Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Does your tween *act* gifted?

Oh yes. sigh. My 12 year old and her friends all love to imitate Miranda. I finally joined in because there was no escaping it.

This thread is making me feel so much better. My kids are surrounded by a lot of very smart kids at their school (and their parents) and so what they do most of the time doesn't seem all that different to me and I keep doubting the test results. The bingeing though.. geez. Currently I live in a world of Steven Universe binge that ended up in a trip to the National History Museum to learn all about gemstones, the hardness of various gemstones, do we have a book on gems, etc. Also lots of drawings of new gem characters based on actual gemstones that are not characters in the animated series.

We went on vacation and my DD8 came home and began building the hotel where we stayed in Minecraft.

She also found some show on Youtube called Life Hacks for Kids (great crafty show for girls) where she made dog biscuits with flour and babyfood, iPhone radio speakers out of toilet paper rolls, etc.

We have not discovered Miranda Sings.

Okay I just googled Miranda Sings.. oh wow. She's hilarious.

My DD8 currently loves a youtube show called Katherine & Rachel.

My DD likes YouTube for Rhett and Link sketches, Paint songs and Jeromeasf and thediamondminecart videos and plays survival craft on her iPad. She still occasionally has flashes of profound insight and held her own amongst kids up to two years older at a recent CTY camp.

My ds12 and my dh have recently binged on the shows Psych and Warehouse 13. Monk is another favorite. Other than that, he shows absolutely no signs of being gifted, has no obsessions, and hates to read. Drives me crazy.

DS9 watches her gaming videos, as well as many other youtubers who make videos about minecraft and other games. His obsession is definitely gaming.

This thread is so reassuring! At the moment my dd11 is mindlessly obliterating her entire Minecraft world by filling everything with TNT and blowing it up. (And no, she's not normally so destructive.) But it's so mindless, I can't believe this is what a gifted kid would choose to do with her time. I guess I had more choices to do unsupervised things outside when I was a kid -- and I doubt that they were very "intellectual" either!

There are things to enjoy vicariously online, which may more closely resemble stuff kids did on their own in past decades and generations. On the prufrock press website, I recently came across their blog which mentions "Free, Astounding Science Videos Perfect for Summer Learning".

Possibly also fun as enrichment and after schooling. I've watched several of the Smarter Every Day videos and find them very interesting. However parents may wish to preview or watch them with their kiddos as there are some presentations which are definitely in the "do not attempt this at home" category. Like most free things, there are ads. The audiobooks sound interesting. Some of the videos may provide inspiration for science fair projects or research reports.

If the OP's question about acting gifted indicated wondering about the level of internal motivation for initiating a new interest, possibly all that's needed is a spark of variety like this?