Meeting the Needs of Intense Grown-ups
I’m excited to be heading to Seattle this week to give a presentation to the Seattle Public Schools titled “Intensity Through the Ages—Celebrating Our Children’s Passion, Creativity, and Excitability” (it’s free and no registration is required, so if you live in the area, please consider stopping by!). The title, however, is just the beginning. Parents and teachers often attend talks such as this one to understand their children better, and they come away knowing that there is much to understand and celebrate about themselves, as well.
What are your social-emotional needs? Intellectual needs? Creative needs? Physical needs? Twice-exceptional needs? Not your children’s. Yours.
Are you meeting them?
If the very question makes you squirm with discomfort (Sure, my kids are gifted, but me??), spend some time with the following resources, then comment here on your own experience with living as an intense adult and learning to celebrate your own passion, creativity, and excitability.
Intensity Through the Ages – Celebrating Our Children’s Passion, Creativity, & Excitability
This free presentation is a must for parents and teachers of gifted children and anyone who would like to learn and understand more about giftedness. Seating is limited to 200.
Lisa will discuss the role that intensity plays in giftedness—intensity not just of the intellect, but of emotions, sensations, imagination and physical movement—and how understanding gifted intensity can help us to help our children.
Presentation by Lisa Rivero*
Thursday, January 13, 7:00 – 8:30 PM
Seattle Public Schools, Stanford Center Auditorium
2445 3rd Avenue S.
Seattle 98134
*Lisa Rivero is the author of A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Teens, The Smart Teens’ Guide to Living with Intensity, and other books and articles on education and giftedness. She lives and writes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she also teaches at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Lisa speaks regularly at both local and national conferences on giftedness, learning, and creativity, and she is an active board member for the non-profit organization Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG).
The Intellectual Mother Meets the Artistic Mother?
In a thought-provoking blog post that has stayed with me since I read it, Casey asks candid questions of herself and us about finding balance (from her delightful blog The Sprightly Writer):
I’m slowly coming to the realization that I’ve been on the wrong track. I’m slowing down the hyper-analysis and I’m re-thinking my approach to my life. I’ve only been increasingly agitated and cranky and picking fights with my husband and this isn’t working anymore. Reading and writing my frustrations away aren’t really helping but making them become more entrenched in my thought processes. I think I’m imbalanced. Ha…no, not crazy imbalanced. Not too much anyway.
Why Spell it Dyslexia?
CEO Eric Edmeades writes about the challenges and possibilities for dyslexic entrepreneurs (thank you to the Eides at Dyslexic Advantage for the link!)
Many dyslexics are super creative – as if they traded one type of thought for another. I suspect that many would have been brilliant lawyers, professors and executives. The challenge is that to get to most of those positions they would have to deal with the education system, exams and systems that measure intelligence and capability in very narrow terms.
Organizing a Divergent Mind
If you are a divergent thinker who is naturally drawn toward the “look, shiny!” parts of life, you will enjoy this post by Lisa Lauffer on the ongoing quest to get organized:
So far, everything I really need to do gets done. But I find this existence a little stressful, and sometimes I wonder if I could accomplish more and feel more at peace if I became more organized. Now as you can probably tell, “more organized” isn’t that high of an expectation around here. I’ve learned that I will never become an organization maven. My brain isn’t built that way. Checklists and day-at-a-time organizers don’t move me. Instead, anyone who knows me knows how I love stickie notes. I come alive brainstorming projects when I post colorful small stickie notes to gigantic stickie notes adhered to my wall.