Hey Grinity! Well she's reading so many things really. We have a very large book of Dr. Seuss stories that she loves to read and she reads them easily. She'll read signs on the road as we're driving, she'll read Berenstein Bears books, etc. She just likes to read everything. She's not reading Harry Potter though I have no doubt she could read many of the words if she wanted to. One of the things I've noticed about her is that once something becomes challenging she starts to kind of shut down and not want to do it, but I've been working with her saying that just because something is hard doesn't mean you can't do it, it just means you have to practice at it to make it easier. That seems to be working some because she has repeated that back to me before in the midst of something more challenging.
She used to pretend that she couldn't read or hold a pencil correctly...I think simply because I wanted her to so I backed off on those requests and she reverted to doing those things again. I have no doubt that she feels a lot of pressure though I'm trying very hard to not to that to her.
As for myself and my husband...I was labeled gifted musically and athletically and my husband is gifted intellectually. Adults put a lot of pressure on us to perform and we are both very stubborn, willful people (gee sound familiar?)...so we would dig our heels in and shut down. My mother would tell me to play a song on the piano for her friends and when I didn't want to, she would call me a quitter and try to guilt me, etc. It wasn't fun. My husband would often not do his homework and not attend school, but would come in to take the test and of course get an A which would drive his teachers nuts.
The expectations of children who are talented and/or gifted can really put the child in an emotionally unsafe position of never being good enough. We are trying very hard not to do that with our children. My son is only 11 months so I have no idea what his abilities are though he shows more signs of being physically agile, coordinated, etc. but who knows.
At any rate the only reason as I've said before that I want to know about my daughter's intellect is because her behaviors are getting in the way of success which can impact how she feels about herself. She has a difficult time understanding that adults are the boss, not her. I just feel she has too much adult information in her head and doesn't have the emotional maturity to be able to handle such things so her behaviors reflect that.
