In this day and age of technology, more and more web-based resources are becoming available at our fingertips. Apple’s iTunes App Store, for example, has hundreds of applications specifically geared towards children’s learning and enrichment. Likewise, more e-learning websites are cropping up all over the Internet, offering a seemingly endless amount of educational lessons and tutorials in the form of short videos. Such educational resources are great for homeschoolers, teachers looking for ways to differentiate in their classrooms, and the life-long learner in all of us. While some parents may frown upon the use of web-based videos as a learning tool for their kids, I believe that these can be great resources for supplementing one’s education when used in moderation.

Some of the benefits of e-learning include:

• The freedom to discover and explore. With all of the information available online, your child has the opportunity to discover new subjects and delve deeper into topics that interest him or her.
• The freedom to learn at his or her own pace. Your child also has the freedom to decide on the pace of learning based on his or her ability in any one subject. In regards to videos specifically, your child has the freedom to control (literally) the speed of the lesson by pausing, rewinding, and fast-forwarding through content if he or she desires to review or skip specific segments of a lesson.
• The freedom to learn practically anywhere at any time. Since these are web-based resources, your child can learn anywhere you have access to the Internet and a computer or mobile device and at times that are most convenient to your family’s schedule.

With all of these benefits of e-learning in mind, I did a little research of my own to pinpoint which websites out there are the most gifted kid-friendly. Each of these websites is devoted to providing accessible, user-friendly educational tools; and best of all, these resources are free to the public! So here are my picks. Enjoy!

3.

NeoK12 is a website that offers educational videos and lessons, including games and quizzes, specifically geared to Kindergarten through 12th grade students. According to its mission, NeoK12 promotes learning through educational videos because they “believe that kids learn best when they ‘see’ how things work, when, where and why they happen.” Through its comprehensive collection of videos, kids can learn about areas of study such as geography, social studies, physical science, English, math, and the human body. The site even hosts segments of the Discovery Channel show How It’s Made.

My picks:

• – Learn about the properties of the four fundamental states of matter: solid, gas, liquid, and plasma!
• – Check out this lesson on how our organs, vessels, and muscles work together in our bodies’ circulatory systems.
• And for fun,

2.

Khan Academy seeks to “help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace” via video tutorials and lessons. It currently hosts a library of over 4,200 videos on topics ranging from chemistry, physics, trigonometry, and even humanities.

Students can create their own profiles to track their activities and earn achievement patches and badges, while parents can track their child’s progress over time. There is also a community aspect to this website, where students can ask questions about a concept they didn’t understand and have them answered by other Khan Academy students.

My picks:

• – Get an introduction to one of the coolest numbers in math! It also informed the .
• – Learn about the nuts and bolts of our DNA in this video about cells, chromosomes, and genes.

To learn more about the origins of Khan Academy, view creator, Salman Khan’s TEDTalk, .

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An offshoot of TEDTalks, TED-Ed delivers “Lessons worth sharing” through brief videos on topics ranging from the arts and literature to mathematics and psychology. Each lesson also includes multiple choice and open-ended questions for your child to engage with the content, as well as a “Dig Deeper” section, which provides additional information and resources for your child to further explore the topic.

My picks:

• – Learn about how the invention of the train shaped the invention of standardized time zones.
• – Check out this fascinating video on bacteria and its chemical language!

(Please note that ������Ƶ is not in any way affiliated with Apple, Inc., NeoK12, Khan Academy, or TED. We just wanted to share some of the great resources we’ve found with you!)

What’s your child’s favorite online resource? Please share in the comment section below.

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Podcasts are an excellent source of entertainment and challenge; they keep us alert on the commute home, amused while waiting at the doctor’s office and entertained before falling asleep. At ������Ƶ, we are discovering that podcasts can also be an excellent alternative source of information for our brightest minds. Plus, we know that your kids, who constantly crave information, are going to be looking for cool things to learn about over the holiday break from school. As our gift to you this holiday season, we present our five favorite podcasts for the gifted child.

1. 60-Second Science
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In this podcast, Scientific American provides daily, one-minute commentary on some of the most interesting developments in the field of science.

We recommend:

Full length podcasts of this type are also available at .

