Raising Gifted Children in the Christian Faith

The first time Caroline asked me a "hard" spiritual question I was not prepared. I love theology, discussing doctrine, reading meaty books, studying the Bible, etc., but discussing these topics with a little girl wasn't on my radar! And yet many gifted and 2e children ask the hard questions, often long before you expect them to do so. They think about life, death, God and matters of faith in ways many adults never do. I admit my first response internally was to briefly freak out. It really was. That quickly turned into a thought of something like, "Can't I just catch a break!?!?!?" After those thoughts raced through my mind in a matter of a few seconds, I tried to honestly and … [Read more...] about Gifted and 2e Children Asking Hard Spiritual Questions

I know from reading conversations online that gifted and 2e children at church is often a big issue for Christian parents. And I'm going to say up front I do not have the answers for this. More than any other post in this series I'm going to raise the questions and I'm sincerely hoping others will jump in in the comments and leave their thoughts because I know this is a tough one. Before we go any further, let's recap. If you haven't read the previous posts in the series, please do. Otherwise you'll be missing the context of this post. Raising Gifted Children in the Christian Faith Thinking about Gifted/2e from a Christian Perspective Disciplining Gifted and 2e Children in the … [Read more...] about Gifted and 2e Children at Church

Several of the posts I wrote in my 31 Days of Learning Differently series apply to parenting and homeschooling gifted/2e children in the Christian faith. If you aren't familiar with that series, I did touch upon a number of topics related to disciplining children. The following posts would be helpful background to this topic of disciplining gifted and 2e children. 6 Reasons Why We Changed Our Mind and Stopped Spanking Identifying and Understanding the Red Zone with Your Spirited Child Transitions and Your Differently-wired Child Why do we as Christians discipline our children? Christians have very different ideas about why and how they discipline their children. The reasons … [Read more...] about Disciplining Gifted and 2e Children in the Christian Faith

The idea of giftedness provokes very strong feelings amongst parents. When some parents hear the words "gifted" or "2e" used to describe their child, they feel relieved. It might be the final piece of the puzzle regarding their high-maintenance child who simply doesn't function like other children. When other parents hear the term gifted they cringe or become defensive. They believe all children are gifted and that it is elitist to think that your child is "better" than others. Debates rage online between people who believe all children are gifted and those who use the term to describe a significant neurological difference. Prior to having a gifted child I didn't think much about it. I … [Read more...] about Thinking about Gifted/2e from a Christian Perspective

Since learning of Caroline’s giftedness (2e), the past year has been a huge learning curve for me. I’ve had to rethink so much about learning and parenting. Because I’m a Christian, I think about these topics in the context of my faith. I realized at one point that there is very little out there about raising gifted children in the Christian faith. There is a great deal about gifted children and there is plenty about Christian parenting and homeschooling. But both? Not much. I brought up the subject of raising a gifted child in a Protestant faith tradition in a gifted homeschool bloggers group. We had a thought-provoking discussion about the challenges and opportunities as Christians … [Read more...] about Raising Gifted Children in the Christian Faith