I am an older mom. They didn't test for giftedness when I was in school, but people at high school reunions told me they remembered me as one of the smart kids. I was good at taking tests and I didn't have to study very much, but I didn't take any more math than I had to and I didn't talk like a college professor. When I took the ACT I got one chance and there were no ACT prep books or classes to help me prepare. I made a high enough score even though I had a bad cold when I took it and was under the influence of cold meds, to get into college. There are engineers and a lot of highly paid government workers on my side of the family and some of them seem gifted.
When I met my husband's family, I was sure that I was not gifted at all. They all talk like college professors, one is, and they are doing very well financially even though they did not grow up in a wealthy family. They all worked their way through school.
My son talks like his dad's side of the family. Instead of teaching himself to read at four like people on my side of the family, he learned to read and spell at two. He learned math very quickly using online games that I encouraged because it gave me a break from his endless questions. He often came up with his own way of solving problems instead of doing it the way he was supposed to. Before he started kindergarten at five and without going to any kind of school except for using funschool.com he came up with his own way of doing mental math using negative numbers and I worried that it was wrong to allow him to do this because I was taught to write everything out. He had problems with writing because his fingers were hyperflexible and his hands lacked the strength that most other kids had and he was not eligible for OT because he was too smart to fail. I was told to homeschool by the principal and a teacher.
I needed help and I couldn't find it in my small town. I couldn't get OT for my son because insurance would not pay for it. We had to do it on our own and people on this board helped with that. They helped with suggesting books for my son to read. They provided a lot of moral support when we could not fit in with people in our small town.
