I guess the reason this article made such an impression is because it is the total and complete opposite of my approach thus far. When I found out that my daughter was PG, I did a lot of reading and what I discovered was that many of these children progress through grades rapidly, and go off to college early. I wanted my kid to have a normal childhood � this became my new goal. Since my preschooler was already reading at a 5th grade level � my husband and I became determined to keep her away from math. I know � perhaps it seems crazy� but I thought that I did not want her to be completely bored at school and it was too late for reading and language arts � I thought that if I kept all math related materials out of the house she might have some chance of learning something new at school. I started to actively keep her away from books and her beloved workbooks. It was around this time that I spoke to another parent of a PG kid who kindly tried not to laugh at me. She told me that the problem is that these kids seem to know things almost as soon as you show them � she may not know what borrowing and carrying is all about just now � but give her 15 minutes and she will. This other parent was quite wise, and her advice turned out to be quite true. Still, I don�t want my 7 year old doing calculus. How in the world would that be of any benefit to her? (unless, of course, she just could not live without the joy of calculus).
It would probably not even occur to me to tell her that any piece of artwork was less than beautiful. If she colors even a hair outside of the lines (and she is tired) there will be a trip to tantrum city. I try to get her to not be so tough on herself. So this whole push your child � berate them into doing well notion really is, in every way, the complete opposite of what I have been doing. Of course, we have not tried piano lessons yet.
