My son is 27 months old and showed signs of exceptional learning abilities at a very young age. His fascination with letters and numbers really took off around 6 months. At the local pool he preferred to be taken to the depth markers as opposed to splashing in the water; by summers end he was obsessed, "3 f t 6 i n" he'd repeat over and over. Fast forward to today and his abilities are separating him from his peers faster than ever. He can count to 100, either by 1's, 5's or 10's. He can also count by 2's & 3's. He can perform simple math (addition) and loves to count in and learn words in multiple languages (English, French, Spanish, etc). He can read 200+ words and orally spell at least 100 and phonetically sounds out words like mm, mm, an, man! He memorizes entire books with ease. He recently learned that the past can be referenced by the word "remember" and loves to recall events, people, etc and enthusiastically ask "Remember?!?". He has mastered even the most complex shapes (ellipse, crescent, sphere, cones).
If you ask him a question more than once, he responds with a smart aleck tone; for example: if you ask him what color a bee is, he will reply "yellow and black" if you ask him again within a short time frame, he will give you a look and slyly says "striped".
He sees letters and shapes wherever we go, his bacon was bitten into a lower case "b", the garden hose in the shape of an 8. Most recently, I hear him in his room quizzing himself "what letter does giraffe start with" "what shape is this" as he has an insatiable appetite to learn non stop!�
He enjoys his peers, but gets frustrated and confused by them. He doesn't understand "fits" or loud cries and is very sensitive to harsh/mean tones. One playdate ended abruptly when his friend was screaming (as normal 2 year olds do) and I found my son had retreated under a chair with a book in a quiet dark room.
After tons of searching, we are now enrolled in a curriculum based day school. Because he has not socially experienced this environment before, he was placed in the catch all class for his age group. On day 2, his teacher commented that he was "wicked smart" and had met with the age 4-5 preschool teachers and put together a packet of homework. This includes reading simple sentences "I see the fish", "here is a lion". He must also write 3 letter words "bug, rug, tug", he can write letters and numbers, and he is completing his homework quite easily.
On day 4, I was frustrated by the amount of stress my son was experiencing with other children crying non stop, for hours, because of their separation anxiety. My son will say "teacher, fun" but is apprehensive to walk into the class because of the incessant crying. After only 4 days, my little guy is already showing signs of regression (i.e. Reading his baby sisters books). The teachers have separated those children into another room because of the disruption and stress.
My concern is growing, but I try to tell myself that this is good for him and it has to happen. I am appreciative that his teachers recognize his academic potential, but frustrated by this "necessary social" step. My husband and I are ecstatic to work on homework with him, but at the same time we found that in class they are identifying the letter A and number 1. I wonder if this is a positive or negative experience for him?
I also understand that there are "social necessities" and hope we can migrate to a higher class once we "do the time" but how beneficial or detrimental will this be in the interim?
Thank you!
