Educational Options Newsletter
September, 2006
The mission of this newsletter is to bring you information about
educational and social opportunities, links to useful websites, and timely
research and articles for and about gifted individuals. Educational Options
is always happy to hear from you about new opportunities and information.
In this issue:
- Survey
- Complimentary Copy of Gifted Education Press
Quarterly
- Homeschooling
- Keeping up with Deborah Ruf
Survey
Do you know your personality profile type? If you do, Dr. Ruf asks if you
will help her out by completing a brief survey. (If you don’t remember your
type and have worked with Dr. Ruf, let us know - we will be happy to look it
up in our files.)
Dr. Ruf is beginning research on how personality type affects our outlooks
and attitudes. She will be presenting at the European Council for High
Ability (ECHA) conference in Finland this month on how personality affects
global caring and school behavior. In addition, she has been asked to submit
a research article for the Roeper Review, which is due in November. So this
survey represents preliminary research to ascertain trends.
This is the first of a number of surveys that Dr. Ruf will be sending out
from time to time through her newsletter. If you are willing to complete the
survey, please go to this link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=714062508554. We are particularly
interested in having all the adults in the family participate in the survey.
(In the future, we will send out a survey for the kids!) And if you have
friends and relatives who might be interested, please feel free to forward
the information to them, as well.
We thank you for your help.
Complimentary Copy of Gifted Education Press
Quarterly
Dr. Maurice Fisher, publisher of Gifted Education Press Quarterly, is
offering a complimentary copy of the Fall 2006 issue. Simply send an email
to gifted@giftedpress.com.
The fall issue of GEPQ features such articles as “Nurturing the Inner
Strengths of Highly Intuitive and Sensitive Gifted Children” by Joan Franklin
Smutny, as well as information on some innovations in gifted education.
You may also wish to visit Dr. Fisher’s website,
www.giftedpress.com, which includes
information on their latest books on creative thinking, humanities, science and
mathematics. And another link to visit features Michael Shaughnessy’s interview
of Dr. Fisher for Education News, at
http://www.educationnews.org/writers/michael-f-shaughnessy-previous-columns.htm.
Homeschooling
A number of our clients are homeschooling their children on a full time
basis, have worked out partial homeschooling, or are looking into
homeschooling options. We offer the following few links which contain useful
information (a Google search turned up 8-1/2 million references on
homeschooling!).
http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=1936. Joining the Home School Legal
Defense Association may be a good place to start. This organization will give
you information on how to legally homeschool in your state and tell you about
legislation that applies to homeschooling. It will also help connect you with
national, state and local support groups.
www.homeschooldiner.com.
“Waitress” Julie dishes up homeschool favorites, hot off the grill, at the
friendly neighborhood Homeschool Diner. Julie, a scientist by degree, has been a
homeschooling parent since 2001, and she has created this website to pass on
information from her research and what she has learned as a homeschooler. For
instance, her section called the "Click-O-Matic Guide to Choosing a Homeschool
Approach" compares and tries to match student learning preferences, personality,
and favorite subjects with different homeschool approaches and curriculum. She
also lists homeschool curriculum and resources by subject area.
http://csmail.compuserve.com/msgview.adp?folder=UkVBRA==&uid=14039382#.
For those of you who live in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, this link
describes the homeschool field trip co-ops formed by the Twin Cities Learning
Co-op and Home School Adventures. Joining a co-op requires homeschooling parents
to arrange a certain number of field trips, which means there are many different
field trip opportunities available.
http://unschooling.com. If your child
has had an unhappy school experience and you are now planning to start
homeschooling, your child may need time to “decompress.” You might want to see
if “unschooling” offers what you need.
Here are a few more resources:
