by Nancy K. Baumgarten

Welcome - On Discernment 
Gifted and Talented
For Parents of Younger Children
Labels...or, "what do you say when?"
Resources - Nancy’s Intuitive Journal

        Welcome 

   Welcome to our site.  Llaël (rhymes with Gail) and I are                  looking for other kids like herself, and those who are interested in growing into their knowing.  I would love to communicate with parents who have discovered what it is they have in their hands/hearts to either nurture or submerge .  Amazed? Awed? Wanting to explore?  Let's do it together.  Wondering how we got to this point without losing it all into fantasy?  . . . Trust... Growing into the Knowing that Universe is even more inclusive than we knew...and that the "children shall lead us".

Auugust 2000        Well, we have now completed our 2nd  summer camp, double as many kids and parents as last year! with 58 attendng from around the United States.   It was time finally to start getting together - not just in the virtual world!!

          It’s been so wonderful these last few years to share with other parents and the kids (of any age) who’ve found our website.  The opportunity to meet some of you has been more than exciting - more like finding a whole family!  Lat year, it was held at the Seqouyah Reserve outside of Asheville in the high mountains, exquisite with old growth trees and stream.  This year it was also fabulous ith a donated resort outside of Atlanta.  We welcome many more of you to join us for next year - Please see our What’s New page for full details.

          There seems to be growing interest in the media for kids like Llael and her cohorts.  The July/August 1999 issue of the magazine, Common Boundary had an article about Llael and the growing network of kids, recognising that this expanded awareness is growing in our population.

          Our local alternative press, Spirit in the Smokies, also requested an article about us and called us a “multi-dimensional family” - well, I thought that was interesting - I think that might be a new theme for each of us who find ourselves raising this particular new generation!

Llael and I turned down a request by Leeza Gibbons Show last year as well as the Montel Williams Show because we both feel that the countries mood is not yet understanding of these gifts enough to not turn it all into a 3 ring circus.  But we are here (on the web) to say that, “YES, these abilities are real and are the heritage of ALL humans, if nurtured and respected.”

               I am feeling ever more drawn to creating community, especially for these children (of any age) who will surely be major leaders toward a more holistic future for us all.  Whether physical space or mental space is needed - I am here and open to sharing how I have experienced my life with a multi-dimensional “child” - with very large quotation marks around that last word.  These old souls must be about their soul missions - much more quickly than we supposed, so we must be there as guardians of their Light - either as parents, guardians, mentors, teachers, what ever capacity..  Perhaps, by our committment to holding the space open for them, we become ourselves what we are trying to create - a truely loving humane society....

         On the day-to-day front, now having a teenager, I am collecting info and resources for an appropriate college education and goals toward it.   I have been asked by a literary agent to create our workbook into a book for publication. 
         Considering the publication of books like Indigo Children and earlier, the Millenium Children - it is time.   I have rently read the book also published last year, “Children of the New Millennium” by P.M.H. Atwater.  Personally for me it identifies my experience with my child far superior to any other book out there so far (even though that work was researching the effects of near death trauma in children)  

          These kids are no longer an anomaly - and they need an appropriate curriculum.   We need the resources of so many  - and welcome and appreciate any ideas you may wish to share (with credit of course).  Please contact Nancy if interested in participating.

                                                                                                 
Labels...   or,                                   "what do you say when . . .?"                           Well, what do you call your child when she does all these things?  How do you talk to the other soccer moms out on the sidelines - "well, yes she plays soccer...and basketball...and studies the violin."  But have I really gotten to the heart of my child - the thing that makes her her own unique self?  And when your child absolutely forbids you to speak of those ...other things? ....but your heart knows that it is in your hands whether she lives to her original design??? (surrounded by a potentially hostile world)    ...well, you become a mother-tigress - just like any other mother does for any other reason.  That still leaves you with how to refer to your childs special "talents".    

           I personally don't quite like the term 'psychic', though it seems to be the most universal...so we have acquiesced to it here.  but it needs work. Multi-dimensional, for me personally appears to be the distinguishing factor in my kids life - but boy, is it a mouthful.  'Artist' - clean, simple 2 syllables.  Wouldn't it be great if we could come up with a similar, simple to understand word that would convey all the positive images that we know these kids are.
            Would love anyone’s input into this need to develop new language.  Please see the Definitions section for some older words and ideas.  And get back to us, thanks!                                                                                                                                                   
                                Nancy K. Baumgarten 

                              nancyb@buncombe.main.nc.us

                                                                                 
                               Discernment                                                                                                                 

          Discernment is always an issue.  And Llaël and I have spent these years together: me - allowing what is, and me, also requesting gently at those moments I intuited, for a discernment check.  It has always worked for us; especially when offered in a non-threatening way, letting Llaël know that there were such things as ‘trickster' spirits.
          Having that knowledge was enough to let her learn to discern on her own - - that, and also my always listening with respect and a ‘research' attitude, asking Llaël as a small child to feel fully what she is experiencing and find out for herself how one spirits' energy feels as opposed to another frequency or energy.                                             
                                                

