Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Asking "Why" - What Was Your 3 Year Old Like?

My old DD (now 8) never really had a "Why?" phase, either. She had many other interests--for example, I remember at that age she was very into cars and when we were driving, she would want me to tell her the make and model of any vehicle that caught her attention, if she couldn't figure it out herself. She loved to hold the GPS map, too, and tell me what streets we were passing, or how fast I was driving at any given second. When she had a question about the world, it was usually something really deep, like, "But how do trees breathe in the winter when their leaves fall off?"

My son, however, would literally ask "Why?" at anything at ALL that caught his attention. Then he'd question the answer with "But WHY?" and question every answer with another "But WHY?" until I wanted to tear my hair out and running screaming into the hills. I'm pretty sure he actually knew the answer to at least half of the questions he ever asked me because if I gave up and asked, "Why do YOU think?" he would usually already know the answer. I dunno if this was mostly just a game or maybe because he's less verbal than his sister and couldn't read yet.