Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Finding your passion

GS9 appears to be at least MG in a lot of areas. But he also appears to have potential he's not even tapped in a lot of areas. But he just hadn't experienced anything that motivated that internal drive that distinguishes between an excellent student and a gifted student -- until this spring!
He got into Rick Riordan's series of Percy Jackson books. He's so intrigued with Greek mythology that he learned all the Greek gods, most of their Roman names, their relationships to each other, & notable stories about them, just from that series. He's moved on to read a lot of ancient history books, & classics like "Gullivers Travels". My plan to introduce him to Latin this summer is now sidetracked to learn Koine Greek.
He made this observation about himself this week, "It seems like when I get interested in something I learn a whole lot about it, and it leads to more things that interest me." I think I'm going to parlay that interest in ancient history to learn about some of great thinkers of the early ages; Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates, etc.
I think I am as excited about him finding a passion as he is about finding it!

OHGramdma,
That's great! It is always exciting to see kids find their passion and figure out that they can be passionate about things.

Awesome. DS5 has found at least one of his as well. I really try to incorporate it in everything that we do (or those things that we can). I only wish I had something like that as a young or better yet, I wish my parents were aware of whether or not I had a passion. Now as an adult I have that "I'm semi-good at a lot of things, but not great at any one thing" complex! Your GS9 can use that current passion of learning about mythology in so many directions!

OHGrandma,
I smiled when I read your post--That series is big around our neck of the woods too (in fact, I ordered two copies of the final book in order to avert bloodshed in my house over who got to read it first). If he enjoyed that series and is looking for another, I strongly recommend the Gregor series by Suzanne Collins (first book: Gregor the Overlander). It is not on the same theme, but has been a huge hit with every Percy Jackson fan I know. For anyone else reading, this is a series that is probably too intense for 6 and 7 year olds. The first couple of books are fine, but some of the themes/images are disturbing in the final books. My DD was 8 when we read them and was really upset by a scene in the 4th book. I plan to hold my DS off until he is at least 8, because once he starts the series, he'll want to finish it .
Tam

WOnderful OhGrandma! We're at a similar place w/ my DS9 - he loves Ancient History. I have the Percey Jackson series and will pull it out next week. He did an Ancient Greece archaeology dig so now we'll emerse ourselves into all things Greek. He loves mythology as well as learning about Pythagoras etc.