2. Astronomy Cast
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A facts-based journey through the cosmos while telling the story of astronomy earns this podcast high ratings. Although they haven’t produced a new recording in over a year, Frasier Cane, publisher at Universe Today, and Pamela Gay, professor at Southern Illinois University, have provided enough mental nourishment to last a long, long time.

We recommend:
: A podcast relaying the little-known facts surrounding Newton’s life and extracurricular accomplishments. We learn that Newton had a difficult childhood as a twice-exceptional student. And, in his adult years, he was so committed to an experiment that he jammed a knitting needle into his eye to explain how optics worked!

3. MinutePhysics
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This podcast is accurately described as “cool physics and other sweet science—all in a minute!” Not to mention, you’ll be in for a good laugh.

We recommend:

4. Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day
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Each day, a Merriam-Webster editor offers insight into a fascinating new word—explaining its meaning, current use, and little-known details about its origin. These definitions and roots may surprise you!

We recommend:
“Hypermnesia”: A word that certainly describes some of the gifted students we serve!

5. The Stuff of Genius
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Every invention starts out as an idea, and it only takes a bit of genius to make it a reality. “The Stuff of Genius” is a podcast from howstuffworks.com. They describe the inception and process of a particular invention each podcast.

We recommend:

Although we’ve yet to relish every episode on our favorite podcast list, these are some of the episodes that stood out most to us. Come wander into the rabbit hole of podcast information with us!

Does your child have a favorite podcast? How have podcasts been a source of interest and learning for your family? Please share in the comment section below!

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I love . Whenever I need a break from my day-to-day routine, I watch a TEDTalk and lose myself in the brilliance of people and their ideas.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with TEDTalks, let me give you a brief overview of TED. TED is a private, nonprofit organization that was founded in 1984, with the objective of hosting an annual conference on Technology, Entertainment, and Design—hence the acronym, TED.

Since then, TED has grown; it now hosts global conferences and events throughout the year and has expanded its scope to include leaders from various fields and disciplines, such as medicine, education, economics, anthropology, and music. At these conferences, notable speakers like Jane Goodall, Bill Gates, and Nobel Prize winners confront audiences with issues, ideas, and phenomena that seek to inspire passion and curiosity.

TED’s goal is simple: To spread ideas. According to its mission statement, “We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives, and ultimately, the world. So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.” Thus, TED decided to release and post its “talks” online, making them free and accessible to our global community of learners. Since launching its website in 2007, TED has posted 1,356 videos online, which have been viewed almost 1 billion times worldwide.

With so many talks readily available, my efforts of selecting only five videos proved to be more difficult than I had anticipated. But for your viewing pleasure, here are my top five most powerful, informative, and stimulating TEDTalks for parents of gifted children. Enjoy!

5.
In her discussion, writer Susan Cain speaks about introversion and questions why it is undervalued in our society. She calls for a celebration of introverted-ness and offers three suggestions for changing the ways we view introversion.

Favorite quote: “There’s zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.”

4.
Professor of education Sugata Mitra describes his global “Hole in the Wall” experiments, where children are given access to computers and the Internet. Through these experiments, Mitra illustrates how, when given the resources, groups of children learn from each other and become “self-organizing systems.”

Favorite quote: “Children will learn to do what they want to learn to do.”

3.
In this inspirational video, then twelve-year-old child prodigy Adora Svitak asks her adult audience to reexamine the ways they view children as “irrational” and “irresponsible” beings. Rather, children should be acknowledged and valued for their abilities to imagine the possibilities of tomorrow.

Favorite quote: “Learning between grown-ups and kids should be reciprocal. The reality, unfortunately, is a little different, and it has a lot to do with trust, or a lack of it.”

2.
In this 20-minute talk, Temple Grandin demonstrates how autistic minds process information and urges us to nurture these varied ways of thinking as resources in our twice-exceptional youth.

Favorite quote: “Now the thing is, the world is going to need all of the different kinds of minds to work together. We’ve got to work on developing all these different kinds of minds.”

1.

In this comical but informative discussion, Ken Robinson examines our education system in relation to creativity. Like Adora Svitak, he stresses that children have amazing capabilities and “capacities for innovation.” However, Robinson argues that creativity is being squandered in our classrooms, where academic abilities are placed at a higher premium than other types of intelligences.

Favorite quote: “My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”

Do you have a favorite TEDTalk? Share your favorite in the comment section below!

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