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S4, E5: Jen Merrill

December 8, 2022 By Katherine Turner

Jen Merrill, Creative Editor of GHF Journey


Jen Merrill is an Illinois-based writer, musician, marketing project manager, and gifted family advocate. The mom of two boys, she homeschooled her twice-exceptional teen through high school while happily sending his younger brother off to his high school every morning. Those days now in the past, she is settling into the somewhat quieter life of an empty-nester. She is a music educator by trade, with degrees in music education and flute performance. Long before she picked up a flute as a child, however, Jen wanted to be a writer, something that didn’t happen until she opened a Blogger account in 2006 and never looked back. Since that time, her writing has focused more on gifted families and advocacy. Her book, “If This is a Gift, Can I Send It Back?”, struck a nerve with families who suspected Jen was living in their closet. Her second book, on the needs of gifted parents and self-care, is in progress; it is taking significantly longer than anticipated because the author herself struggles mightily with self-care and has been spending a lot of time banging her head on the keyboard and hyperventilating in writerly frustration. In addition to writing on her long-time blog, Laughing at Chaos, she has published articles in the Understanding Our Gifted Journal, the 2e Newsletter, and the Huffington Post. 

Jen brings both her acquired wisdom and her experience as a teacher and mentor to her work in the service of parents, teaching them techniques and mentoring them into their own versions of success. Her goal is to support parents of gifted and twice-exceptional kids, because they are the ones doing the heavy lifting and are too often ignored, patronized, and discredited. It is her hope that her sons never have to deal with these issues when they raise their own likely gifted children.

Please join us for this event! 
You are invited to a Zoom webinar.
(Link leads to the event in the GHF Forum – Member Content)
When: May 26, 2023, 12:30pm Pacific / 3:30pm Eastern Time (US and Canada)


Join GHF to enjoy these interviews and more

Our goal is to reach and serve as many gifted and 2e families as possible, which is why we have a free level of membership, the GHF Forum Membership, that grants access to all of our live programming, the main areas of the Forum, and our comprehensive, self-paced  DIY Education course. 

For those who are able to support our work, we hope you will join as a GHF Choices Member. Choices Membership is our primary source of income for this non-profit. GHF has no full-time staff and we are just looking to cover our costs. As a thank you, your $49.99/yr tax-deductible membership grants you access to the recording libraries of all of our events, as well as exclusive areas of the Forum.


For those new to the GHF Forum
For those already in the GHF Forum

Filed Under: Expert Series, Expert Series 2023

PLEASE VISIT THE GENEROUS SPONSORS OF OUR 2023 GIFTED HOME EDUCATION CONFERENCE

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The GHF President’s Club

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