Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion The ultimate brag thread

Here's another story that can only be a "brag" among people who have dealt with gifted perfectionists who have a history of meltdowns over simple setbacks:

DD7 went to a birthday party at the roller rink. She stumbled. She fell. She got back up and kept at it. She noticed everyone else was falling, too, and she adjusted her personal expectations accordingly. I skated alongside her for the first little while, and supported her whenever I noticed she was falling. Eventually, she shooed me away. When she was done, even though she was sore, she declared she wanted to come back the next day. We decided to give her a few days to heal up first, but DW and I mentally high-fived over DD's resilience.

Also, last night we worked together on her homework, where she had to locate several objects in the house that were standard 3D shapes (cylinder, sphere, rectangular prism, etc.). I took the time to explain to her what they mean by "dimensions." I took her through the different dimensions, ending with the fourth, time. I demonstrated by picking up a random toy, and said, "This is a three-dimensional object." Then I hurled it across the room, and said, "Now it's a four-dimensional object." This delighted DD, who went running up and down the halls for the next ten minutes, shouting, "I'M A FOUR-DIMENSIONAL OBJECT!"

This is why gifted kids are so much fun... you just don't get that kind of mix of intellectual exploration and impulsive silliness when most kids are ready to learn this stuff.

Later on in the homework, the question was asked, "Explain the difference between a 2D and 3D shape." DD's response: "A 2D shape has only length and width, a 3D shape has length, width, and height." I'll bet her teacher thinks I dictated the response, but my only contribution was to spell "height" for her when asked.

Cutie Patootie Report
The eighteen month old must know some numbers because I've heard her say several in a row. 4,5,6,7 or 234, different ones different times.   I was surprised the other day when a YouTube video displayed Episode 6 and without context she read the #6.  I thought she was just saying number sounds before that, but  I guess she knows some by their symbol.  Then the other day she was scribbling on her brother's easel and said "three" while she scribbled over a number 3.  Then, just now I was counting pieces for my son while he moved them and I said, 1,2 my daughter said 3.  But she doesn't know amount yet.  I had a few tic tacs in my hand and I told her to "take one" and she said "two" but took three.  She's getting all her # names by watching me & her brother work on place value & carrying/borrowing.   
She's not talking that much yet although I've heard her sing the whole first sentence row row row a boat she usually just says ro-ro-ro-ro..  She'll say "here a go" and hand you stuff and stuff like that.  And when Franklin's bike got run over by an icecream truck on tv she told me "ook.  Bike.  Uh-oh."

A bit funny and a bit brag...

DS4 came home from Montessori school the other day and told us he was working on addition and muppetication (multiplication).

Muppetication, that is so cute! -- Polly

These are great. Where's the "like" button?

Muppetication is too funny.

Our dd5, about to turn 6, is moving along well with her reading, she realized about a month ago "I can read chapter books", and since then has collected about 10 and started about 9 of them...gotta work on finishing them, lol.
She came home with a great worksheet on 3d objects, which I did not think they'd go over in kindergarten, but I just jokingly started asking about how many faces a cube has, which she got, then a sphere, and even a cone, and I was very surprised she really seemed to know these, and to know the definition of a 'face'...pretty cool.

DD is 16 months now.

She signed a few letters the other day when I showed her some flashcards with the letters while I was cleaning out a drawer (she does not have the fine motor to REALLY sign many of the letters at all, but she was trying a few and came close.)

She definitely knows the color "red" and any "rainbow" colors she sees. She's got all her chunky puzzles down and she was trying to help me with a 12 pc jigsaw yesterday, but I don't quite think she gets the concept (edit: Mom's wrong, she gets it. Her fine motor skills just are not close to allowing her to actually complete these.)

I asked her the sign for pretend and she started signing pretend and imagination, danced and sang a few notes of what sounded to me to be the on-pitch tune to the song about imagination from Signing Time. She seems to have most of the DVDs memorized, too. Like she'll roar right before the lion comes on and start dancing and jumping before the hopkin's hop song comes on.

She also tried to say "May I (while pointing to her eye lol)" and signed excused. This is GREAT because she has been signing exclusively and not wanting to talk or jabber much til now.

I don't know which (if any) of these things is advanced, but it is so cool getting to see what she is thinking about now.

DS 3 finished his piano book in six months that usually takes a six year old a year. He only practices once or twice a week however he does have a MAJOR
Crush on his teacher!

That's great!!

This is Mr W as well. Except the crush is mutual!

DD3 does not eat easily. We had agreed on 10 more bites of her dinner before she could have dessert. While eating she gave us a run down on addition facts to ten including five plus five is ten. When she got to bite five of her dinner I asked her how many more she had to go. She counted on from five to ten and then counted those numbers as though they were in the sky in front of her pointing to each one and said 5.