Here in Los Angeles, it鈥檚 been raining quite a bit this month. With the dreary weather on top of spending a lot of time inside recently, I almost completely forgot that as of March 19, it鈥檚 now officially spring! One of my favorite things about this season is seeing all the beautiful flowers and plants blooming throughout the neighborhoods. Lately I鈥檝e loved going on walks to get out of the house and get some exercise. This inspired me to create a scavenger hunt for spring blooms that you might see if you live in Southern California!

If you enjoy this activity, follow to check out a similar nature scavenger hunt that our program coordinator Nicole created. Print out the official spring blooms scavenger hunt below to keep track of your flower sightings and points! And let us know in the comments or on social media how many points you get!

or the image below to download the directions to 优蜜视频’s Spring Blooms Scavenger Hunt.

An explanation of what it means to be highly sensitive, as well as a summary of the many pros and some cons of being a HSP.

An explanation of what it means to be highly sensitive, as well as a summary of the many pros and some cons of being a HSP.

We asked our community what websites for gifted kids they recommend. Here are ten of the top suggestions. Tell us what you’d add!

Our social media community and the 优蜜视频 staff weighed in on their favorite movies featuring gifted children and young adults.

Overthinking plagues many of us, especially gifted kids. We share the science behind overthinking and some ways to try and combat it.

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We had fun celebrating National Scavenger Hunt Day! Learn about the wide-ranging benefits of scavenger hunts, from fun to educational, in today’s blog post.

Should your gifted child skip a grade? We examine the pros and cons of grade acceleration, as well as alternative options.

Stories of ten child activists from around the world who fought for what they believed in, to inspire children and adults alike.

There is a need for new strategies in identifying gifted students of diverse cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds to ensure that we are meeting the needs of all gifted children.

Can grit and giftedness go together? 优蜜视频 Program Assistant Nicole Endacott shares four ways you can encourage resilience in your gifted child.

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An explanation of what it means to be highly sensitive, as well as a summary of the many pros and some cons of being a HSP.

Our social media community and the 优蜜视频 staff weighed in on their favorite movies featuring gifted children and young adults.

We asked our community what websites for gifted kids they recommend. Here are ten of the top suggestions. Tell us what you’d add!

We had fun celebrating National Scavenger Hunt Day! Learn about the wide-ranging benefits of scavenger hunts, from fun to educational, in today’s blog post.

This fall, we announced the 2017 Caroline D. Bradley Scholars! We are excited to welcome them to the 优蜜视频 community.

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Roald Dahl鈥檚 Matilda is a precocious young girl who can teach the world a lot about gifted kids. Here are 12 lessons from the novel.

Stories of ten child activists from around the world who fought for what they believed in, to inspire children and adults alike.

There is a need for new strategies in identifying gifted students of diverse cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds to ensure that we are meeting the needs of all gifted children.

Because overexcitabilities are often talked about as though they are problems to solve, we wanted to highlight some of the more delightful elements of overexcitabilities in gifted children and adults.

Because so many things come naturally to the gifted child, highly able students often do not learn how to study until it is too late. Mark provides some tips for helping gifted students develop study habits.

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Summer Academy will feature 16 new classes, including Numbers Galore!, Debating on a Global Stage, Genes and Genetics and Algebra: Enrichment & Science Applications. We will also be welcoming four new teachers in Session 1 to help young minds blossom.

Summer Session 1: June 13-July 1

Summer Session 2: July 11-July 29

There is still time to register for Summer Session 2! See the full schedule and application .

The CDB team will spend the summer traveling the country conducting interviews with 2016 CDB Finalists. Scholars will be announced in the fall.

This summer is the inaugural session of EXPLORE! Externs gathered on Saturday for an orientation that included a photo scavenger hunt. The first group of students started their placements yesterday at sites across Los Angeles. We can鈥檛 wait to see what this amazing group accomplishes this summer!

Session 1: Monday, June 13-Friday June 24

Session 2: Monday, June 27- Friday, July 8 (with July 4th off)

Session 3: Monday, July 11-Friday, July 22

Yunsasa West starts this Sunday, meaning 优蜜视频 staff members are busy gearing up for an awesome week. This year we will be welcoming 44 campers at YMCA鈥檚 Camp Shady Brook in Colorado. Campers will participate in activities that are designed to engage them intellectually, socially, emotionally, spiritually and physically. We can鈥檛 wait!

Yunasa West: June 19 鈥� June 26, 2016

Yunasa: July 30 鈥� August 6, 2016

Want to keep up with the fun? You can:

• Follow 优蜜视频 on , and to see real time photos of our programs.
• to get the latest details on what is happening at 优蜜视频 this summer.
• Visit the for weekly blog posts and updates on 优蜜视频 events.

