65
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How can I teach a teenager to plan better and procrastinate less in his studies?
Sounds like a common problem for gifted children: they finally reach a level where sitting back and coasting isn't enough, and having to actually put in some effort comes as a serious shock. Often ...
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42
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How can I teach a teenager to plan better and procrastinate less in his studies?
I would like to supplement Paul's answer a little by abstracting a little bit. The reason gifted children may have this behavior is because the adults near them praise them for how smart they are, not ...
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25
votes
How can I teach a teenager to plan better and procrastinate less in his studies?
Gifted kids have problems with approaching work in a disciplined manner because they don't experience a benefit in doing so.
If you give a "normal" kid a "normal" math test, their level of ...
- 13.8k
16
votes
Accepted
Encouraging a child to follow their natural gifts
How do you balance letting this child pursue their interests with letting the child know how much they are throwing away by so quickly disregarding the natural talents?
By recognizing two things: 1. ...
- 69.8k
14
votes
Accepted
Is my son's school ignoring his intelligence?
I'm a parent governor in a UK primary school, with a daughter just started reception and another daughter higher up the school, who was reading before she started reception (so I've been in a similar ...
- 4,580
13
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Encouraging a child to follow their natural gifts
The best strategy I've found for this is to give kids lots of opportunities, but not force anything. Forcing things leads them to develop a dislike for what they're forced to do - that's only natural ...
- 61.8k
10
votes
How to parent for an effectively private child?
"Shield him from harmful thoughts he may express in prose"?
Writing them down is absolutely not the problem here and I'm unsure what the issue is with him keeping his notes private. Most kids have ...
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10
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How can I teach a teenager to plan better and procrastinate less in his studies?
A lot of recent studies have linked procrastination with a poor ability to deal with "negative" emotions and impulsiveness. It's not poor planning or bad time-management; it's avoidance; it's an ...
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9
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How can I teach a teenager to plan better and procrastinate less in his studies?
An aspect no one seems to have covered:
Let him fail at something, once.
I was in that situation. Coasted easily for a long time, could not deal with real difficult stuff once I got to it. In my ...
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8
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How can I teach a teenager to plan better and procrastinate less in his studies?
I would comment but I don't have the rep for it, so this is getting posted as an answer.
I just want to back up what Paul Johnson and Jeff Clark have said already. They're exactly right.
I'm only 20 ...
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7
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Encouraging a child to follow their natural gifts
Being gifted or talented is somewhat overrated, in my opinion, although it is something many idealise. The reality is that most if not all the hugely talented people through history have put in an ...
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6
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How can I teach a teenager to plan better and procrastinate less in his studies?
Hear it from others
Obviously, teenagers are typically deaf to wisdom from their parental figures.
I suggest setting up situations for this young man to speak with gifted adults working in ...
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6
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How can I teach a teenager to plan better and procrastinate less in his studies?
As a former 'gifted teen', I figured I'd weigh in. In my (personal, biased) experience, the procrastination is the real problem here rather than an increase in the difficulty of tasks.
So how do you ...
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6
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Kid genius help
Just to add to Timur Shtatlands great advice;
Try to get gifted children to explore things which they normally would not try, for example, if the child really likes science, it is beneficial to ...
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5
votes
How can I teach a teenager to plan better and procrastinate less in his studies?
Maybe he's bored?
No educational system is a one-size-fits-all. In fact, I don't think it truly fits anybody perfectly. It is a shame a gifted child has to waste their time perceiving school as the ...
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5
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How can I teach a teenager to plan better and procrastinate less in his studies?
Tl/Dr: The solution is best found in areas far away from the homework, like sports and martial arts. In those parts of life, your girlfriend's son may be able to find the opportunity to build the ...
- 1,497
5
votes
Is school punishment for mediocre test results reasonable?
You're not over-reacting, at your daughter's age all you want to be doing is encouraging a love for learning. I was getting those kind of results in high school and neither my parents nor my teachers ...
- 2,239
5
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Is school punishment for mediocre test results reasonable?
Yesterday I got an email from our daughter's new teacher saying that some of the children performed poorly on a geography quiz and it was "not reflective of their true potential." As punishment she ...
- 8,675
4
votes
Is my two year old gifted? what should we do about preschool?
Sounds like you've got a bright child there, and it's good that you're thinking about these things early.
Starting school ahead (i.e., starting kindergarten at 4 instead of 5) is something that is ...
- 61.8k
4
votes
Is my son's school ignoring his intelligence?
Most schools are fundamentally structured to teach a lot of children at the same rate. Teachers learn techniques to help that happen. Slower learners are engaged using all their senses, and given ...
- 36k
4
votes
How to parent for an effectively private child?
I could not agree more with Rory. His was an excellent answer. We all deserve respect and privacy and age has nothing to do with that.
If the child was showing any negative behaviours, like self-...
- 17.5k
4
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To gifted school or not to gifted school? That is the question
I studied at a school for gifted kids but it was in Ukraine, so take my experiences with a grain of salt as our culture is different, and "special" schools here are different as well.
I was in a ...
3
votes
How can I teach a teenager to plan better and procrastinate less in his studies?
The original poster mentioned in the comments that the teenager is "very much" a perfectionist.
Here is a possible scenario:
The boy is happy to do a task that he can do perfectly. But there are ...
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3
votes
Are there ways to help a gifted child find a best friend?
I was much like your son as a kid. Most people liked me and I could say I was at least a good acquaintance with most people I saw on a semi-regular basis. I would hang around with people but many ...
- 13.3k
3
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To gifted school or not to gifted school? That is the question
It's impossible to have enough context when it comes to our kids, and every community, family and school is different. With all possible caveats sprinkled with healthy helpings of salt:
The sense ...
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3
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To gifted school or not to gifted school? That is the question
I was always ahead of my class at school, but went to a state school. It may have been beneficial to have gone to a school for the gifted, but it wasn't an option where I lived. What helped me was ...
- 26.6k
3
votes
Accepted
Kid genius help
You could be dealing with a gifted child, perhaps even a so-called "twice exceptional" child. See, for example, the book: Jan Davidson, Bob Davidson, and Laura Vanderkam (2005) "Genius Denied":
https:/...
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2
votes
How can I teach a teenager to plan better and procrastinate less in his studies?
Procrastination is not a problem limited to teenagers. This may be exacerbated if he finds the intellectual or problem solving aspect of the work easy and feeling like going through the process of ...
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