Raising a gifted or twice-exceptional child can be beautiful, bewildering, exhausting, and deeply humbling. Many parents arrive here after years of wondering why ordinary parenting advice does not seem to fit their child, their homeschool, their church life, or their family rhythms.

This page gathers my best writing on gifted and 2e children in one place so you can find the help you need more easily. These essays are written from the perspective of a gifted Christian mother, retired homeschooler, and longtime observer of giftedness, intensity, learning differences, and family life.

If you are raising a gifted or twice-exceptional child, this collection of essays offers Christian encouragement, practical homeschooling help, and thoughtful guidance for family life, faith, testing, discipline, and emotional intensity.

Start Here If You Are New to Gifted or 2e Parenting

If you are still trying to understand what is going on with your child, begin with these posts. They will help you think more clearly about giftedness, twice-exceptionality, expectations, testing, and the emotional weight many parents carry.

• Discovering Your Child Is Gifted – Does It Matter?
• Gifted Children Don’t Know Life Any Other Way
• Should I Have My Gifted Child Tested?
• No One Understands Your Child Like You – The Downside of Gifted Child Testing
• Adjusting Expectations As the Parent of a Gifted Child
• When You Begin To See Your Child as a Problem To Be Solved

For the Parent Who Feels Alone, Exhausted, or Misunderstood

One of the hardest parts of raising a gifted or 2e child is the isolation. Other people may see only the brightness, the intensity, the sensitivity, or the uneven development. They may not see the whole child or the toll it takes on the mother.

• The Loneliness of Homeschooling a Gifted Child
• Gifted Women Struggling with Motherhood and Homeschooling
• Embracing the Journey of Parenting a 2e Child
• 6 Ways Having A Gifted Child Changed My Life
• Listening To What Your Child Is Really Saying

Gifted and 2e Children Need More Margin

Many gifted and twice-exceptional children do not thrive in a rushed, over-scheduled, noisy, overstimulating life. A simpler life is not a sentimental ideal for these children. For many families, it becomes a necessity.

• The Need For More Margin In Families With Gifted Children
• Why Differently Wired Children Need a Simple Life
• Living Simply With A Gifted Child
• The Reality of Holiday Overwhelm for Highly Sensitive Children
• Identifying and Understanding Your Spirited Child’s Red Zone

Homeschooling Gifted and 2e Children

Homeschooling a gifted or 2e child can be freeing, but it can also be confusing. These children often need flexibility, depth, room to move at their own pace, and accommodations that rarely look like conventional school.

• The Loneliness of Homeschooling a Gifted Child
• Standardized Testing With a Homeschooled Gifted/2e Child
• Homeschooling a Child With Slow Processing Speed
• Homeschooling a Child with Language-Based Learning Disabilities (LBLD)
• Gifted Children Who Don’t Fit In At Grade Level
• Occupational Therapy for Dysgraphia or Writing Problems

Gifted Children in School and Other Group Settings

Whether your child is homeschooled, in a classroom, at church, or in another group setting, it helps to understand why gifted children may not fit neatly into age-based expectations.

• Gifted Children in the Classroom From a Teacher’s Perspective
• Gifted Children Who Don’t Fit In At Grade Level
• Standardized Testing With a Homeschooled Gifted/2e Child

Christian Faith, Church Life, and Gifted/2e Children

Gifted and twice-exceptional children often ask hard questions early. They may notice inconsistencies, struggle with shallow answers, feel out of place at church, or respond poorly to discipline methods that do not take their wiring into account. These posts look at giftedness and 2e life through a Christian lens.

• Raising Gifted Children in the Christian Faith
• Thinking About Gifted/2e From A Christian Perspective
• Disciplining Gifted & 2e Children in the Christian Faith
• Gifted and 2e Children At Church
• Gifted and 2e Children Asking Difficult Spiritual Questions
• 6 Reasons Why We Changed Our Mind And Stopped Spanking
• Listening To What Your Child Is Really Saying

Discipline, Negotiation, and Emotional Intensity

Gifted and 2e children are often intense, verbal, justice-oriented, persistent, sensitive, and easily overwhelmed. This does not mean they do not need discipline. It means they need wise, thoughtful, relationship-based parenting that sees beneath the behavior.

• Disciplining Gifted & 2e Children in the Christian Faith
• Negotiating With My Child – The Why and How
• Identifying and Understanding Your Spirited Child’s Red Zone
• 6 Reasons Why We Changed Our Mind And Stopped Spanking
• Listening To What Your Child Is Really Saying

Learning Differences and Twice-Exceptionality

Twice-exceptional children can be difficult to understand because their strengths and struggles often hide each other. A child may be highly verbal but unable to write easily. She may understand complex ideas but work very slowly. He may seem capable one day and completely overwhelmed the next. This is the world of 2e.

• Homeschooling a Child With Slow Processing Speed
• Homeschooling a Child with Language-Based Learning Disabilities (LBLD)
• Occupational Therapy for Dysgraphia or Writing Problems
• Embracing the Journey of Parenting a 2e Child
• Standardized Testing With a Homeschooled Gifted/2e Child

If You Only Have Time to Read Five Posts

If you are overwhelmed and just need a place to begin, start with these five:

1. Why Differently Wired Children Need a Simple Life
2. The Need For More Margin In Families With Gifted Children
3. When You Begin To See Your Child as a Problem To Be Solved
4. Raising Gifted Children in the Christian Faith
5. The Loneliness of Homeschooling a Gifted Child

A Final Word to Weary Parents

If you are raising a gifted or twice-exceptional child, you may often feel as though you are parenting without a map. Your child may not fit the books, the Sunday school class, the grade-level chart, the homeschool convention advice, or the expectations of extended family.

But your child is not a problem to be solved. Your child is a person to be loved, guided, discipled, understood, and prepared for life before God.

I hope these posts help you find language for what you have been living, courage for the road ahead, and a little more peace in your home.

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