Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion The ultimate brag thread

DS5- Last week after less than five minutes instruction on the use of Roman Numerals, and having never seen them before (well he has prob noticed them as chapter headings or on a clock- but we have never talked about them) used them perfectly to build numbers as large as 9999. I was getting wrong answers then he'd explain to me how to do it right . we were doing 3rd grade on ixl.com so some were multiple choice, but many were type it out. No wrong answers! New motto:Five minutes to learn..a second to master;)

Today was a pretty great day. DD turned 26 months. It was the last day of her speech therapy! After we fixed her tongue tie everything took off and she's all caught up or ahead. They said she actually scored really highly on most areas of the initial test they did. The coordinator and speech therapist were making good-natured jokes about seeing DD on a documentary for child prodigies. Every time the speech therapist came the past two months, she'd always talk about all this stuff that surprised her that DD could do.

Also.. I snuck her into a 45 minute ballet class for 3-5 year olds by slightly, umm, fudging her age last month. I claimed she was a very mature 2, nearly 3. ha. I felt she was really ready for it. It's a very structured class and she follows perfectly. She does cry a little when it's over because she wants to keep dancing. The teacher said the only thing she didn't do right was she'd slightly wander from her "spot" on the floor. I confessed she turned 26 months today and her eyes bugged. heh.

Annnd. She came home and did the 36 pc jigsaw we got her for xmas and that she hadn't touched much. (She just stopped at 25 pc 3 or 4 months ago and didn't finish any until today.) She started trying to draw people in the past month, with faces, eyes, hair, nose, arms, shoes, clothes, etc. So this puzzle had 11 dancing girls on it and she'd point to the spot where a shoe or whatever should be and then go hunting for the correct piece. She also started saying all her colors, so she'd look for that, too.

She's also counting to 20, though she occasionally skips 17 or 18. She mainly counts objects to ten, though and only the stairs that high as we climb them.

This is horribly braggy, but whatever. That's what the UBT is for, right? ;D

It's horribly beautiful. Nice to hear she's blooming like fireworks.

DS15mo can now identify and say several shapes and colours. He has a puzzle with 8 different shapes, and he handed each to me in correct order when I asked for them a few weeks ago.

Today, he was rummaging through a bin full of colourful magnetic letters on his own, pulled out an "m", and ran up to me waving it and saying "mmmmmm!" (phonetically). He did the same unprompted later with several other letters.

His other recent passion is naming body parts! Today he was fixated on wrists and chins.

@islandofapples: Not "horribly", wonderfully! It's so heartwarming to hear what these impressive little (and not so little) folks can do!! Kudos to your daughter, and please keep the stories coming.

My little guy is nearly 2.25. We had some friends visit with their son who is 2.75 and who haven't seen our kiddo in over a year and a half. Our son was so excited to show his new friends his toys and books...

He pointed out countries on the map. Our friends were surprised he knew where Sudan and Kazakhstan were, among others.

He counted his cars...

He showed them the planets, dwarf planets, and asteroid belt...

He sang the alphabet while their son played with the piano in a very cute sing along. Not very melodic but very cute.

He did other things too but they thought the above was very unusual. It all just bubbled out of his excitement and we didn't prompt any of it.

I was just proud he was able to share his toys and space with a new friend. Wish they lived closer to us.

A head-scratcher and a brag:

DD8 (birthday very recent) was pulled from 2nd grade/gifted pull-outs at public school and homeschooled at a 3rd-grade level for the last 4 mos or so. DW is preparing DD to take a state-wide test they give 3rd graders, primarily to see how she's doing as a teacher. This means practice tests of DW's device have been given... and the results have been pretty shocking. DD missed an average of four questions per test page, for a poor grade overall. DW then reviewed the test with her, and DD knew all the answers. For instance, she'd give her a math problem she missed, and DD would demonstrate it perfectly. The obvious pattern was that DD was working too quickly, and making guesses when she could just take a few more seconds and work out the answers properly, or not reading and following directions correctly.

The brag: DW had a conversation with DD in which she talked about slowing down, reading the questions, following directions, and checking her answers afterwards. DW shared an anecdote of how this strategy helped her in cooking school... she was always the last one done with a test, and the only one with 100%. DD responded, and missed only one question on the entirety of the next test.

The head-scratcher: DD explained why she was rushing... her public school teachers were always telling the kids to hurry through tests. Whoever finished quickly would get 15 minutes of extra recess.

I scratch my head over that one, too. DD9 will be taking the state writing test this year, and while she has excellent mechanics, she's slow slow slow at figuring out what she wants to write and organizing her thoughts. She's also not particularly fast at the physical writing process.

The test is has no time limit - if you want to write for 4 hours straight, the testing instructions say that the school has to give you a quiet place to work and let you use every minute you want. DD reports that her teacher has said that she expects everyone to be finished in 30 minutes - 45 at the outside, and that once you turned your paper in, you get free reading time. That would be the day DD's practice essay consisted of half a sentence, which was all she could manage to write under time pressure.

This isn't quite a brag, but it was something I was glad to hear, particularly given DD11's tendency towards perfectionism.

DD9 was at a sports camp recently, and one of the instructors told her to keep working because "practice makes perfect."

DD's response: "Nobody's perfect. Practice makes you better."

That sounds mighty brag-worthy to me! Way to go for your DD!


Similarly, DD13, (while we were out of the house, no less)

"I got 100% on my Physics quiz! I took notes, then I worked through some problems out of the Schaum's book you got me-- thanks, that's really helpful, Mom-- and then I took the quiz. Working the problems really helped!"


(Hurray!!! She's finally starting to connect effort and results!)