Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion You know you're parenting a gifted child when...

That reminds me.... When your kid walks into the used book store and it is like Norm walking into Cheers.

And if you know what em-pride-barrassed means

Love the Cheers reference.

I don't do a lot of vetting of his reading material, given a very trustworthy librarian who will let me know if anything might be iffy, but this one seemed just a bit gory. Yikes. I found the story fascinating, but troubling when I read it at about age 12.

I just had a flashback to a non-fiction book I pilfered from my mom's bookshelf when I was about nine or ten and firmly in my nun phase. Something about nuns in the Congo who had rather awful things happen to them. I was sneaky enough not to mention that I was reading it but young enough that it gave me a lot to worry about...

When the school has AR competitions between the classes by grade level and they make your child's AR points a class by himself and he is winning against entire classes of 20 kids. (Disclaimer...I think it is horrid to make it a contest).

And the same ds won the individual contest as a second grader by 500 points last year...never before had a second grader won. He made a goal to win 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade years too...never before in AR history has that been done...but he just skipped 3rd grade so he has to put an * if he wins these next two years by the record explaining he didn't lose 3rd grade, just skipped. (This is all tongue in cheek if you can't tell).

... when your child's school has a reading contest...

and the electronic field won't allow you a truthful entry for number of hours-- because it doesn't accept that many decimal places.

Your child refusing to participate in the Read-a-thon at school, because he thinks he's going to be asked to read MORE. Yet, his nose is always in a book- in the car, at the playground, at a resturant, etc. I don't think he COULD read more.

Oh and I love, "Mommy, my just- right books are REALLY easy" ds6. Because at home, he is easily reading atleast 2 grades higher than he is assessed at school (they have him end of 2nd grade) Nonfiction is even higher.

When you say something sarcastically and your 6yr old responds, "Mom are you being literal or are your using hyperbole?"

...You find yourself writing a business plan for an HG+ elementary school because, realistically, none of the local options look like they'll fit your DC's needs in 2-3 years.

...Your HG+ spouse comes back from the museum and is excited to tell you how your 23mo son taught him something new.

...You hear these seemingly age-inconsistent things said spontaneously within 10 seconds:
A) My excavator fell because of gravity.
B) I need to nurse, please.
C) Meeeeeow....boom!

... your 5 year old has his very first REAL TWO WAY CONVERSATION with someone other than you / your spouse or himself when he runs into a boy couple years older than him at a Lego Robot Factory and they both start to very seriously discuss the topic of "time jumping" playing for about 20 minutes at which point the other boy had to leave and DS5 was almost in tears over losing his play buddy. Both my husband and I watched it almost with teary eyes and both said THIS is what he needs! We knew his peers don't get what he says, they just give him the deer in the headlight look at which point he gives up and just runs around with them trying to blend in, but seeing him for the first time in his life to really have a reciprocal conversation, it was priceless! He's the youngest in his class and this just proved to us how glad we are we did NOT hold him back a year!

Your 9-year-old uses "doppelgänger" correctly in conversation (a word that you have never taught her).