Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Wiped out with a tornado DS

Ladies and gents, I need your help please! I'm wiped out and need some veteran parenting advice on new activities I can introduce to DS.

Over the last month, my sweet DS20mo has morphed from tornado into typhoon. He's all over symbolic representation like white on rice...numbers, phonetic decoding, IDing vehicle makes and models by decal...and analogies. Everything is an analogy. For example, "I want to hang upside down from ceiling and spin like pile driver."

Thankfully, he's self hot-housing so I can sit idly by and goggle at him occasionally while I take a mental vacation to Kathmandu for 2 minutes. (I was gently called out on this yesterday by DS with a, "what's on your mind?") For instance, he's invented a game wherein he uses a toy hammer to hit the letters on book covers to sound out words phonetically in sequence. But Mummy. Must. Watch!! Or else...doom, terror, freak out!

He's that exhausting type who, once he masters something, tosses it aside and checks it off his list forever. He also is a performer and loves to probe into new subject matter with Mummy at his side to answer his every request. Interest-wise, there's no interest whatsoever in physical interlocking puzzles--he gets furious at interlocking pieces that he can't manoeuvre, though he enjoys some on the iPad/laptop.

He's obsessed with garbage trucks, so I'm trying to swing a visit to a local sanitation facility. We also hit the park and paint daily, the library at least once each week, stop to watch local comstruction most days, and visit a local museum at least weekly. He has a few young friends his age, but he grows weary of them quickly. I'm trying to broaden his horizons past garbage trucks for my own sanity (he even talks at length in his sleep about them) and have noticed he's quite interested in our Brio trains again, but more suggestions for self-entertainment options are welcome.

Thanks so much.

Shouldn't mathematics keep him busy for a while?

Or astronomy/cosmology?

Both of those are pretty infinite.

Analogy is a pretty good mode of thought, generally, so he should be able to self entertain there.

Thanks Jon.

Both math and astronomy are on my list, but I'm looking ideally for specific activities therein that he can self-entertain with. He's already somewhat interested in the solar system. In between gulps while nursing yesterday, he said he was thinking about Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars, I kid you not, so you're probably on the right track.

This is going to be a tough one for you, I think.

suggesting electronics probably isn't the best way to go but Leapfrog Leappad (we have Leappad2) is what keeps me sane! For DS3.3 it's been his personal speech therapy, learning tool and time killing machine for the last year. It's not just a mindless system. All their games are really learning games. Some of them teach facts about geography, animals, etc (aside from the usual math and language arts)

There's also a game for Leappad that's about the Solar system with facts about the planets, games to practice putting the planets in order, etc.

An old style calculator, the kind that prints. I attribute some of DS7s crazy number sense to hours spent mashing the calculator adding and multiplying numbers.

We've joked that we measure DS age by the number of minutes that pass before he needs an audience. Figure it's been increasing about ten seconds a month.

Since he was a whole word sight reader, magnetic poetry was quite popular for a while. Oh yeah, and almost anything on the TV with closed captioning on.

Oddly an abacus barely caught his attention.

This has been getting a lot of mileage in my house.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0002CYSQ8/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1373150135&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX112_SY192

My boys (2 and 5) like to play with it in the tub. Water really changes the sound.

My DS (now over 6) has had this for a couple of years:
ALEX Water Flutes

It's been fun for him to measure out different amounts of water to see what sound they make.

I'm sorry to say, but I think he's in transition from tub-time to showering.

My baby is growing up.

(Excuse me, but where's the sobbing parent icon?)

Thank you all so much for your input. I'm on my phone right now, but will respond personally as soon as I have the opportunity. It's been a hectic week and your thoughtful feedback has eased my weary soul.