Discovering the Giftedness in our 2e Child

Summary: The story of how we discovered our daughter was gifted and twice-exceptional.  Are you wondering the same thing about your child?  #2e #homeschoolgifted



My husband and I started our family when we adopted our daughter at the tender age of 11 months.  We were so blessed to fly to China to meet her, after two years of waiting. 

When my daughter was 5, she was so ready for kindergarten, but was too young to attend public school. So we started to homeschool her, and had great fun doing it. With my background as a pre-K teacher, I was comfortable setting up learning activities for K.  And she loved learning at home.  

When the next year came around, my husband and I considered the idea of kindergarten again. We visited some K classes, and talked with the teachers.  

My kiddo was way ahead of the K work that we saw there, so we decided to take the leap, and began homeschooling first grade the next year.

My daughter caught onto new ideas quickly, and we knew that she was smart.  

But being an only child, and never having been in a school setting, we did not have anyone to really compare her to. 

I loved doing 1st grade with her and she was thriving.  She had a voracious appetite for learning and was of course, always asking questions. She would take the encyclopedia to bed with her to read at night.  She had a great memory, almost photographic, but hated to be interrupted when working on something.  

She also was very intense, and quite active, always doing hand stands, loved to jump all over the couch, and spin around in her dad's desk chair.   

Our thought was just that we had a smart kid, who loved to learn and who would do well with a gymnastics class or two. We did that, and we continued homeschooling, which made it easy for us to accommodate her ADHD tendencies, and to meet her intense desire to learn. 

And, since I have a background in OT, it was natural for me to just try to adapt things for her,.....such as, buy an exercise ball for her to bounce on, or a spinner from the consignment store for her to spin in.  She just loved that spinner.  And with homeschooling's 1 on 1, it was easy to tailor her studies to her individual needs.

We continued on with our homeschooling, and she did well.  At the same time, she struggled with some learning issues, including having problems processing verbal information.  We just tried to accommodate for those needs, and strove to meet her sensory needs at home, too.

Her desire to learn was so strong....and we loved learning things together...

Then, one year, in 4th grade, we enrolled her in a part time public school program, that invited homeschoolers to join in for electives. 

Her teachers were impressed with her vocabulary and the quality of her questions in her math games class.  

They noticed that she was way ahead of her peers, and how adventurous in her hands-on science class. 

She was the first to volunteer to hold the cow's heart specimen that the teacher had brought to class.  

When they brought up the idea that she might be gifted, we began to realize that maybe it was a fit, and that her ADHD tendencies and her sensory issues, made her twice exceptional.  She was always exceptional in our eyes, but finding out she was gifted, well, that has been an unexpected joy...and a big challenge, too.

I share about our homeschooling journey, on my blog at BJ’s Homeschool, how we go about choosing our curriculum, through the years, and how we dealt with her learning issues. She is now in college, studying in an honors program.  

That is the story of how we discovered the giftedness in our daughter. 

Our GHF site is full of articles, blogs, resources, brochures and books on the topic. 

No need to feel alone.  

With all these resources available to us now, we can reach out and support each other.  As a mama of a 2e young adult, I know how important it is to connect with other moms who have so much in common with each other on this journey.

Thanks for stopping by BJ's Homeschool,

Betsy

Betsy is mom to her now college grad, whom she homeschooled through high school.  She blogs at BJ's Homeschool, about the early years, high school, college, gifted/2e and wrote - Homeschooling High School with College in Mind.   She offers free homeschool help through messages at BJ's Consulting,  and has had her articles picked up by the Huffington Post.

   

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