Living With Live Wires

I began to realize that my children had some very different characteristics besides being bright. There were intense sensitivities with my son and I had children who preferred different learning styles in different subjects. I began to understand what it meant to have children (and myself) with “overexciteabilities” as talked about by Dabrowski. I learned about intensity, complexity, self-determination, and asynchronous development. There were numerous things I tried to keep in mind when it came to managing all of us in the same room.

I kept trying new things and worked on their emotional responses, trying to figure out what was going on. During our learning times I tried different activities, creative projects, games. I had reasonable success.

I know we will never be able to cease our searching for answers and new ideas. Our children and our lives change too rapidly. But after the first year, I had a base of understanding that my further research could fit in to. And, the time commitment and my own ease about what we were doing became remarkably better.

After all, isn’t a relaxed parent about 70% of the contribution to successful education? 80%? 90%

At this point, as I was reflecting back on my crazy year, I began thinking about our future. When you spend so much time researching curriculum and ways to accommodate bright kids in the learning process and in your home, you can sometimes forget there is a bigger world our there. And, many years ahead.

I began to think about what our family life and our home education were about – in the long-term view, the broader perspective.

I wondered what our children would remember from their time at home regarding learning and the learning process.

Do you ever wonder about that?

It is too easy to see the struggles and challenges – to remember those times. I wanted to focus on the positive experiences and to play a very conscious role in creating them.

I decided to consciously create a family legacy of lifelong learning.

[excerpt from my Minnesota Council for the Gifted and Talented State Conference presentation: Don't Fence Me In - Mastery, Creativity, and Adventure in the Home Education of Bright Children]