My daughter is probably starting preschool next year and the closer we get to starting school, the more...uncertain? I become in a way?
I suspect that I may have been a moderately gifted child. So much of what I've read about gifted kids resonates with me and my childhood. I don't think I've ever admitted it out loud because I was quite a day dreamer, scarcely remembered homework or paid attention, usually left completed said homework in my locker...I was kinda a nightmare to my parents in elementary school. When I hit high school things clicked and I felt like a big shot so freshman year I my lowest grade was something like a 98% final grade with no study skills, doing homework during other classes...they bumped me up to advance where I was all a's and 1 b per report card--again no studying and doing homework during school. My best graded papers tended to be the ones I totally forgot about and rushed through a period before it was due...and then I failed out of college...couldn't do my homework in other classes and no study skills. I don't know how relevant my own past is.
I've kinda browsed Ruff Estimates and I think there is a chance that my daughter MIGHT be gifted. If she is average intelligence or a little above or whatever where normal classes would challenge her to build those skills I lacked: I'd be happy with that.
But I'm just not sure on a lot right now. I'll read the Ruff Estimates for example and believe she is moderately gifted. Maybe in the 130's (which is where I think I may be in spite of my poor record). Then talk to a friend with a similarly aged child and their kids have the same traits. Then I'll talk to people in my mom group with older kids that they are working with on things my daughter seemed to have taught herself at least a year or 2 younger.
Then I start wondering maybe she is average intelligence but developed quickly because I try to keep an enriched environment and DO things with her. Like buying science kits and mixing colors or doing asl with her as a baby or having educational TV available or playing games with her. Then she will make these crazy connections or see a pattern and I'm like: WHERE did you learn that? (I.e. at age 3: she called herself our puppy' mommy. And she was pretending a stuffed animal of hers was the dog's puppy. So she comes up to me and tells me she is the grandma. I have no resources that would explain that to her and I didn't teach her that? And no daycare involved).
Then I wonder if I'm going to be accused of hot housing her because she seems to know a lot. She asks a lot of questions and I don't talk down to her and I actually make a point of trying to use words she wouldn't have heard before to explain stuff so she can hear new words in context.
So what's hot housing vs enriched environment?
What's the difference between a gifted kid and one who just has a good home environment?
How do you know if you are going to have to advocate for your child in school to get them challenged appropriately and for that matter, do schools even bother if the child has met benchmarks? If she IS gifted, then is her experience going to be on parents with mine where she can coast through without ever having to work? Or have they fixed that by now?
Any advice on what I should be doing to prepare in case the situation ends up being she is gifted? I don't really want her to grow up not learning the skills like study habits and putting real effort in. And I'd kinda like her to enjoy learning: gifted or not?
