I am not really sure where I am going with this inquiry...
Since my son was born he has always been different. He is now 2 � years old and is still seems very different when compared to his peers. We are having suspicions now that he may be showing some signs of giftedness. The past couple of weeks he has done things at home and at daycare that have just blown us away and made us look again at the things he does.
I rarely talk about this with others, because most of the time people will say, "oh we all think our children are smart." I will not disagree with that, I do think we all hold our children up, as well we should! I also feel like I am bragging when I tell people this stuff, please do not take it as such. But the time has come that I feel like I need to speak up and get some further resources for my son. I frequent another "mommy board" and inquired the mothers there, but was not able to get any response from anyone!!
So here goes...
My son has hit every milestone (except for sleeping) well ahead of the "normal rage." He was very alert to the world from the moment he was born. In the hospital he kept breaking his little arms out of his swaddle. He hated to be swaddled because he liked to hold things and feel things. He held his head up at a very young age. There were several occasions where I went to pick him up and someone would freak out because I wasn't holding his head. He always wanted to know what was going on, therefore he developed his neck muscles very quickly. He could roll in both directions by the time he was 2.5 months. He had mastered crawling by 4.5 months and was walking confidently by 8 months. He started saying several words at about 8 months and was pairing 2-3 words together by his first birthday.
Today, at 2 � years old, he is a very inquisitive little boy. He asks lots of questions and just gets things when you tell him. When we went to his 2 year well check the pediatrician (she was a new one as we had recently moved) asked if he was making sentences yet. We just laughed and told her that he speaks in paragraphs. He knows his alphabet and recognizes most of the letters, he knows his numbers, he does puzzles labeled for 3 and 4 year olds, he is VERY mechanical, he knows his colors and shapes (including semicircle and oblong
), I could go on and on. The daycare lady often comments that in her 23 years of daycare she has never met a kid quite like my son. He is the first kid in all her years that figured out there is a small place where you can escape the backyard. He figured this out last summer, and then proceeded to show the 3 and 4 year old kids how to get out.
The two episodes that really stand out and have made us question things are this.
The first one happened last Saturday. As we sat at the table and ate breakfast, my son went into a whole monologue about the lunar eclipse. We had watched the event on the 20th and talked about it a little that night and a week and a half later he tells me a whole story about the lunar eclipse. He said "The moon had a lunar eclipse. The moon was not coming apart, it was getting covered. We can not see the moon when it is getting eclipsed. It is getting covered like this (makes a motion) and then it is not bright anymore." All of this was without prompting. We then talked for probably 5-7 more minutes about the lunar eclipse. When we were done eating breakfast he spent the next half hour "eclipsing" everything. He told his daycare lady a similar story on Monday and she was also very taken aback.
The second episode happened last night when we were reading bedtime stories. He is currently very into all things trains, so we were reading a Thomas book. The book has a page that says, "The sun is yellow, the sun is round. The sun makes shadows on the ground." He asked, "what is round?" I took his finger and outlined the sun picture to show him what round was. He then said, "oh the sun is round, and the moon is round?"
I said, "yes."
"and Thomas's eyes are round?"
yes again!
"and a ball is round?"
I said, "yes a ball is round, and do you know the sun is round like a ball?"
He answers, "oh the sun is round like and ball. and the moon is round like a ball too?"
I said, "yes the moon is round like a ball too!"
Without skipping a beat, he finishes by saying, "The moon is round like a ball and Thomas's wheels are round like a circle."
This was the point at which my jaw drops and I am astounded.
I have know for a long time that he is a special little boy, but lately he has done so many things that have made me realize he is not a normal 2 � year old. I guess what I am wondering is if anyone has any good resources or can give me advice about how to work with this. I was considered "gifted" in school and remember being bored a lot of the time. I don't want to push my son, I just want to keep him learning and enjoying the world. On the other hand I want to make sure that he is not bored. I also am looking for resources on what to look for and how to work with the talents he has. He currently goes to a home daycare as both my husband and I work full time. Should I be finding enriching activities outside of daycare at this age? I don't even know where to began, all I know is he is not normal and I need help!! Thanks for reading this long post. I could go on for pages about all the different things my son does, but I will stop now.