I have 26 month old twin girls who I believe are gifted (in different ways). I was a gifted child who was asked to skip 3rd grade and my parents declined. I want to try to get "ahead of the game" with them so they don't face many of the same frustrations I did as a child. My one daughter, in particular, is my bigger concern. I first thought she might be gifted when, at 19 months, she could identify all of the letters on her flashcards if the cards were randomly scattered about the room. By the time she turned two, she could count to 25 and could do it alternating numbers with another person and, now at 26 months, has basically memorized most of her books and can "read" them to herself or her sister and spell several words. Her ability to remember anything she is told is amazing. Her sister shows her "giftedness" more by her extremely vivid imagination and determination and concentration on fine motor skill tasks but I think she will be less frustrated in school. They show almost no interest in kids their own age and prefer to play with 4 year old + children. I'm lucky in that they have a summer birthday so they will be the youngest in their class but I am mostly concerned about my one daughter being bored to tears in preschool / early school and getting very frustrated.
They are home with our nanny now but we are starting to evaluate preschool. Are there any particular concerns I should have when looking at preschools? Any teaching methods that seem to work better for these kids? Any books / resources people can recommend?
It is nice to have a forum to discuss this as it is a difficult thing to discuss with people face to face. I know that in many ways, gifted children are "special needs" children and a lot of school aren't set up to deal with that.
Thanks in advance!
