Q: Thank you for giving us your time, today. I think the world of the “gifted and talented” remains elusive and out of reach for many parents who will never experience this with their children. Please tell me a little about the impetus for founding such a program/company?

A: It’s actually quite an interesting story! After writing The Ivy Chronicles and Testing for Kindergarten, I was in the process of creating IQ Fun Park, a board game designed to help prepare kids for testing. I stumbled on a blog about NYC’s gifted and talented programs and was impressed by the breadth and depth of its content. I eventually reached out to the blog’s author, and we talked about how there was no comprehensive online resource for parents preparing their kids for G&T or private school exams — which we thought was surprising and also really unfortunate!

Ultimately, we decided to create TestingMom.com for that very purpose — to help parents busy parents who want fun and readily-accessible test prep materials for their children. That was in 2010, and so far it’s been a fascinating and really rewarding experience building the site and hearing from parents who have used our services. […]