We hope to see you and your family this summer!

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Happy National Scavenger Hunt Day! Did you know scavenger hunts have numerous benefits for kids? I explore a few below.

1. Build Problem-Solving Skills

, including increased memory of previously taught concepts. Scavenger hunts allow kids to practice problem-solving in a tangible way. It helps to reinforce and act-out methods they have been taught by parents or teachers in a physical way, leading to increased retention of the lessons.

2. Easy to Customize

Scavenger hunts are easy to customize to your child鈥檚 abilities and interests. Is your child really into pirates? Create a 鈥渢reasure鈥� hunt with pirate-themed clues. Do you have a math-lover in your life? Have them solve number problems to get to the next clue. If you are doing a hunt with multiple kids you can give each of them individual clues based on their ability. There are endless possibilities!

3. Exercise both body and mind

As discussed above, scavenger hunts help exercise the mind by reinforcing problem-solving skills. However, they can also be good exercise for the body. You can incorporate clues that get kids moving and running from place to place. You can even get creative and have your child run to the top of a hill, wander into the woods or climb a tree for the next clue. Get those legs moving!

4. Teach Teamwork

Participating in a group scavenger hunt at school or for fun helps teach kids the value of teamwork, in addition to promoting social interaction. Kids will have to work together to solve clues and get to the final destination. Learning to work in a team is an essential skill throughout a child鈥檚 life, so why not teach it in a fun way?

Are you ready to send your child on a scavenger hunt? There are several resources on the web to find ideas and outlines for hunts. I recommend 听if you don鈥檛 know where to start. Happy hunting!

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Nicole LaChance听graduated from Michigan State University听with听a B.A. in Journalism before moving West in pursuit of milder winters.听Prior to joining the 优蜜视频 team, she spent time working in marketing for an architecture firm and completed two years of national service in the AmeriCorps program. Over the past few years she has worked with听nonprofits to听communicate their message and impact to the world around them, work she is excited to continue at 优蜜视频. When not at the office, she enjoys reading, cooking, traveling wherever she can and making bad puns.

鈥淎ttention is the doorway to gratitude, to wonder, to reciprocity.鈥� 鈥� Robin Wall Kimmerer

The annual Bradley Seminar is a place where you can鈥檛 help but pay attention. In the blink of an eye, it has come and gone. The Seminar is significant because it brings together some of the most interested and accomplished national merit-based high school scholars; it provides a venue for Caroline D. Bradley Scholars, parents, educators and professionals to connect, discuss issues of intellectual, personal, and global interest; and it strengthens a community that they will continue to influence and rely upon in perpetuity. I love it precisely for its strength of attentiveness 鈥� a weekend filled to capacity with such extraordinary individuals, challenging conversations, and genuine connectedness demands we lay distractions aside and keep our eyes open. Wide open.

The 2016 Bradley Seminar commenced in Pasadena, California from March 18 鈥� 20, hosting over 180 participants from across the country. The weekend events kicked off on Friday afternoon, welcoming the Class of 2014 Scholars to The Barder House, a space rife with symbolism for the CDB community. Dedicated and named after the Scholarship鈥檚 generous benefactor, Sarah D. Barder, it was donated to the Institute for Educational Advancement in 2011 by Ms. Barder to serve as the home base for 优蜜视频, as well as a meeting place and touchstone for the 优蜜视频 and the CDB community.

Following a welcome dinner and introductions, parents attended a session led by Dr. Jim Delisle, while Scholars and Alumni participated in ice-breakers and a hotel-wide scavenger hunt. Among the various tasks that teams were instructed to complete were items like, 鈥渇ind something at least 100 years older than anyone on your team鈥� and 鈥渞ecord a video of everyone on your team doing 20 jumping jacks in unison鈥�.

Each year, the Seminar is guided by a different overarching theme intended to serve as the focal point for thought and conversation throughout the weekend. The 2016 theme was Finding & Cultivating Your Voice, which pursued questions like: What am I passionate about and what matters? What does it mean to have a voice and how do I share these passions with a community, local or global, in meaningful ways?

KR Sridhar, Founder, President, and CEO of , explored this theme on Saturday morning through a keynote presentation on the relationship between voice, passion, and resilience. 听Betsy Jones, 优蜜视频 President, guided intergenerational conversations between students, parents, visiting educators, and guests to examine the Seminar theme in smaller intentional groups. 听These discussions channel incredible value for their ability to bring a diverse group of individuals together as equals to discuss issues of common interest. One Scholar noted, 鈥淭he table talks helped facilitate open and serious conversations鈥� The topics addressed were relevant to my life, especially the topics in the intentional conversations.鈥�

Saturday night featured workshops and panels led by CDB Alumni and parents, educators, clinical psychologists, and consultants covering a range of topics: American Misconceptions of Giftedness, Career Paths, College Counseling, Finding Your Voice Through Depression, Intensities and Sensitivities, and Mindfulness.

