Customer Reviews

Light Up Your Child's Mind: Finding a Unique Pathway to Happiness and Success

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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This book is broken down into 3 parts:

1. What Is This Thing Called Giftedness?
2. Practical Paths To Developing Your Child's Gifts And Talents.
3. Special Considerations.


The listings in the Appendix's/ Renzulli's Best Resources,
are extremely detailed.

Light Up Your Child's Mind, is filled with practical information, written for the average reader.
There are "Questionnaires", "Management Plans", and "Product Suggestions".

I would highly recommend this book, to anyone
(parent, grandparents, teachers)
who has, or deals with children...
especially those with exceptionalities!


I wish that I had had this book while my children were growing up.
I truly believe that it would have been a real help to my husband and I...
and to our children - many of whom were classified as gifted.
All of our children were very bright, but a few had learning
disabilities, and I feel that they did not always get the support and
guidance that they needed...from us or from their teachers.


Light Up Your Child's Mind gets a big 2 thumbs up from me!
(First reviewed at Libby's Library News [...]

This book was recommended by the headmaster of our children's school. Like a lot of good books, I almost constantly found myself thinking "Oh, that's why that kids do that" or "Ohhh, that's why that doesn't work." It just made so much common sense. I wish every parent and educator would read this book. We're so quick to lump kids into a couple of categories - smart, average, or heaven forbid, stupid. This book reminds us that we all have strengths and weaknesses and teaches how to reach even the kids who have been shoved into the "stupid" category. Highly recommend it.

Light Up Your Child's Mind, presents a practical guide for teachers and parents to help their children "light up" a love of learning forever. This is an easy read and is well organized into three different sections: What is this thing called giftedness, Practical paths to developing your child's gifts and talents, and Special Considerations.

Gifted children with learning disabilities are known as "twice exceptional." In the educational system a child marked both "gifted" and "learning disabled" is rare. Most children are labeled as either remedial and special needs or honors and college prep. Rarely are these children viewed as a combination of the two. Most educators do not expect a gifted child to have dyslexia or even realize that a child with ADHD (attention deficit disorder) might also be brilliant in creative writing or calculus. Identifying a child as twice exceptional is very difficult since these children may be compensating for and masking their learning disability, and in turn their disabilities may disguise their giftedness.

Dr Renzulli and Dr. Reis write about the crucial role parents and educators can play in their children's development. They discuss that intelligence; creativity and motivation to achieve can be fostered in bright children, even unmotivated ones. The book provides tips on how to identify and encourage giftedness in children, while still helping the child succeed within the educational system. An entire section is devoted to resources and suggestions on where to go to help your child develop constructive and interesting projects within his or her area of giftedness and interests. These include:

* Mentors-in-print
* Web site enrichment activities
* Contests and competitions

Originally, I borrowed the book from the library, but then ended up buying it since I found this chapter on resources to be extremely valuable. I now have the book on my desk so that whenever my students need a stimulating activity to work on (other than video games or television) I use the book as a reference guide.

Raising a gifted child and developing those gifts requires a parent or teacher that is open minded, flexible and ready to invest the time and effort needed. Gifted children all have unique strengths and interests that should be recognized and developed.

Within readng the first few pages, I was hooked! This is an excellent book for parents with gifted children. I have thoroughly enjoyed my second reading of "Light up your Childs mind" by J. Renzulli PhD & S. Reise PhD and wanted to share some of my notes from these expert's 30 years of research. If you have not read it yet, it is highly recommended & worth your time.

- Many children want to feel useful in the world.

Pg.228 Many ways to help your youngster build on his strengths & talents, few simple but powerful ideas:

- Each child learns in his own way. And the best, must motivationally rich learning opportunities take into account a child's unique abilities, interests, and styles.
- Learning is more effective when fids enjoy what they're doing and feel passionate about it. Enjoyment--having fun, getting excited and carried away by the process--is a goal as important as any other.
- Knowledge and thinking skills are greatly enhanced when a child applies his efforts to a real and present problem, a "something" that is personally meaningful and important.

He will grow in the self-confidence and self-knowledge that will propel her into a happy, healthy, successful life.

Pg. 229 Perhaps more than ever, we must bring up children who in time will be committed to making the lives of all people more rewarding, more joyful, environmentally safe, peaceful, and politically free. We need creatively produce productive young people who will become the adults who change things for the better, who make positive contributions to the sciences, arts, and humanities. And so we need to think about what we can provide today for those children who will shape both the values and the actions of this new century.

I know it's a cliché to find people declaring "every parent should read this!" However, this is one of those books Light Up Your Child's Mind: Finding a Unique Pathway to Happiness and SuccessI think every parents should read during their child's early years. This book has practical, accessible advice for every parent to bring out the best in every child.

Personally I think it is dangerous to label children as remedial , gifted, average or whatever for many reasons. But I couldn't agree more with the approach they have taken here. What is exiting about this book is that it is something that parents can use to connect with their children to enhance the child's interests or gifts immediately. Best of all it's based on the child so it didn't seem forced or manipulated.

Joseph Renzulli and Sally Reis have nearly 60 years combined experience in gifted education at the University of Connecticut, but I really think a person can miss the point if "GIFTED" is what you're focusing on. In their work they've really developed a broader way of thinking about gifts or abilities that will bring out more of the best from each child. Some of this is accomplished in noticeable ways like thinking of a "work product" or the "contribution" a child can make further developing the idea by identifying the audience for the product, how it's delivered and how it is received by that audience. It becomes tangible and the child learns contribute their work product for others to learn from, benefit from or simply enjoy. Real world application of art and arithmetic, what a concept? Some of the broader thinking is brought up in more subtle ways, like the chapter on twice exceptional children, dealing with exceptional learning and learning disabilities within the same child.

You may wonder how you would identify your child's "gifts." They've laid out an entire questionnaire to analyze and help enhance your child's gifts and help you and the child understanding what to do next. They have "Interest-a-Lyzers" for grade school, adolescent and teenage children. Sometimes; most times, gifts don't show up in academics, in classic ways or a gift may come and go like a phase. They demonstrate that most gifts ebb and flow and show up in atypical areas. Light Up Your Child's Mind is great resource for understanding and moving forward no matter what "phase" the child is in.

A good deal of what I took away from Renzulli and Reis's work is how I would like to see EDUCATION REFORM moving. With more individual learning plans, incorporating subject matter into the child's interests and real world application and audiences. Children are naturally curious learning machines and if we learn to harness their interests into worthwhile purists it solves many, many problems. I fear we will never see education reform in my young children's school years, but as parents we can easily diminish the effects of "teaching to tests" and "fashionable underachievement".

I highly recommend this book to any parent looking to really enhance the overall success and happiness of their child.

*****