gifted Child: How One Public School Teacher Embraced Homeschooling, Celi Trépanier shares her journey from recognized top teacher in traditional schools to disillusioned parent struggling to obtain an appropriate and challenging education for her gifted sons.

How is the current educational system failing our gifted and twice-exceptional students? How can parents advocate for the education their children need and deserve? What options do parents and their gifted children have? Celi addresses these concerns and more in Educating Your Gifted Child.

Your Rainforest Mind: A Guide to the Well-Being of Gifted Adults and Youth by Paula Prober

Do you long to drive a Ferrari at top speed on the open road, but find yourself always stuck on the freeway during rush hour? Do you wonder how you can feel like “not enough” and “too much” at the same time? Like the rain forest, are you sometimes intense, multilayered, colorful, creative, overwhelming, highly sensitive, complex, and/or idealistic? And, like the rain forest, have you met too many chainsaws?

Enter Paula Prober, MS, MEd, who understands the diversity and complexity of minds like yours. In Your Rainforest Mind: A Guide to the Well-Being of Gifted Youths and Adults, Paula explores the challenges faced by gifted adults of all ages. Through case studies and extensive research, Paula will help you tap into your inner creativity, find peace, and discover the limitless potential that comes with your Rainforest Mind.

Forging Paths: Beyond Traditional Schooling by Wes Beach

Learning can become frustrating for students who do not find traditional schooling fulfilling—or even satisfactory. And this discontent can leave parents and their children seeking alternatives. In Forging Paths: Beyond Traditional Schooling, you will read the stories of nine young people who took varying nontraditional educational routes and achieved success.

In Forging Paths, Wes Beach—an educator, advocate, speaker, and author—invites you to reconsider the notion that successful career paths always involve the collection of accolades or immediate entrance to a prestigious university.

By walking in their shoes, you will discover how passion, persistence, and creativity led to the nine young people featured in Beach’s book finding satisfaction while maybe even accumulating some traditional accomplishments along the way.

Boost: 12 Effective Ways to Lift Up Our Twice-Exceptional Children by Kelly Hirt

Even the most experienced teachers often know little about the challenges their gifted and twice-exceptional students face. Misinformation abounds, and well-intentioned in-class solutions can backfire. How can teachers support the educational and social needs of these unique learners while still addressing the needs of all their other students?

Kelly Hirt, a public school teacher with 25 years of experience and writer at MyTwiceBakedPotato.com, understands the frustration felt by many teachers and parents. After realizing that her own son was one of these unique learners, Hirt developed strategies that any teacher or parent can readily implement.

In her new book, Boost: 12 Effective Ways to Lift Up Our Twice-Exceptional Children, Hirt outlines 12 strategies to design a supportive, safe, and encouraging learning environment for twice-exceptional students. By using Hirt’s strategies, educators can better work with parents and students to create an educational experience in which all students can thrive and excel.

If This is a Gift, Can I Send it Back?: Surviving in the Land of the Gifted and Twice-Exceptional by Jen Merrill

When is life like a prize fight, a garden, and a quiz show all hurtling past on an office chair wrapped in a symphony? When you’re living in the land of the gifted and twice exceptional.

In If This Is a Gift, Can I Send it Back?, Jen Merrill, advocate, speaker, and writer at Laughing at Chaos, leads readers through an escapade of laughter, tears, and honest reflection. We’ll join Jen on her candid, relatable journey of discovery, understanding, and acceptance and revel as she unpacks her satchel of wit and wisdom as they relate to the challenges to which only the gifted and twice exceptional—and those who care for them—can relate.

In her one-of-a-kind, tell-it-like-it-is style, you can almost hear Jen raising a glass to toast all of us seeking order among the chaos. And, in return, we’ll be gratefully toasting Jen for guiding us on our way!

Gifted, Bullied, Resilient: A Brief Guide for Smart Families by Pamela Price

Their asynchronous development, eclectic interests, and intense emotions can make gifted kids prime targets for bullies, leaving compassionate parents, friends, and educators at wit’s end. In Gifted, Bullied, Resilient: A Brief Guide for Smart Families, Pamela Price draws upon her experience as a journalist and gifted advocate to provide individuals involved in the lives of these young people a plan of action to help those being targeted rise above their mistreatment and become emotionally stronger and more self-assured.

