Round the Clock Learner!

Are you blessed with a round the clock learner? I mean literally up at midnight then at the crack of dawn with some project, book, or MANY books?

Are you the parent of a gifted child?!

Needing less sleep is one of the ‘signs’ of giftedness. Many of our Presidents have been gifted and most sleep about 5 hours a day according to secret service records. These gentlemen were not just losing sleep over stress their minds were whirling and never turned off!

Do you have a president to be in the house? A gifted gal that is going to turn the science world on its ear? A child that learns everything you give them during ‘school hours’ then seeks out more, and more to learn! GREAT!

WOW that can be difficult though. Keeping up is like a marathon at a 50 meter pace! You are going to need back up.

First line of defense is be sure your child is truly up all these hours for learning, mind running at 100MPH rather than a physical problem. Something and simple and yet profound as diet can change a person’s whole sleeping rhythm.

For my gifted gal, she needed all dairy, gluten, and soy removed from her diet. Her dr was also well versed in simple supplements to help her sleep. (I am not a dr and not giving advice on those supplements, see your peds and ask about melatonin or valerian root.)

Gifted kids can also be very sensitive. Be sure the sheets, room color, sounds, etc are not interfering. Remove all tech from the bedroom. My hubby has a sleep disorder and found having tech, even a iPhone in the bedroom was a bit too tempting when he couldn’t sleep. Either you are in the bedroom to sleep or get up and go work on something quiet.

You have jumped through all the hoops and your child is just wired this way. That’s fine! I wonder at times when I wake up to a book written in the middle of the night by my daughter exactly what great ideas can be credited with that quiet in the middle of the night.

You will need to decide if your child is able to be up during the night. Top priority is to keep your child safe! Make house rules such as no chemistry or science experiments in the night or going outside.

Teach about the manners of keeping quiet while others are sleeping. My rule is keep it quiet until the sun comes up.

Another great way to keep ahead of your dynamo is to have lots of material ready and available. Go to used book sales at conventions and stock up! I have over the years gotten tons of books about a wide variety of subjects because I can never be sure exactly where she is going to jump next. Yes, I am constantly buying more material to keep things up to date and fresh but buying used gives me a cushion.

Put parental locks on your computer and allow your child to use software you have bought, online courses, online educational sites. There is a growing number or sites online that are safe and educational for children. The trick here is finding ones that allow your child to learn at an impressively fast pace.

I know this can be a very trying, intense time. Oh but what a wonderful time it is too! The rewards will be greater and sweeter for all the hard work you and your child are putting in right now.