While the day was bookended with content-heavy sessions, Scholars and parents were able to relax through various outings on Saturday afternoon to the Griffith Observatory, Huntington Library & Gardens, and EscapeRoom LA.

As the Seminar concluded on Sunday morning and good-byes became imminent, I reflected on the wonder of the weekend. I recalled Kimmerer鈥檚 words on attention, gratitude, and reciprocity as I watched the generosity of the CDB community extend outward in the form of financial support and volunteerism to the 优蜜视频 community. 听This only confirmed my feeling that when we come together and pay attention 鈥� when we put down our phone, participate in our environment, engage in what it means to be present 鈥� something happens. As Thich Nhat Hanh writes, 鈥淭he most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention.鈥� I can鈥檛 help but agree.

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Lisa is the mother of 3 gifted children and lives outside of San Francisco.

• Deliver a full cup of tea in a wagon that rolls smoothly on four wheels of four different shapes.
• Design and craft a musical instrument that is played only by altering its temperature.
• Freeze and pop an airborne bubble.

These are three of the 318 items on this year鈥檚 . Scav, as it鈥檚 called, is a school-wide game in which students get points for completing listed tasks. All of this occurs over four days, ending Mother鈥檚 Day. Participants are expected to attend class and complete all of their required assignments during Scav. The winning team gets nothing more than bragging rights.

My son鈥檚 participation in Scav got me thinking about all of the things my children have done just for fun. None of these activities will be on their resumes or college applications, and no money changed hands. They may have looked like a waste of time (I may have even said so myself), but they reflect the curiosity and creative thinking that characterize so many gifted children. So, in honor of Scav, I am creating a scavenger hunt of my own composed entirely of some of my children鈥檚 more unusual activities. I am doing this with the hopes that there might be other parents out there whose children are more interested in having silly fun than in changing the world. If your daughter constructed a science lab in her room to develop a new form of algae biofuel or wrote an algorithm to predict epileptic seizures, please stop reading. You will only make me feel bad. If you wonder if your child鈥檚 creative abilities are being put to their best use, read on鈥�

THE HARTWIG FAMILY SCAVENGER HUNT

1. Play 900 hours of Sid Meier鈥檚 Civilization 5. When you find a religion or historical figure you don鈥檛 know, look it up online and then lecture your parents.
2. Juggle balls, rings and pins (not at the same time) in the living room. Lose all your points if you hit the dog.
3. Instead of taking the AP Calculus review course, learn multiple moves on the trapeze and perform them in front of your friends.
4. Convince some acquaintances that you are from Portugal and that you and your absent twin brother were adopted.
5. Create and draw fifteen new Pok茅mon characters including character sheets with drawings, special abilities and evolutionary development.
6. Imagine a human-like supernatural character with a personal story line. Draw the character using Photoshop. Have this character interact with other characters online until your mother asks you, 鈥淲hat are you doing?鈥�
7. Act as the Dungeon Master in a four-person D&D game over four days. Make your own game board.
8. Instigate a school-wide game of duck-duck-goose, with at least thirty participants, three teachers and the head of school.
9. Research the genus of the mountain goat, which you love, to prove that it is superior to the billy goat, which you hate.
10. Create a friendship bracelet pattern by copying at a design you like. Make the bracelet for all of your friends.
11. Invent a tag game with your friends inspired by a presidential campaign. The game must contain the Republican and Democratic candidates, their running mates, polar bears and an oil refinery prison.
12. Make junk food themed Halloween costumes out of cardboard boxes and poster paint and coordinate the designs with your best friend. Wear the costumes to school. Repeat the process annually.
13. 听Become an authority on Justin Beiber鈥檚 biography and discography. Quiz your parents, friends and teachers.
14. Memorize Dr. Seuss鈥檚 Oh the Places You鈥檒l Go. Recite it in front of the entire school.

For years I鈥檝e been hearing that gifted children are our best hope for a better world. With a list like this, I鈥檓 not sure that the revolution will start at our house. If my children do end up changing the world, it will be in a way I had neither directed nor envisioned. But I have more immediate concerns. I need them to finish their homework and clean their rooms before they add another item to the list.

What “scavenger hunt activities” have your kids done for fun? Please share in the comment section below!

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