Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Must I lie? Why oh Why? (rant)

My children are too shy to converse with adults easily whom they don't know well. However, they do prefer talking with older kids, and DS7 in particular prefers talking about science with his good friends' older siblings. Thankfully, both of my kids devolve easily into the dippy behavior of their agemates too, so they seem happy - for now - in both worlds. I think that will change as they get older, and DS7 has been continually on the lookout for other kids "who know a lot like me, especially about science" ever since his best friend (who knew a lot like him, especially about science) moved away last summer. We haven't yet found a real replacement for his BF in an agemate. DD5 is happiest when playing with DS7's friends.

I find that many of my kids' classmates very easily talk to adults though, and I have lots of interesting conversations with some of them. I eat lunch with the kids at their school sometimes, and last year when DS7 was in kindergarten I ended up in a conversation with a bunch of kindergarten boys about google and googleplex (which I honestly forgot existed, they brought it up). I don't know if it's our school's curriculum, or the kids at our school and the conversations their parents have with them at home, but we seem to have a good number of pretty insightful kids capable of articulating themselves well in conversation. Enough so that no parent is going to think it's strange if a 5yo talks about molecules. (We are at our neighborhood public school, not a gifted school.)