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

Part of me cringes at what the rest of the room must think at times like that while most of me is super proud. As a side note I learned this morning that while ketchup is non-Newtonian it is sheer-thinning which behaves differently than the "oobleck" he's seen on youtube and played with over Christmas... Always learning something new with that kid.

(In this case, he may have been viewed favorably as he was giving the teacher a good reason to let them smash the messy liquids )

Along these lines
...when you have to coax your kid away from the computer for school, and he wants another minute as this is the exciting part. And he's watching a video on prime numbers equations.

Love it! (and I love that our house is not the only one where those discussions take place). Last time it happened we were trying to drag him to hockey which he normally loves. I'm still a little shocked that math > hockey in his world.

I absolutely love DS5's kindergarten teacher, and one reason is that she just rolls with stuff like this. All his homework had the name "Jack" for a week at one point. I thought maybe it was someone else's, but the handwriting looked like his, and I didn't think there was a Jack in his classroom.

As DS2.25 was drifting off to sleep holding a small glow-in-the-dark model of Jupiter (which he specifically requested), he was murmuring something about the Great Red Spot. Then he started saying in his almost-sleep, "Earthquakes can make mountains. When two tectonic plates collide, they can push up against each other to make great big mountains."

He proceeded to nurse to sleep. Asynchrony, much.

So insightful for your DS, chay! He sounds like a terrific guy.

I'm disappointed that the teacher's first reaction in the face of new information is denial. I'd think a teacher would give the benefit of the doubt to a 7 year old who can talk intelligently about Newtonian fluids of his own initiative, or at least inform herself before spewing misinformation.

I know but I'm trying to reserve judgement before knowing the actual conversation and full context. She's been a truly amazing teacher otherwise so I'm really trying to give her the benefit of the doubt and laugh it off.

I do genuinely feel sorry for all of his future science/math teachers. I suspect until we get to university no one is going to be prepared for his insatiable thirst for those topics and for everything he's absorbed at home via the internet and two engineer parents that love it as much as he does

aquinas - your stories always blow me away. DS was very speech delayed and had ~5 words at that age so we couldn't tell what was going on in his head. Occasionally we could see small glimmers but it is so cool to hear what your DS comes up with.

For some reason, this seemed to fit in this thread.

...when your 14yo's idea of a "fun" spring break (at least the first 24 hours) is a combination of:

a) dreaming up projects for her Statistics term project... only most of them are going to require faculty assistance and an IRB approval...

so she turns to...

b) reading banned books (so far we've gone through Clockwork Orange, Go Ask Alice, Snow Falling on Cedars, and Cat's Cradle, since yesterday morning, but only because I can't find Invisible Man.) I foresee another trip to the library and the local bookstore in our very near future...

c) THEN she turns to Finale Notepad again, but eventually got exasperated with the tonal limitations at the computer, went to the piano... and is composing a truly LOVELY melody on the piano with paper and pencil as I type this. Seriously nice melody. Has a bit of a Jay Ungar feel about it-- it's that kind of "discovered, not made" thing. But novel-- I've got a good memory, and it's not something she's pulled from anywhere that I know.


Man, when they are into something... a PG kid can wow you with the speed and expertise.

Also on the agenda-- finishing a few craft projects, designing a charity quilt or two, and working on a short story and polishing her... um... well, I guess it's technically an operetta.

<--- the contrast with "what school thinks I should spend my time doing" is pretty extreme. I mean, yeah, +3 to +4 acceleration and it seems like she's working at high level most of the time, but then she really cuts loose like this and I realize... most of the time, WE. HAVE. NO. IDEA.