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

ElizabethN, That was a good one.

They don't make oobleck in the first grade?

We live in a bubble here.

Sorry your son had to deal with that.

... when you talk your 9yo into her first guitar lesson in almost 2 years, and the first thing she wants to work on is the Imperial March from Star Wars.

... and when you find out the reason she'd been avoiding the guitar is because, as she'd progressed from string to string, she'd decided she couldn't reach the top one; that's it, done. Perfectionism much? Errr... maybe just try arching your fingers like that.

So maybe we won't be seeking out a piano teacher this summer after all.

On the guitar front: when your 2.25yo picks up a Rock Band guitar control, sings an original song he made up on the spot called, "Happy Mummy Guitar", and declares proudly, "I'm playing pizzicato."

I guess that takes care of instrument selection for when he takes lessons down the road!

These are what I am impressed by my son and thing that he may be gifted,

1. When my 2yrs old son asked me what is the English name of a 15-sides polygon, I checked it out and told him that it is called 'pentadecagon', then he shout happily: 'pentadecagon, hexadecagon, heptadecagon, octadecagon, nonadecagon' and i have to check it in wiki plus he is not a English speaker.

2. When my 2.5yrs old follow the step of LEGo menu designed for 7+

3. When my 2.5 yrs old write numbers in reverse order from 200, write odd and even number from 0-200, and keep writing for more than an hour.

When your 5 year old insists he read the next chapter of Harry potter book 3. (He's already read Stewart little, Charlottes web and Indian in the Cubbard)

When you buy grade level workbooks (3 months worth) and they're finished in a couple days.

Your 5 and 7 year old are proud to take a pencil with 50 digits of Pi to school on March 14th.

The science center staff know your kids by name and always pick them for on stage demos.

Your kids routinely score 30-50 points higher then what is required for 99 percentile (map test) and the teachers stare in awe as the kindergartener blows through word problems and multiplication.

When you're trying to teach at grade level math to kids in 3 grades ahead of your own kids and they are completely lost...but your kids picked it up in one night.

When your 5 year old watches tutorials on Lego.com and the next day proceeds to build that item block for block with not direction booklet.

Second grader has to reassure his class there are actually FOUR states of matter. Aka plasma. (Makes you wonder where they find these teachers!)

Your DD10 is going to someone's house for 2 hours and packs 5 books. When told just bring 3 and decide when you get there which one to read, she says "but I might not read any, I just like having all of them there with me" (laying her cheek on her prayer-folded hands with smile that speaks love and delight)

Chana, I'm very familiar with that look. Not to mention the behavior. Any car trip longer than 5 minutes requires a book.

...or iPods, or music THEY'VE chosen. We never hear the end of it when DH and I pick the songs!

You can avoid the book on trips under 5 minutes?