Welcome littlewisestone! A lot of us who found this site have memories of no longer telling other young moms what milestones our kids hit and when, because we didn't want to make them feel bad when their DC didn't do it so young. This is a great place to talk where you can feel free to talk about your child.
Sounds like you have a delightful DD. I am sorry that you are having trouble fitting in. Have you tried family or kids days at museums (art or science), or library story time? Sometimes you can find families like yours at these places. Does your state have a gifted organization? Perhaps you can attend some of the meetings to learn more and meet people.
Your sister is saying some very cruel things. Your DD is not a "freak" - she is normal for her. Have you told your sister that it is hurtful to you and your family when she says things like that? I am sorry that your close family doesn't understand.
As for teaching, I guess you know your DD best, but i haven't gone for anything formal. I follow my DS5's lead as to his interests. When he wanted to be read to for 3 hours, we read to him. He taught himself to read from being read to. When we showed him how to sound out words, he resisted, so we quit. He progressed fine without any formal instruction. We got him some math workbooks too, when he showed interest, but he lost interest soon, so we didn't push it. However, we did provide educational computer games such as jumpstart or disney, pbskids, etc., and he learned a lot from those. But that's just what we did. I think at such a young age, kids learn so much just from being exposed to different environments and from playing. We just answered all the questions and went with the flow.
good luck!