In this informative and insightful text, Price introduces readers to contemporary research, an array of social learning best practices, real-life anecdotes from veteran parents, and select resources of relevance to the families and teachers of bullied gifted children and adolescents.

Micro-Schools: Creating Personalized Learning on a Budget by Jade Rivera

Gifted and twice-exceptional students often struggle to fit in traditional classrooms, and homeschooling isn’t always an option. Enter Micro-Schools: an educational option bridging the gap. Micro-schools offer personalized learning in a school setting led by instructors who understand the nuances and needs of gifted and 2e kids. Starting your own micro-school may seem daunting, but a successful micro-school doesn’t require a huge budget or the latest “everything.” Instead, it requires a passionate individual at the helm. One like Jade Rivera, author of Micro-Schools: Creating Personalized Learning on a Budget. In her latest book, Jade shares her successes and challenges working in and starting micro-schools. She discusses how to organize your school, hire the best instructors, work with parents, create an open and accepting environment, and so much more. After reading Jade’s book, you’ll be inspired to get your own micro-school up and running, ready to serve the gifted and 2e students in your community.

Self-Directed Learning: Documentation and Life Stories by Wes Beach

What guarantees success? Four years of high school? A college degree? A 9 to 5 job? Perhaps. But many teens yearn for something more.

In Self-Directed Learning: Documentation and Life Stories, Wes Beach asserts that individuals who recognize their genuine interests and talents require only their self-awareness, confidence, passion, determination, and sense of autonomy to propel them forward.

Self-Directed Learning includes the stories of individuals reaching beyond traditional expectations to meet their own needs head on. Beach, an educator, advocate, speaker, and author, also provides transcripts and resources that his students used to gain admission to colleges and universities.

Self-Directed Learning speaks to young people longing to pursue their passions and grow into productive and fulfilled adults.

From Home Education to Higher Education: A Guide for Recruiting, Assessing, and Supporting Homeschooled Applicants by Lori Dunlap

As the number of homeschoolers continues to increase, professionals who work with homeschoolers seeking higher education need to develop a plan to recruit, assess, and assimilate these particularly motivated, thoughtful, creative students. Combining her professional experience with insights gathered from surveys of U.S. colleges and universities, author Lori Dunlap of TeachYourOwn.org provides the information you need to more fully understand this population, along with strategies and approaches for easily and effectively connecting with, engaging, and assessing these nontraditional students. Lori also helps homeschooling families discover what admissions professionals are looking for in their ideal applicant, better preparing them for the college application process, and working with the admissions professionals at their chosen schools.

Making the Choice: When Typical School Doesn’t Fit Your Atypical Child by Corin Barsily Goodwin and Mika Gustavson

Do you sense things aren’t right with your child’s school experience? Is something lacking? Are they just not getting what they need—or enough of it? Then, instead of trying to fit your child into school, perhaps it’s time to consider pursuing educational options that suit your child—both academically and emotionally.

In Making the Choice: When Typical School Doesn’t Fit Your Atypical Child, Corin Barsily Goodwin and Mika Gustavson discuss how the unique traits of the gifted and twice exceptional influence decisions regarding their learning requirements. The authors offer choices regarding education as well as direction for determining the right one. In addition, they pose questions—and provide answers—to guide you through the entire process.

Writing Your Own Script: A Parent’s Role in the Gifted Child’s Social Development by Corin Barsily Goodwin and Mika Gustavson

Does your gifted or twice-exceptional child have enough friends? What constitutes “enough”? With whom should they be friends and how can they maintain those ties?

Parents of gifted and twice-exceptional kids often face these concerns. We want our children to have fulfilling social lives, but when they so often struggle to find others who share their esoteric interests, how are they to cultivate deep, meaningful friendships? In Writing Your Own Script: A Parent’s Role in the Gifted Child’s Social Development, Corin Barsily Goodwin and Mika Gustavson provide guidance to help you help your child discover the joy of true friendships based on common interests, shared values, and mutual respect.

GHF Press