Grinity ... thanks for the link. I am still reading through it but have this comment in regards to what I have read. It definitely has made me re-evaluate my idea of hot-housing which oddly enough is a term that I defined it as to begin with but through the fear of all of it seemed to put it on the back burner and overlooked it.
Hot-housing IMHO (and I am more talking about the early years but it could definitely apply to all stages of education or knowledge) is drilling the kid with curriculum where the results is rote memorization and nothing more. I watch my friend do this with her daughter. My friend was the valedictorian of her small rural class and absolutely believes herself to be profoundly gifted. I think she is smart absolutely, but when I think of exceptionally and profoundly gifted she is not one I would put in that category. I have a few friends that definitely are exceptionally gifted and one that is profoundly gifted and in comparison I just don't see her coming close. And just in case you think I am being petty and full of myself ... I consider myself MG at max and that is only recently. She is also very competitive with everything and she hears of other people's children doing things at X age so she took on the curriculum of her daughter to learn colors, shapes, numbers, etc because it was time and this started around the time her daughter was one. Her daughter has never shown interest in it and never talks about it other then recite back what she asks her. What color is that? answer. What shape is that? answer. So I clearly see that as rote memorization. Her daughter's communication is rote as well. She doesn't openly talk about anything but repeat what is said to her.
So this is what I consider hot-housing and I seemed to forget that in regards to my daughter. She is clearly not in rote memory. She is always recycling ideas showing her comprehension of such ideas and adding to it. So I need to get over it and just pull the workbooks out and see if she likes them. Right now she is on the reading kick so I put her on
www.starfall.com today and left the room. She amazed me with how capable she was on the computer. At 2.5 she is able to maneuver the whole website closing windows and going back to the ones she likes and even ranking the stories. And the links on this site can be as small as two letter links and she has the patience and fine motor skills to click on it. She also has always had crazy concentration since she was a baby. If she is interested in something she would sit for 30+ minutes working on it and that has increased as she ages. So today she sat there for way over an hour. So I will let her continue using the website and add to it and see how it goes.
But again .. thanks for the link.
