Life In the Fast Brain: Keeping Up with Gifted Minds - Softcover

Isaacson, Karen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0910707820 ISBN 13: 9780910707824

Publisher: SCB Distributors, 2020

Synopsis

AS a sequel to the delightfully entertaining and award-winning Raisin Brains: Surviving My Smart Family, this new book will keep the laughs coming! The same characters are back, five years older, and are living proof that the journey of raising gifted children continues to be full of surprises. Enjoy more comical stories of the things that gifted kids do and say, and discover the wit and wonder of this mother of five all over again!

About this title

About the Author

Karen Isaacson spent her growing-up years with a large family of quirky, gifted people. She now has five children of her own, who have carried on the fine tradition of being slightly eccentric individuals who show their creativity in their own peculiar ways. With all this material to work with, Karen couldn t help but write a book, which she titled Raisin Brains: Surviving My Smart Family. This book won the 2002 ForeWord Magazine Book-of-the-Year Gold Award for Humor. Each humorous chapter gently informs the reader about the traits of giftedness and creativity while emphasizing the value of the individual. Karen firmly believes that people are valuable precisely because of their uniqueness. She enjoys speaking on this topic, and as always, makes liberal use of humor to get the point across.

She has written stories for newspapers and magazines, a book for a reading program, and just finished her newest book with co-author Tamara Fisher, Intelligent Life in the Classroom: Smart Kids and their Teachers, a companion to Raisin' Brains. She is also working on a young adult novel scheduled to be released in 2007. She is involved in a parent group that works to provide enrichment opportunities for the local school district. Although most of her time is spent being a mom, she dedicates every spare moment to the creative process, whether it is writing, painting, jewelry-making, or remodeling her home.

Karen lives in Montana with her husband, who has supported her in all of her creative endeavors, and with her children.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1- On the Bright Side

A person with a fast brain--whether that brain is creative, or extra sensitive, or extra intellectually intense--needs coping skills to handle feelings of disappointment, failure, or inability to share his or her passion with others.

Everyone needs coping skills. No matter who you are or what you do, life has a way of coming at you with unexpected sucker punches. Things happen. If you factor in family members or work colleagues, including those who have a good dose of divergent thinking, intense passion, perfectionism, asynchronous development, and sensitivity---all common traits of people with runaway brains---you have quite a mix to cope with! You have to be on your toes. You have to be in your own fast brain.

As a mother of five children, I have developed some good coping skills. I have also developed some highly creative coping skills. Whether I'm hunting down the source of an unidentified water-operated contraption-in-progress that is about to take over the bathroom sink area, or stopping a child's "Why?" in it's tracks, I have learned to keep a good supply of coping tools handy.

While there isn't anything terribly original about looking at the bright side, I have found it to be one of my best sanity savers. It beats counting backwards from 10 and taking deep breaths. It even beats a big bowl of ice cream, though I must admit I do indulge in a little comfort food now and then, when optimism alone isn't enough to do the trick. It's important not to rely too heavily on just one technique for dealing with difficulty; you could develop immunities. But I am willing to test the immunity theory if it has to do with ice cream.

By now, you may be picturing me weighing in at 500 pounds and living in La La Land, blissfully ignoring both the bathroom scale and problems that spring up like dandelions. But no, it doesn't work that way. Not with the kind of coping skills I'm referring to.

For coping with any kind of stress, there are a lot of opportunities available--you know, things like golfing, jogging, therapeutic advice, hitting a punching bag, shopping, and really lo-o-ong vacations. Everyone has a few favorites. I'm sure you have yours.

But for an easy, reliable, you-can-always-count-on-it recipe for coping, my favorite strategy is looking on the bright side, or the lighter side. I have lots of other strategies, which I will talk about in later chapters, but looking at the bright side comes first. Why? Because it gives me hope. Look at that. "Hope" rhymes with "cope." Not that that has anything to do with anything, but hey, it's a cool coincidence.

When you're a fast brain yourself, it's more important than ever to be able to look on the bright side of things and to envision the positive. It may not change the situation, but it puts your mind in a less stressful position and enables you to think more clearly, or to at least enjoy what there is to enjoy without having all of the sunshine blocked out by the clouds.

Recently, on a Monday morning, when I was volunteering at our elementary school, a sixth-grade teacher walked into the faculty lounge to get some coffee. He looked a little frazzled. "I must be losing my marbles," he said, "I just finished teaching an English lesson, and after I finished, my students told me I gave that same lesson last Friday."

"Wow," I thought. But then, "Oh, well," my coping brain said out loud, without much advance thinking. "Look at it this way: The good news is that at least they were paying attention on Friday."

His face lit up. "You know what? You're right!" He seemed much happier with that thought.

I must say that kind of positive spin doesn't always work. The other day I was speaking with a friend who had gone away for the weekend with her husband and returned home only to find that her teenage son had hosted a party at their home--a party with all of the traditional teenage accompaniments, like alcohol and police cars. My friend was devastated. When someone asked her if her house was trashed, she said, "Oh no. He made sure he put all of the valuable and breakable stuff away."

I jumped in with, "Well, the good news is that he was responsible enough to do that."

She gave me one of those looks that could kill. Apparently, this wasn't the right time or place for looking at the bright side. So keep that in mind.

I don't think that my friend was emotionally ready for the "hope" stage. Her mind was still reeling from shock and worry. Sometimes we have to work through things a bit before we can jump into the hope business. However, the sixth-grade teacher was another story. When he realized that his class was actually listening, he had hope, because that meant all he had to do was get it together himself. He was having a bad day. It was temporary.

Hope is a magical thing. It keeps you going when nothing else will. It's the only thing that gives the impossible a shot at life. It fuels our dreams...

Edition details

• Publisher: SCB Distributors
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 0910707820
• ISBN 13: 9780910707824
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 180