Originally Posted by ellemenope
DD's passions right now are playing with her blocks, riding her balance bike, learning how to swim underwater, and reading.

She goes from playing with her blocks for a couple of hours straight --(not exaggerating. She has been playing blocks this morning for over two hours now. I have to stop her for preschool.)-- to reading a second grade level reader --(we alternated pages on a level 2.9 last night.)-- The former makes me feel so much better about he latter. She plays more than most three-year-olds, if not better. I know it.

This is so wild to read. This was a little over a year ago, and DD(4)'s passions have not changed. She is still building elaborate scenes with her blocks, can now ride a two-wheeler without training wheels faster than we can keep up, and is swimming a wonderful breast stroke and freestyle 25 yards across the pool. She wants to join the swim team when she turns five.

It is funny because she has no real natural talent in swimming or bike riding. She has had to work really hard. What she does have natural talent for is poetry. She has a passion for that as well. She loves to read and write poems.

Her reading has also progressed. I would estimate her reading ability to be at the beginning of third grade. She can read those chapter books in about 30 minutes. She has started reading The Boxcar Children, but she has also read chapter books listed as 6.3 and 4.0 recently. (The 6.3 must be a little off.)