The Evolution of 2e, by Dr. Dan Peters
This piece first appeared in the October 2018 issue of the 2e Newsletter. Dr. Dan Peters, and other past and current 2e Newsletter Advisory Board members, reflected on 15 years of 2e as the 2e Newsletter founders J. Mark Bade and Linda Neumann transition the publication to a new editor and publisher, Bridges Media. Learn more and subscribe at 2e News. I am sitting in Camp Summit, watching kids making sock puppets, engaging in LARP (live action role play), playing Dungeons & Dragons, and building a Rube Goldberg contraption. They are all gifted and twice-exceptional children and...
Read MoreDigital Breaks: 5 Things to Help Our Kids Disconnect – by Dr. Dan Peters
Last weekend we had an extended family dinner with many relatives. I was sitting on a cushion on the fireplace and looking at a large couch and an oversized chair stuffed with nine cousins ranging from ages 12 to 22. They were smiling, laughing, sitting on each other and…they were all on their phones! I didn’t realize it at first because I guess it has become so normal to see screens. At that moment I realized I was observing — and living in — a social experiment that is universal to all families today. Media and technology are a regular and normal part of our kid’s lives and...
Read MoreSummer Movies and Books May Provide Parallels to Life’s Challenges For Your Kids, by Dr. Dan Peters
Two of this summer’s most popular movies are stories of young people dealing with the harsher challenges of life both through illness and evil. In the popular film The Fault in Our Stars we see two teenagers fall in love while struggling with the chronic disease of cancer. In How to Train a Dragon 2 we see a young hero with a missing leg struggling to save his hometown from a terrifying villain. Both movies deal with very mature subjects and although there is redemption found in each film’s ending, it doesn’t make the journey any less sad and emotional for young film-goers....
Read MoreCreativity Is for Everyone! A Message from Co-Founder Dr. Susan Daniels
Everyone has creative potential! Yes, that’s right. We are all born with the innate capacity for creative activity. Just think of young children ages two to five. They explore, question, wonder, experiment, test, investigate, combine, separate, dramatize, invent, try out, try on, play, imagine, visualize, dream, adapt, build, embellish, exaggerate, transform, personify, construct, pretend, improvise, revise, discover, express, decorate, elaborate, renovate, renew — and more — each and every day. Children approach their world as young inventors, explorers, engineers,...
Read MoreA Message from Dr. Susan Daniels: Get Creative With Your Kids This Summer
Summer is here and with it brings more time for creativity, exploration and play. Kids love to draw paint, act, experiment, and design, and summer provides the opportunity to diverge from a structured school curriculum and allows time to delve into self-chosen projects that enrich and entertain. At our summer camp, Camp Summit, the emphasis is on having fun, observing nature, being with gifted peers, and playing in creative ways. We tie dye and doodle, draw from nature, plan skits, and create imaginary animals with mixed media. One high point is our Rube Goldberg room in which the entire...
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