Raising Wizards Website Goes Live

SIMSBURY, CT – To mark National Parenting Gifted Children Week, Parent Coach Lisa Natcharian of Simsbury has launched a new website called Raising Wizards. The site provides resources and assistance to parents of gifted children as they learn to identify, understand, challenge and support their bright and curious youngsters.

Raising Wizards (www.raisingwizards.com) offers help to parents of children of all ages, whether they are preschool-aged and developing ahead of the curve, school-aged and in need of more enrichment and challenge in school, or teenaged and struggling with social and motivational issues. Parents can search the site to learn how to identify a gifted child, what tests are available to them at home and via professionals, what methods of gifted education can be requested to challenge their child, and how to best communicate with school administrators. Parents can also learn more about the tendency of gifted children to be highly sensitive, how to handle the challenge of asynchronous development, the conundrum of the twice-exceptional child, and the difficulties of underachievement. Theories and models of gifted education, along with information about differentiation, acceleration, and other specific ways to challenge a child are discussed in detail. Links are provided to online classes and summer enrichment, in addition to specific enrichment projects a parent might like to try at home.

Lisa Natcharian, M.Ed., is a Parent Coach specializing in raising gifted children. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the College of William and Mary, a Master’s degree in Educational Psychology with a concentration in Gifted Education from the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut, and a Master’s degree in Mass Communication from Boston University. She is also holds certification from North Carolina State University as a Family Life Coach, and is a trained SENG Model Parent Group facilitator. She is a former member of the Massachusetts Gifted and Talented Statewide Advisory Committee, and served on the board of directors of Academy Hill School for the Gifted in Springfield, Massachusetts. She is also a member of Mensa and the mother of three gifted sons

“This site is also a place for parents to find support for a role that most people assume does not need support,” Lisa says. “In a world where equality is praised above all, it can be difficult to advocate for a gifted child, especially when it means a parent must stand in the way of sharp barbs from other parents or teachers who are uncomfortable with the idea of one child rising above the rest. Many parents have been accused of “bragging” about their child, or trying to take resources away from a disadvantaged child, or creating a problem where none exists. What could a child who is getting straight A’s in school possibly have to worry about? What could a parent of such a child possibly need to help him with? This site is where these parents will find that they are not alone.”

Lisa Natcharian also offers individual parent coaching, and SENG Model Parent Discussion Groups in the Greater Hartford area. For more information, please visit www.raisingwizards.com.