Hi mamabird,
Welcome! Your kid reminds me so much of my DS4. I remember feeling anxious when I first started suspecting he is gifted, like I should be doing something extraordinary to provide appropriate stimulation and get him on the right educational track. I agree with other posts that at age 2, it is more important to just follow your child's lead and enjoy playing at his level. Children's museums are great. Internet is indispensable for answering unexpected questions ("uh... let's look up together why poop is brown and pee is yellow.")
A tip from my experience: if you find yourself wondering if your child is slowing down and perhaps even losing some of his old skills, don't worry about it. DS4 always seems to take huge cognitive leaps (usually in the winter when we're indoors) and then slow down for months (usually in the summer when he is focusing on physical development). DH and I often find ourselves saying things like, "Wow, that kid is like Rainman; at this rate, he will be ready for 4th grade next year." And then a few months later, "Well, I wonder if he really is highly gifted after all. Maybe he is just obsessed with [math, reading, or whatever his topic of the month was at the time]. At this rate, other kids his age might catch up with him by the time he enters school." For instance, he took an avid interest in learning to tell time when he was 2.5 and then completely lost interest. Gradually, he seemed to forget the difference between the hour hand and the minute hand. Then, last month, all of a sudden, he demonstrated he can tell time as easily as any 2nd grader. I have no idea what got him interested again and how he figured it all out in his head all of a sudden (I think maybe learning multiplication recently got him interested in the minute hand). Same thing with reading. He could read at age 2 but stopped reading for almost a year and refused to read to me. I thought he had forgotten how to read. Now, he can read just about anything if the topic is interesting enough to him.
Just to give you a taste of what to expect in the years to come, DS4 has now surpassed his 6 and 7 year old cousins in math and reading. He can tell you the 50 states (and most of their capitals) in alphabetical order and can locate just about any country on the world map (which I cannot do). He loves to tell anybody willing to listen how Germany used to be 2 pieces and now it's one piece again, and how there used to be a big wall in Berlin and it's all torn down now (just imagine the ridiculous interaction he often has with other 4 year olds at the playground). I am trying to enroll my DS4 in kindergarten in September (he just turned 4 so he will not be anywhere near age 5 then). I scheduled an evaluation for him next month, which is required for early entrance. I don't know if he will cooperate. He is very strong willed and, to use Kriston's categorization, definitely the obsessive type who likes to pursue his own narrow interests and not easily get distracted by what others are doing. Unless the examiner frames every question in the context of geography, numbers, natural disasters, or how the human body works, he might just refuse to answer the questions! We will see...
I AM worried about his academic future. He is so unusual and I'm afraid schools usually are more accommodating of children who are mentally retarded than mentally gifted. Maybe that's how it should be in a world where resources are limited... but it certainly doesn't seem fair to my child.
Toddler years are really fun. Enjoy! And feel free to come on this board and brag when you are bursting to tell somebody about your child's amazing talents. I can't wait to hear more about your son's new accomplishments (and maybe some unusual problems) as he grows!
Junior
