Whole Child Education

Another great season comes to an end. This year the projects included designing and writing about magical beasts complete with potion-making recipes and ingredients, a game about the social lives of middle schoolers, a story written over a year’s time by a six-year-old about saving trees, a word study and computer program about portmanteau words, a journal written from the perspective of a WWI soldier, and more. Some of the work can be seen on the website@https://www.wholechildedu.com/student-voices.

There are so many aspects of my work that I love, but one that stands out in particular is the fact that I have the opportunity to work with young people and their families over many years, building deep relationships and watching the benefits of the work unfold over time. It’s always hard when they age out, but the relationships last even longer.

Thank you, Deniz, for sharing your son’s experience:

Alp really does not like Jung Kook’s famous song “Golden.” So naturally, he decided to rewrite the entire thing just to make fun of it.

The funny part: the topic became homework — even though Alp’s school barely gives homework. 🙂 So this was less of a personal survival story and more of a dramatic protest against busy work disguised as learning.

After reading Alfie Kohn, Alp was struck by his ideas about homework, learning, and how kids’ time is used. Alp does not hate learning or meaningful work; he objects to repetitive work that feels disconnected from real thinking, curiosity, or purpose.

The final lyrics somehow included cortisol levels, Tartarus from Greek mythology, Alfie Kohn’s education philosophy, and a very dramatic amount of student suffering.

Then he turned the lyrics into six AI-generated music versions: speed metal, techno, classical, disco, psychedelic rock, and punk rock. He presented them at his final showcase, the audience voted, and the winner was: Disco. 🪩

Winning version here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FsmknflEJfmIx18yGj_DgQ6rIy7SAQgQ/view?usp=drive_link

One of the sweetest parts of the project was that Alp sent it to Alfie Kohn himself, and received a kind, supportive reply. For Alp, that made the whole thing feel real in a different way.

This “No Homework” protest anthem also became the closing project of a very special chapter: four years of weekly work with his wonderful mentor, Maya Tobin Sissoko.

Maya, thank you for helping Alp think more deeply, create more boldly, and take his own voice seriously. This is definitely not goodbye — you are a deeply valued part of our family. ❤️

Ok-one more, but this time my brother and step-dad 💜

Two generations of NASA scientists share their love and their knowledge during eclipse Neither of the doctors Pepper had seen a solar eclipse in person in full totality until Monday.

NASA Astrophysicist Live Kid Talk - https://mailchi.mp/81cc7bf8f29b/nasa-astrophysicist-live-kid-talk

Reluctant writers can have fun narrating books with no words. The impermanence of sticky notes helps kids with perfectionistic tendencies who are sometimes worried about making mistakes. Composing a story helps with words help to scaffold skills like comprehension, creating a story arc, and learning how to include details about the setting and character description.

A new season of creativity and learning is underway with new and returning gifted youth ages 4-11 who choose to spend an hour of their free time each week with me exploring their chosen areas of interest. Here's a text I wrote to a mom this week updating her on my second session with her 6-year-old daughter: "Another great session! E made a table-of-contents for her Spell Book for Wizards. It was great for me to see how she's forming her letters. I started doing some direct teaching of Real Script (a handwriting that they use at Nueva, which goes along well with Structured Word Inquiry, but I could quickly see she didn't love the direct teaching so...When she started teaching me her wizard language by creating a new letter for each letter in our alphabet, I was able to ask her if I was forming each letter properly and then I would label each of her new letters with our letters. Each time I wrote one of our letters, I announced the pathway of the letter and she would also label her wizard letters, which gave her a chance to practice writing our letters using the pathways I was announcing without feeling like she was getting a writing lesson. She was more open because the main focus was her teaching me. Now I'm her wizard apprentice, but I can't really tell you much more because I'm sworn to secrecy." This small shift in our dynamic is allowing E to trust me, have fun, and learn simultaneously.

We had a great end-of-season culmination in Woodside, CA, where our creative youth shared the books, games, and research projects they authored with family and friends.

Welcome to Whole Child Education, a hub for gifted and 2e learners. Although we have been in business since 2014, we are new here on FB. At Whole Child Education, we understand that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. We offer 1-1 private teaching, parent coaching/advising, education consulting, as well as homeschool set-up and support all based in social-emotional intelligence. We are educational thought partners for children and parents.