Author, Advocate for Gifted Learning
Dr. Joanne Foster
EMPOWERING LEARNING, CREATIVITY, AND GIFTED DEVELOPMENT WITH INSIGHTS, RESOURCES, AND STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS.
EMPOWER LEARNING, CREATIVITY, AND OPTIMAL CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Books
This collection of insightful books on creativity, gifted education, productivity, and children’s well-being will inform and inspire parents, educators, and young minds.
Ignite Your Ideas, Creativity for Kids
This book is bursting with ideas designed to fuel possibilities
Ignite Your Ideas: Creativity for Kids is the 8th book written by multiple award-winning author and gifted education specialist, Dr. Joanne Foster. This book is for readers aged twelve and up. However, parents, teachers, and others will also discover important information and abundant strategies to fortify their own creativity, and to inspire the young people in their lives! Set creativity aglow and feel the burn, because these pages positively sizzle with ideas that will ignite the imagination!
Being Smart About Gifted Learning
Empowering Parents and Kids Through Challenge and Change
Being Smart about Gifted Learning: Empowering Parents and Kids Through Challenge and Change is the third edition of the multi-award-winning Being Smart, and it is totally updated and revised! Dona Matthews, Ph.D., and Joanne Foster, Ed.D., provide information and strategies to encourage children’s and adolescents’ optimal development.
ABCs of Raising Smarter Kids
Hundreds of Ways to Inspire Your Child
In ABCs of Raising Smarter Kids, each letter of the alphabet has a clear thematic focus (such as Development, Independence, Learning, Motivation, and Productivity). The ABC design differentiates this book from other parenting, gifted-related, and educational publications; the alliterative style makes the book unique; and the illustrations by artist Christine Thammavongsa are creative and thought-provoking. ABCs is a distinctive, engaging, and comprehensive book.
Bust Your Buts
Tips For Teens Who Procrastinate
Bust Your Buts is for teens—and it’s filled with tips to help them understand, prevent, manage, and eliminate procrastination. There are 28 BUTS (or reasons why kids procrastinate), including having too much to do, being distracted, laziness, not wanting to take risks, being disorganized, confusion, lacking confidence, and more… Kids will find out how to bust their BUTS! They will learn how to tap their strengths, confront challenges, and become more successful.
Not Now, Maybe Later
Helping Children Overcome Procrastination
Not Now, Maybe Later helps parents and teachers understand why children procrastinate and what to do about it. Chapters are organized around specific areas of focus such as expectations; different age levels; goal-setting; power struggles about messiness, chores, and homework, motivation, and more. There are hundreds of practical ideas to help children and teens overcome tendencies to procrastinate. And these strategies apply to adults, too!
Beyond Intelligence
Secrets For Raising Happily Productive Kids
Beyond Intelligence is an informative resource for busy parents. Dona Matthews and Joanne Foster discuss how intelligence develops and describe how parents can offer children and teens a healthy balance of challenge and support. Using quizzes, checklists, and examples from decades of work with families and teachers, the authors reveal how to nurture creativity, curiosity, resilience, and good work habits so kids can be happily productive.
Dr. Joanne Foster’s
Presentations
Dr. Joanne Foster offers a diverse array of presentations designed to enrich learning and foster development in children and teens. Covering topics from creativity to gifted education, her talks cater to parents, educators, and professionals, and can be tailored for various formats including keynotes, webinars, and workshops.
Creativity: The Superpower Within!
Creativity is a choice, with unlimited potential.
Creativity: Unleash the Superpower!
Seeking creative fun and fulfilment?
Meeting Diverse Learning Needs
How can parents and teachers provide an “optimal match” for learners?
Learning and Development
Parents’ questions and concerns about learning and development.
ABCs of Raising Smarter Kids
An exciting learning expedition with an alphabetical twist.
Eliminate Procrastination
How to prevent, manage, and put an end to procrastination!
Supporting Gifted Learning
What is giftedness? How can kids’ capacities be nurtured?
Motivating Children’s and Teens’ Engagement
What motivational strategies work—on a consistent basis?
Selections from the Blog
These pieces represent a sampling of blogs written by Dr. Joanne Foster. To see more, click on the Blog Page – and subscribe to the Fostering Kids’ Success Newsletter.
Let’s Go For Ice Cream!
Check out these “ice cream-y” ideas! Discover delicious treats, create family fun, and enjoy memorable experiences! (BTW – my favorite ice cream flavor is moose tracks. What’s yours?)
Best Times Ever!
Discover ten different ways to facilitate fun—and then encourage your family to extend the ideas throughout the entire year. Find out how to maximize play, creativity, exploration, and joy now, and later.
Powering Through Change: Tips For Kids
Change is inevitable. However, it can be challenging! This blog provides self-motivating strategies children and teens can think about, act upon, and share with others. And, parents can encourage all these suggestions!
Recent and Featured Resources
These selected resources are topical, and address diverse areas of interest. To see many more relevant articles, as well as interviews and podcasts, check out the Resources page on this website.
Lasting Lessons from the Olympics and Paralympics
This article will inform and inspire parents and kids as the 2024 Games unfold in Paris, and as the world appreciates the epitome of excellence, and the impactful stories about what drives the athletes!
Intelligence: What’s Praise Got to Do with It?
In this article find out about the nature of intelligence, and what kinds of praise are most effective and encouraging—that is, beneficial for nurturing children’s advancement and their joy of learning.
Parenting Gifted Learners: Addressing Uncertainties and Misconceptions
Addressing uncertainties in parenting gifted learners, this article explores flexible perspectives on giftedness and effective strategies for nurturing advanced potential, including tailored educational approaches and the importance of continuous assessment.
Excerpted Segments from Ignite Your Ideas
These pieces provide a window into material that awaits within the pages of Dr. Joanne Foster's book Ignite Your Ideas: Creativity For Kids.
Curiosity and Creativity
Curiosity fuels creativity and intelligence. Dr. Joanne Foster emphasizes the importance of inquiry, purpose, and dialogue to build on knowledge, overcome challenges, and reach new heights, as she explains in Ignite Your Ideas: Creativity for Kids.
Wrestling with Creativity
Creativity may seem elusive or difficult. However, those who power through, and pursue creative avenues, can find joy and fulfillment. Dr. Foster reveals tips to help kids overcome self-doubt, resolve challenges, and become more creative.
Connections (and Why They Matter)
Connections are vital to learning and creativity. Dr. Foster likens them to a lifeline braided with family, friends, and community. Expanding our networks fosters collaboration, supports creativity, and leads to personal growth through new experiences.
Effort and Creativity
Effort fuels creativity and achievement. Dr. Foster emphasizes the importance of being “proactical”—proactive and practical—so aspirations become accomplishments. Through effort, we develop confidence, intellect, collaboration, and creativity while nurturing engagement and brainpower.
The Limitlessness of Creativity
Creativity offers a limitless perspective shift, like viewing the moon from space. It lets you embrace various points of view and make daily life more fulfilling by generating and developing ideas, turning glimmers into compelling realities.
Perceived Risk
Understanding perceived risk is crucial in creative pursuits. Learn how to distinguish between low and high risks and explore strategies to mitigate them, turning daunting challenges into achievable creative opportunities.