I completely missed this fabulously interesting thread over the holidays!

Part of the reason I went looking for answers and found this board six months ago was this question - was DS more than what DH and I were and does he need more. No IQ data for us. I read at 4 was always in gifted programs, off the charts verbal but struggled in math - turns out I was dyslexic and used my giftedness to compensate - wasn't revealed until matrices in college math - rows and rows of numbers was an awful awakening to my disability - discovered by my TA!

I always thought I was smart - and reveled in being the smart rather than the pretty popular one. Once DS started revealing his skills and gifts, I started to question what I had been at 4, what did my parents do, what level was I etc. As we tested and began the hunt for appropriate schools I asked my mom whether she thought he was "more" than my brother and I. And she said absolutely. Which was surprising because smart is what our family was "supposed" to be, so this was usual acknowledgement of his difference. She said I read picture books - he is reading encyclopedias - I wasn't doing chapter books till later. Of course I am also thinking she didn't offer them to me either - but I think the voraciousness of gathering information and processing is different - I devoured books but not knowledge. I did not make connections the way DS does. I wasn't making a sticker collage of my own universe with a ringed planet tilted on its side like Uranus at 4.5 (if ever). In retrospect I would say I was somewhere between a level 2-3 - optimally gifted with the LD factored in - perhaps not if it had been dealt with - but I think DS is a pretty solid 4 most of the time although does have some level 5 stuff.

I think one of the reasons I am so obsessive and worried about kindergarten is the feeling that I didn't get what I needed - I was so bored in school - and knew it from an early age - I was always finished first. DH doesn't have those same memories but everything came super easy for him - both of us had periods where we suddenly had to work much much harder - me in my gifted high school and him for college.

I think this thread is like therapy!

DeHe