Resources / Links

Enrichment Opportunities

River Springs Charter School strives to provide enrichment opportunities for all of our students. There are some which would be excellent choices for gifted and highly capable students to showcase their abilities. Click here for details.

Here in California, there are also large summer programs that have been in existence for many years. Most have early registration windows and deadlines so contact them ASAP:

• Academic Decathlon - team competition wherein students match their intellects with students from other schools
• Summer Institute for the Gifted, an academic summer experience for talented youth at Vassar College, Drew University, Bryn Mawr College, Amherst College, Denison University, and George School
• John Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth - The program identifies top academic students in grades two through eight and opportunities for participation in challenging educational programs through their tenth grade year.
• Academic Talent Search, CSU, Sacramento or call 916.278.7032
• Foothill College Summer Youth College or call 650.949.7638
• Davidson Institute for Talent Development - Supports profoundly gifted young people and opportunities for development of talents.
• Univ. of California, Berkeley Academic Talent Development Program (ATDP) or call 510.642.8308
• Univ. of California, Irvine Academic Talent Search and Pre-college Gifted Student Academy, or call 949.824.5822
• The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) posts summer programs, enrichment programs and special schools on its web site. This resource is updated regularly and provides valuable information for teachers and parents.
• California Science Center - Year-round science classes and one-week sessions during summer break.
• Challenger Center - Space mission simulations for middle school and high school.
• Davidson Institute for Talent Development - a national nonprofit serving America's gifted children
• Odyssey of the Mind - An international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college involving regional, state, and international competitions

Links for Students

• Kidstuff - resources and activities just for kids
• Kids Clubhouse - a great place to go for fun stuff and brain teasers!
• Ask Jeeves - If you've got a question, Jeeves has got the answer!
• Brainbinders - lots of puzzles, and all you need is a sheet of paper and a brain!
• Aims - you can get a new puzzle each month, and answers, too!
• Time and Date - make calendars, find out when you'll be 20,000 days old, and other fun
  stuff with times and dates

Gifted Education Organizations

Publications

• Gifted Child Quarterly, National Association for the Gifted http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=979
• Gifted Child Today, Prufrock Press http://www.prufrock.com/client/client_pages/prufrock_jm_giftchild.cfm
• Creative Kids http://www.prufrock.com/client/client_pages/prufrock_jm_createkids.cfm
• Gifted Children Monthly http://www.gifted-children.com/
• Imagine http://jhuniverse.jhu.edu/gifted/imagine/
• Journal for the Education of the Gifted http://www.prufrock.com/client/client_pages/prufrock_jm_jeg.cfm
• Journal of Secondary Gifted Education http://www.prufrock.com/client/client_pages/prufrock_jm_jsge.cfm
• Roeper Review http://www.roeperreview.org/
• Understanding Our Gifted http://www.openspacecomm.com/publications.htm

Books for Kids

• Barrett, S. (1992). It's all in your head. Minneapolis, :MN : Free Spirit.
• Galbraith, J. (1998) The gifted kids survival guide: For ages 10 and under. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit.
• Galbraith, J., & Delisle, J. (1996). The gifted kids survival guide: A teen handbook. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit.
• Packer, A. J. (1992). Bringing up parents: The teenager's handbook. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit.
  

Listservs, Message Boards & E-mail Conference Archives

• TAGMAX listserv for homeschooling and home enrichment of gifted children. http://www.tagfam.org/

Curriculum, Schools, & Online Courses Particularly Appropriate for Gifted Homeschoolers

• Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY), at Stanford University. Online distance learning courses, kindergarten through college level, for gifted students.
• Center for Distance Education (CDE), at John Hopkins University. Partner to Stanford. http://cty.jhu.edu/cde/
• Pennsylvania Homeschoolers Advanced Placement Courses Online http://www.pahomeschoolers.com/courses/
• College of William and Mary Center for Gifted Education Curriculum, designed for gifted students in conventional schools but adaptable to homeschool settings http://cfge.wm.edu/
• Westbridge Academy, a satellite school for gifted homeschooled students http://www.westbridgeacademy.com/
• Castle Heights Press, science and engineering curriculum for gifted homeschooled students http://www.castleheightspress.com/main.sc
• Five in a Row, unit study literature-based curriculum for young children
• The Teaching Company, offering “Great Courses” taught by great professors. www.teach12.com, tel. 1-800-TEACH-12
• Bright Ideas for the Gifted and Talented www.awpeller.com tel. 1-800-451-7450
• Dandy Lion Publications www.dandylionbooks.com tel. 1-805-543-3332
• Critical Thinking Press http://www.criticalthinking.com/index.jsp - publisher of critical thinking roducts for home and classroom use in mathematics, science, language arts, and history
• Mindware - Learning products and services that stimulate and entertain for use in the classroom or at home.
  Hewlett-Packard Telementor Program
• John Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth
  http://www.jhu.edu/~gifted/ - The program identifies top academic students in grades two through eight and opportunities for participation in challenging educational programs through their tenth grade year.

Distance Learning Options for High Schoolers

• Academic Program at the EPGY Online High School at Stanford University Stanford - Stanford University, one of the world's leading academic institutions, has joined forces with iTunes U to provide access to Stanford courses, lectures, interviews and more. Courses can be downloaded and played on your iPod, PC, or Mac and can also be burned to CDs.
  
• University of California, Berkeley - UC Berkley has been offering live and on-demand webcasts of select courses since 2001. There are now hundreds of current and archived UC Berkley courses available as podcasts and webcasts. Courses cover a broad range of subjects, including biology, astronomy, chemistry, computer programming, engineering, psychology, legal studies and philosophy.
  

• The National Repository of Online Courses (NROC) is a growing library of high-quality online courses for students and faculty in higher education, high school and Advanced Placement©

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Free MIT Courses OnlineIf you are looking for a wide range of free courses online, MIT is your best option. There are more than 1,800 free courses offered through the school's OpenCourseWare project. Courses are in audio, video and text format and can be translated into many different languages. People from all over the world use OpenCourseWare and 96 percent of visitors say they would recommend the site to someone else.
  
• Open University - The Open University is the UK's largest academic institution. The school's OpenLearn website gives everyone free access to undergraduate and graduate level course materials from The Open University. Courses cover a wide range of topics, such as arts and history, business, education, IT and computing, mathematics and statistics, science, health and technology.
  
• Carnegie Mellon University - Free Carnegie Mellon Courses OnlineCarnegie Mellon University offers a number of free online courses and course materials through a program known as the Open Learning Initiative. OLI courses are set up to allow anyone at the introductory college level to learn about a particular subject without the help of a formal instructor. Course options include such offerings as statistics, biology, chemistry, economics, French and physics.
  
• Tufts University - Like MIT, Tufts University has OpenCourseWare that is free to everyone. Courses are sorted by school (School of Medicine, School of Arts and Sciences, etc.) and include lecture notes, assignments and other supplementary materials.
  
• University of California, Berkeley - UC Berkley has been offering live and on-demand webcasts of select courses since 2001. There are now hundreds of current and archived UC Berkley courses available as podcasts and webcasts. Courses cover a broad range of subjects, including biology, astronomy, chemistry, computer programming, engineering, psychology, legal studies and philosophy.
  
• Utah State University - Utah State University provides access to an oleo of free online courses. Study options include everything from Latin and anthropology to physics and theatre arts. The text based courses are comprehensive and can be downloaded as zip files or viewed directly on the site.

Educator Resources

• Teacher Resources for the Gifted
• Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page - Gifted information and resources for parents, educators, counselors, administrators, other professionals, kids and teens