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Hoagies' Blog Hop: Gifted @Play

This month, Hoagies' Gifted Education Page shares our Blog Hop on Gifted @Play.  Bloggers from all corners of the gifted community--parents, teachers and counselors, from the U.S., Europe, Australia and New Zealand--join us to share their perspectives on play: outdoors, indoors, creative, active, child, teen and adult.  

Don't miss last month's inaugural Blog Hop, The "G" Word.  If you'd like to join our next Blog Hop, contact us at webmaster@hoagiesgifted.org.  Special thanks to Pamela S. Ryan for our Blog Hop graphics!

Find great toys, games and puzzles for gifted kids @play on Hoagies' Smart Toys & Games (and Adults!), including Smart Family and Party Games, Smart Hands-On Toys and Puzzles and Smart Word Games, and more!
 

Go out and play. Go Geocaching! by Carolyn K., in Hoagies' Nibbles and Bits

Growing up in the 60s and 70s, we kids heard that all the time. "Go out and play!" Research shows that nature is good for us. But how do I get my kids outside into Nature? Here's a game that's nerdy enough to appeal to gifted kids of all ages: Geocaching!...
 

Lego and the Gifted Visual-Spatial Child by Crushing Tall Poppies

LEGO® are definitely an ingenious multi-use toy that has stood the test of time. The thoughts and ideas of what one can do with LEGO® keep building and growing, one idea upon the next, exponentially: construction, learning, Math, Science, art, music, transportation, engineering, robotics, Geometry, parks, stores, events…. oh this list can truly be endless. Endless possibilities, just like the toy itself!
 

Playing with Game Theory: Altruism or Evil? by Wenda Sheard, J.D. Ph.D. Thoughts on Life and Learning 

When I think of games, I think of children gaming their parents, politicians gaming their opponents, businesses gaming their customers. I think of economists and marketing experts, fundraisers and military strategists, stockbrokers and business owners. I think of zero-sum games, cooperative games, collective-action games.  I think of highly analytical minds winning and minds with less analytical ability losing...
 

Learning to Play at Nerd Camp by Jay (Jade) Piltser and Andy Cowan, in Discover Your Awesome

For the first time, when I was in a group of gifted kids, I was able to just feel like a normal kid. One of the friends I made in that first year at CY-TAG is still among my best friends, 17 years later. This kind of play, this easy, cooperative interaction with no point or goal beyond the fun, was both alien and wonderful. It felt relaxing, and I felt connected to other people in a way that I could rarely do at home...
 

The Gift of a Friend by The Grayson School

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.’” -C.S. Lewis
Friendship can be difficult for gifted children. For some, the issue may be asynchronous development: they may be very advanced academically but immature socially, which makes finding an intellectual peer they can also have fun with challenging. Some gifted learners may struggle with social skills or social awkwardness, and need extra support to practice skills that seem to come naturally to others. Other students may simply feel socially isolated, like they don’t blend in with other students their age...
 

Overthinking Play by Braver than you believe

The most interesting thing is that, once they start playing, it's hard to make them stop. Not because THEY don't want to stop, because I don't want them to stop. It's utterly mind-boggling what seeps into their play.
Kid One: Let's divide all these dominoes...hey, that's just like division!
Kid Two: What's that?
Kid One: Really? You don't know? Let me show you.....
 

Are We Having Fun Yet? by Paula Prober, Your Rainforest Mind

Have you ever wondered how a rainforest-minded (g-g-g-gifted) adult defines play/fun? Perhaps, you’ve been told that you’re too serious or too studious. That you need to lighten up, relax and have more fun. Be more spontaneous and less OCD. And you respond: “I AM having fun. I’m READING!”...
 

Carrot Vs Stick – Sticker Reward For Piano Playing by Elgarmummy

When a child writes a poem spontaneously or composes music on his own, that can be seen as play and relaxation. I am so glad he has found another artistic outlet...
 

Ditch the Worksheets, Become a Picasso, a Kindergartener, and a Gifted@play! by Carolyn Fox, A 2E Fox Revived

Csikszentmihalyi pioneered the field of creativity and flow and what he found is especially relevant for gifted parents and kids:
1. All creative individuals remained childlike for life. The sense of wonder, the sense of play stayed. The feeling of awe stayed too. The intense curiosity never went away, even if one was 90 years old. Please gifted parents, keep this point in mind!!!...
 

Gifted Children Need the Gifted of Play by Gail Post in Gifted Challenges

Given the social, emotional, and academic benefits of play, insisting that gifted children - all children - have plenty of opportunity for free, unstructured play time is essential. It seems that a reversal of No Child Left Behind quotas, overscheduled activities, and performance driven goals are in order. All children deserve the gift of play...
 

Gifted Adults at Play - 1 by Laura W on Contemplations

How do you keep the judgmentalism and the analysis from paralyzing you and preventing you from trying something new? Some people do so through family support systems. But my husband knows very little about music or musical performance and my children are grown and far away. Family support wasn't enough. Luckily the instructors and fellow students helped, but it took a lot of courage for me to get through that first year...
 

Laura also offers another perspective with Gifted Adults at Play - 2 What is the appeal of gaming? It requires personal engagement with the game and with other people. There are rules to the games, but there are many different winning strategies. There are a lot of other types of play that gifted people like as well, but I think the active involvement with challenging and varying games is a big plus for gaming
 

Calculate your Leisure Profile by Jo on Sprite's Site

Have a consultation with the Psych-Owl-Ogist and take the Dabrowski Dogs’ survey in order to calculate your leisure profile...
 

Learning Through Play by Suki Wessling in Avant Parenting

Just look around at any group of adults over 40. Did any of us have academic instruction in kindergarten? Probably a few. Most of us went to play-based kindergartens where academics was limited to singing the alphabet song. But here we are, inventing amazing handheld devices, making groundbreaking films, running thriving small businesses, working as dental hygienists and truck drivers and police officers...and, most importantly, raising our children...
 

The Games Our Children Play by Planet Smarty Pants

I know that Smarty plays differently, but I am wondering how much for this is due to her intelligence and how much is due to her personality. As any Western child these days, Smarty has too many toys, but she never played much with them. She was never into building elaborate pretend worlds and couldn’t care less about dolls. Her most favorite object is not a toy, but a baby blanket. Ever since she started to read fluently at 4, she would spend more free time reading than playing...
 

this is our normal by A Voracious Mind

The importance of play, in whatever form, is paramount in our life. Unschooling allows for unlimited learning through play. When you enjoy what you are doing it feels like play even if it doesn't look like it to the outside world...
 

Garden of Your Mind in Everyday Learning by Hand-in-Hand Homeschool

Him: But I just want to play.
Me: You don’t have time to play. We have to leave now.
As those very words escaped my mouth, “You don’t have time to play”, I knew I was doing something wrong as a parent. Soon after, I made the decision to homeschool and to trust in my children’s ability to lead the way to a different style of learning – one based on their natural curiosity...
 

Updated March 26, 2019