When DS5 was younger, I remember thinking he wasn't creative because he didn't enjoy dramatic play, like to paint/draw often, or do much dancing. He's always been a very logical kid & is deeply interested in numbers. One day he was trying to solve a math problem & did so in a pretty unusual, abstract way. It was at that point I realized that he is creative, just not in the traditional sense. For example, I remember when he was 4 and had really gotten into multiplication. He had asked me to give him some multiplication problems so I said, "What's 9x6?" He responded, "Hmmm... 81, 72, 63. It's 63." Obviously no one had taught him to problem solve this way, it was just a creative way of starting with a math fact he knew. Lately he's been talking about how God created numbers & how he thinks of them spiraling up in the sky in ever larger circles, coming back around on each other. Or he says he likes to think about numbers reaching all the way across the sky and around the Earth... at least that's what I'm gathering. I'm not really sure that I'm following what he's talking about. Communication isn't his strong suit.
Last week we had a parent teacher conference, and his teacher lamented that DS isn't very creative with the Montessori materials available to him. She hasn't seen him use them in some of the different and creative ways she has observed other gifted kids doing in the past. (To be clear, DS has not been tested but he was a self-taught reader at 2, taught himself how to read an analog clock at 3, and is currently fascinated with square roots. And we don't hothouse.) I'd like to share with DS's teacher my thoughts about his different brand of creativity, but I'm not sure how to explain it.
Am I wrong in labeling his mathematical mind as "creative"? Does anyone have a book or article that I could read and possibly share with his teacher?
Thanks so much!
