This was originally published with the title Giving up on Public Education: Private school provides a haven for gifted kids—and their parents in Chicago Parent circa 2005. I did not choose the headline, which I found to be cringeworthy. I believe in public education. It's the backbone of our democracy. But it doesn't always work out as parents might hope. And, in fact, on a nationwide basis, public schools generally do a poor job of educating our ... [ Read More ]
Great Books for STEM and Maker Kids
The Maker Mom helps parents raise awesome STEM-loving, Maker-friendly kids. These kids (and their parents) tend to like books. After all, books are the gifts that keep on giving, the friends you can visit and explore with all year round. So naturally, I'm excited to introduce you to a great collection of new books and share a few old favorites, too. Most of these books were sent to me for review, sometimes at my request, and sometimes because I'm ... [ Read More ]
This I Believe, Gifted Education Edition
I don't write much about raising gifted children these days because I'm still living it. Also, a few years ago after the school principal advised that the best way to get my older son the challenge he needed was to homeschool, well, I just lost my mojo. In retrospect, I kinda wished we had homeschooled him, but no life decision takes place in a vacuum. There is no edutopia, but there are trade-offs. Maybe we made the right ones. Or not. At ... [ Read More ]
Understanding Gifted Kids
There's so much about highly gifted kids that doesn't make sense to outsiders. So many challenges to raising these high-ability, delightfully quirky and often intense kids. Giftedness is not simply smart, it's different. It's hard for many, especially educators to see beyond the fact that a child might have had an early enriched environment (books! experiences!) and understand that gifted children are wired differently than their peers. They ... [ Read More ]