Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Hothouse Spinoff

I like the pop psychology about the strengths movement and finding your passion, as well. Because your life passion is not going to be in an area you find dry and boring. And it is most useful for parents to recognize when their child is passionate about something so the child can recognize the feeling when they're "in the zone". I also agree that if I wait until my son is seven instead of just under four to teach him first grade math books then he would learn it effortlessly in a few weeks rather than through daily lessons over several months. I think I'll help him with the dry boring parts though, I think he can handle cultivating his own passion. These aren't my final thoughts, it's very near the beginning because my kids are very young. I only made this thread because Amatrime asked me to move my post from her thread to it's own thread. I wasn't going to make my own thread because it's the State Law. It won't change this year to let him go. I just thought it was a great time because he's teaching himself all of those nursery rhymes off of his reading eggs subscription and I just thought it would be so cute if he could be doing that in the classroom.

About the multiplication I always post a link to this YouTube video because I think it's the best way to drill multiplication to start with.

I did all the writing with the numberline (therefore all the answers) under 10 for the first round and only had him "say it with me". The second round he answered one of the answers before I did. I was so excited. Later rounds I've given him the eraser so he could learn to apply the skip counting. Now he writes in the numbers. I come up with most of the answers he comes up with a few, about what he would get in a classroom.
I hope my posts like this aren't what's being banned as "journally" according to the guidelines. I usually share these in case somebody wants to drill their kid in a more effective and less boring way than flashcards. Yes, I guess it's teaching, not drilling or hothousing. Sometimes I post braggy posts, but one's like this are more like idea sharing, I thought. Oh yeah, we don't go over that much with the multiplication drill. A little more each day. The numberline now goes to 30. I don't think he's memorized any of it. Although I just threw him the factoid about the _x0=0's
Ellemnope we talk about the ww too. We've been to the battleship Alabama. That book "baseball saved us" is on my Amazon wish list.

I need help in the history department. We spent a couple weeks in DC touring all the museums multiple times each and my have exposed DD to too much too soon. I have considerably backed off, because she got obsessed with war.

Just yesterday we were in the car listening to NPR. They were talking about some kind of UN thing going on. I actually wasn't listening. Who was? The three-year-old in the car seat. All of the sudden, she gets excited and yells, "weapon systems? Mustard gas! Nuclear weapons! Mom, did you hear that? They talking about war. I love war!" Then she started arguing with herself quietly about how she likes both war and peace.

You cannot make this stuff up, right?

But, it seems slightly inappropriate for a three year old. We did get two small books a couple weeks ago. One is about General Washington's Dog. The other is about Abe Lincoln's hat. They are perfect.

Still, last week she was being naughty and teased, "I'm rebelling. I'm a rebel!" I joked that Abe Lincoln would not approve. She got mad and said, "Abraham Lincoln is dead. He was seceded!" I told her she meant assassinated.

"Yeah, he was shot in the head," she said. OMG, how I wish I could take back that painting she saw in American History Museum.

Make sure you never watch the cartoon video of people melting after a nuclear bomb goes off. I still remember that one as a small child. I think it was showing Hiroshima.

Also, I remmeber NOVA terrifying me showing how the earth was going to be absorbed by the sun boiling off all the water and killing everyone.

Can't think of anything else based in reality that scared me as a child.

You could always tour the re-enactment areas, like Colonial Williamsburg and the like, and focus on the "how people lived back then" books.

I concur with eema above . I get excited when I see what they can do, I think what about this. It is so obvious when they don't want to do it that I back off or I invest in cool programs but then we have no time to use it because we're too busy doing other activities.

Anyone else end up with lots of "educational" toys sitting in a corner . I would think how cool, but my kids preferred the real world or would already be past point of needing whatever the item would bring (leap-pad, leapster, that type of thing). I ended up donating things...Maybe this post will save some new parents some bucks.

Eema, you have no idea how comforting it was to hear that. My DD8 is just like that. Her 2nd grade teacher said DD was the most voracious reader she'd had in years, and had the highest reading scores she'd seen in years, but when I ask DD if she wants to go the library, she usually declines. She's too busy playing outside, watching TV, or playing computer games. The science books I bought her after she asked some really good science questions remain untouched.

Is there a black market for selling a kid's unused IQ points? Or how about some good kids' encyclopedias?

I think you have over stated things here, I agree somewhat with the 2nd para. But I think assuming that the highly gifted will require less time and repetition than the MG ignores the varying strengths of children at varying levels of giftedness. Memory, working memory in particular, plays a significant role in many kids of learning, but we often tell parents asking about their kids uneven IQ scores that more "average" WMI than their sky high g loaded scores is common for gifted kids and not worry about it, or even that their GAI is a better indicator of their giftedness than their FSIQ. And what about the kid with a particular gift for math but not so much for literacy, are they less HG or PG because learning literacy is not quite like falling off a log?

Not every HG or PG child will be a leaper, it does not necessarily make them less gifted. Though certainly the leapers may have different learning needs and may be easier to ID as gifted (or not if they get bored and disengage).

I absolutely agree that they think and learn differently, and rapidly and have a constant need for stimulation. But, particularly at the HG level (which is what you mentioned) they won't all be leapers, and memory, particularly working memory, does impact the style with which a child learns. Davidson does accept children whose GAI puts them in the Davidson "PG" zone while their FSIQ does not, due to poor WMI or PSI.

Kids who don't necessarily have a gifted range WMI and PSI to match their VCI/PRI are quite possibly the ones whose parents may feel more sensitive about being accused of hothousing because we DO need to drill some things with our kids in order for them to have the basic skills to enable them to run with their deep thoughts.

I am probably sensitive to this because I have one who is 2E and one who is HG but does not tend to learn academics without some company and/or support. She learns fast and she has no tolerance for repetition, but while she learns some things by apparent osmosis others we do need to go over more than once and your wording implies that kids that don't have the memory to make their learning seem instantaneous are not infact HG or PG.

My HG daughter is more a one for deep and profound thinking than for the learning of facts for example. She's never seemed especially interested in collecting information. To be honest when we were asked what she was interested in when she started school this term DH and I couldn't pin point any one thing. But she spends A LOT of time exploring the real world and thinking deeply. There has been something markedly different about her since the day she was born. But she's not a leaper. Or perhaps her leaps are not necessarily in areas that are overtly academic (as yet).

Sorry to clarify - I am sure any parent of a gifted child may get accused of hothousing, and that this may happen more often the more gifted and more overt their child's skills are. But if your child does learn very independently and is a leaper then at least you can be very comfortable that it IS all your child. Where as if your child is more of the thinks-great-thoughts-but-needs-help-with-the-basic-facts type, then you may actually need to do work with them to enable the progress they want to make - which might then leave you wondering if those hot housing accusations are justified.

YES! This is my DS1!

And we wants to learn but can't tell me what he wants to do. I would feel a lot less worried if he asked me to teach him to add, than if he is just acting up or seeking stimulation from TV and so I SUGGEST learning to add.



Ooooh goood question! That is very true. What about all those who hot house pleases and thank yous? :p