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What is available for 'gifted' kids?
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I have found that there is relatively little organised enrichment activity available for primary aged children. I don't do anything out of the ordinary with my boys, but I do look to perhaps 'extend' ordinary experiences such as reading a comic, by getting them to think of factors such as the current affairs influences that may have affected the authors at the time eg we were lucky enough to find some very old (1950's) copies of The Dandy and The Beano in a second hand book shop, which led to some interesting conversations about what was going on in the world at that time and how it influenced the cartoons. They also got a modern day reprint of a Dandy annual that was originally published during WWII, which led to a lot of discussion about what went on during World War II, and particularly, conversations about Hitler and the fate of people who were tragically killed in concentration camps.
I've been trying to find some themes for activities that we do together eg they've done quite a lot of research on healthy eating, as a background to learning how to cook. We've been looking how the form of media affects the way a story is told by seeing various plays, films and reading the books they were based on. And with N, he's beginning to get a feel for what allegories are and how powerful they can be in the way they influence their readers, through looking at the Narnia books and film, Animal Farm (the book and the cartoon), Gulliver's Travels (book), and the Harry Potter books and films.....I think that J K Rowling's books are a particularly good example of how a very strong narrative that engages the reader emotionally can be used to get across a message through allegory - in the HP books, about the effects of organised prejudice, such as was seen in Hitler's Germany. The boys, like most kids, are taken out to various museums and places of interest in the local area, and we usually try to read and do internet research based on what we've seen there. We go to the cinema, and to children's theatrical productions, and often read the book versions of the same story, and then chat about them - the kids seem to be getting a feel for the strengths and weaknesses of different forms of media as a result of doing this, and can be quite scathing in their criticism of a 'bad' production!
We use public transport and long bus or train journeys can lead to frustration and squabbles if they have nothing to do.....so for train journeys we take a small backpack with snacks and pocket sized versions of games (backgammon, chess, connect 4, ludo, draughts, dominos etc) that are not used at other times, and everyone stays in a good mood if they always have something they can play with. For buses, or train journeys where we haven't been able to find a table, they can do word puzzles, logic puzzles, suduko, karuko, etc....
Ensuring that the boys have access to a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books has opened a world of imagination and information for them. They have never been told that they 'must' read a given book.....but they have access to plenty of books and from toddlerhood onwards, they have had fiction and poetry read to them in a 'theatrical' manner, with exaggerated pantomime gestures, silly voices etc. It was then a natural progression for them to want to find out how to read for themselves, and unsurprisingly, they both enjoy reading for pleasure now. They also still enjoy being read to, even though they might seem a bit too old for it now!
Just as they've never been made to read a given book, I've never attempted to criticise their reaction to a book .....it doesn't matter if they don't grasp every aspect of how the book can be appreciated, if they enjoyed it, then it was a valuable experience for them.....and as they re-read books, they notice aspects of them that they didn't find before. I don't think it really matters what they read, and I don't impose limits or attempt to steer them away from material intended for adults (so long as it does not contain overly 'adult' sexual or violent themes) eg N sometimes reads The Economist, The New Scientist, etc, and I don't expect him to fully understand what he is reading, but am happy whatever positive gains he gets from reading that material....as a gentle introduction to the classics, we've visited Haworth (home of the Brontes), getting there by steam train (which they loved) and he's now reading Jane Eyre, which to me seems like a fairly 'accessible' classic for a child to engage with.......
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