But she has a brain that is constantly thinking and coming up with its own neat ideas on how the world works.
This trait, I think, is at the heart of giftedness.
Always thinking. Always a new idea. I suspect that many parents of truly gifted kids (as opposed to truly prepped bright kids) tend to keep their mouths shut for the most part. I certainly do, and I find that when I bring up my kids' talents in front of the wrong people, things just go downhill.
I mean, the whole point of prepping is achievement, and it's often driven by the parental units. When you look at it this way, it's hardly surprising that they'll tell people that Little Johnny can read at age 5 or add using his fingers. But if a child does this stuff at age 3 or earlier, of her own accord, there's no inbuilt parental motivation to tell other people. I'm not sure I even told my parents about a lot of the stuff my kids did at very early ages. There was no need. My kids are very smart, we all know it, and that's that.
I totally agree with this. We don't discuss DD4's progress with anyone - It tends to be a conversation killer.
This author doesn't take into account that some kids are driven to learn and understand how the world works of their own accord. Independent of whether their parents push them or not. DD's reading and math abilities, though impressive to me and DH, are not what makes us think that she is "different". It's the way she thinks.
Here's one example of the conversations we have on a regular basis. While giving her baby sister a bath last night DD said, "Mom, why was I born first and DD11 months born second?" I tried to just solve this the easy way and say, "We just had you first." That answer was not acceptable to her. She continued, "Ya but why am I me and why is she her. Who decides who is who and why?" Now we live in what I would call an "enriched" environment - a lot of books and geeky hobbies, but nothing during our days of playing lego and watching Gillian's Island involves this type of philosophical exploration.
I fail to see how, if some children think like this at 3 or 4 years old how they can even out with other children by grade 3? That would mean that they would have to stagnate for the next 4 years. That logic is mind boggling.