               Gifted & Talented

          To understand my daughters particular gifts, and generally to see that she gets an education commensurate with her abilities,  I have looked where ever I could.  Though my daughter was in her elementary school's gifted program, she barely identified herself with that label, and often wondered what her 'gifts' are.  For most of her life she hasn't felt comfortable to share her particular talents, so they almost became no talents at all.                                                                                                      

         I am aware that my own life-long search for 'meaning' that has led me through years of reading  in spirituality and consciousness has been my guide;  I hadn't a clue that it was going to have required every last ounce of it to raise one child.  I have taken 'each day at it comes' and it has certainly been helpful to have the friendship of those who've spent their lives in professional research.  The following sources have provided a wonderful platform (and please see other links and resources in the Intuitive Curriculum Workbook section:
                                                
           Dr. Catherine (Kay) Bruch, Ed.D. now retired from the University of Georgia and still writing,  taught teachers for the gifted and does research on the nature of creativity and consciousness - coming to the conclusion, I believe, that intelligence is positively linked with consciousness.  ( I had taken her creative problem-solving course as an elective, out of my area of Landscape Architecture).  As she has watched my daughter grow, she occasionally comments on the work of various researchers,  suggesting readings in transpersonal psychology and so on.   

                                            
              Dr. Linda Silverman, Ph.D., a practicing psychologist and author, working in research and testing of the highly gifted and most especially on the nature of the visual-spatial learner was introduced to me by Kay.  Dr. Silverman says, "I have had a long-standing interest in the psychic abilities of gifted children.  While we have assessed over 2,500 children at the Gifted Development Center (Denver) over the last 18 years, only a small number of families have shared psychic experiences of their children. "I did discover psychic abilities among some highly gifted children and among some gifted children with learning disabilities.  I have also noted some psychic abilities in young gifted children under the age of 5 which they seemed to "forget" by the time they were 7.                         
           One boy remembered a former life in Egypt in which he wove mats to sleep on.  Another remembered looking down on her mother before she was born.
            Yet another envisioned clearly his parents' dog getting hit by a car--an event that occurred before he was born.                  

            One girl knew that her mother was going to have twins before her mother even realized she was pregnant.  And she did, indeed, have twins.  An 11-year-old boy asked his father what his ethical responsibility was when he read other people's minds. 

            "Several children demonstrated telepathic abilities when they were preschoolers, such as responding to their mothers' unspoken thoughts.  For example, a mother was riding in the car with her 4-year-old daughter, wondering what she should make for dinner.  Her daughter piped up, "I think you should make hamburgers."  "By the age of 7, these same children not only seemed to lose these abilities, they didn't believe they had ever had them.  This makes me wonder if many more children have psychic experiences, but do not receive the support for them that Llael has had, and so distrust their own experiences.  I hope this website helps other children to receive support for their psychic talents."

         To learn more about Linda's truly wonderful work, including her discoveries about VISUAL-SPATIAL Learners (the style of most psychics) check her website at: 

                               www.gifteddevelopment.com

            Stephanie Tolan, author

            Linda Silverman  highly recommended Stephanie Tolan's work to Llael and me, with suggestions for books that highlight children with these extended abilites such as Llael has.                                                                       Stephanie Tolan,  is the author of many books  about & for gifted children, including the truly wonderful fiction, "Welcome to the Ark".  Llael and I couldn't put it down and read it aloud to each other - it was so captivating.  She has a website at: 

        www.orono.lib.me.us/Tolan/sthome.htm

          Stephanie has also written a brilliant metaphor  to understand the qualities of differentness in the short story,

"Is it a Cheetah?"  It is very heartwarming and encouraging and can be particularly applicable to these multi-dimensional children.  It can be found at:                                  

         http://members.aol.com/discanner/cheetah.html                                                
 

TAGFAM and TAGMAX and other Gifted resources:                                                                                 

          I’ve come to realize that the issues, personalities, sensitivities etc of gifted children seem to be the same list of characteristics as I’ve experienced with my highly psychic daughter and other friends’ children who share their experiences -
          There is even some indication from other researchers that psi ability and academic giftedness do go together whether it is identified as such or not, partly because of the tendancy for visual-spatial thinking processes which do not traditionally test well in our overly sequential schooling methods and tests.
          So regardless of whether a child displays academic giftedness in her/his school, I would like to recommend that any parent or mentors will find useful and appropriate coping strategies  of raising an intuitively-gifted child from the academic gifted literature.  And the best place we have found is:

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org    

           For Parents of younger kids:

              We feel directed by Juangwa to gather these kids together in a safe, healthy community, joined by their mutual interest in planetary harmony, however that might express itself.   Please join us if you feel so guided, and we will all go from there.  We have now created a mailing list on e-mail, to open this site to others comments; and/ we can even arrange to get together somewhen. 

          I realize, from Juangwa's comments,  that many of the children with similar abilities to Llaël's current level will be younger than she is now, and may not even have displayed some of these yet, so - be sure to listen with your heart to those little things like ‘friends' that you don't see.  So, even if it's just you and me, and not the kid yet, visiting on the web, please let us know about you both, so we'll be ready when they are.
              

        Check the Message Board section to learn about some experiences of other kids and parents.  There are also some earlier letters as well.

Please e-mail Llaël Espaze Maffitt:
galacticgirl@geocities.com