Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Is my 2 year old gifted?

Also, just as a side note about my own take on the definition, I usually think of hothousing as being more about the parent's needs than the child's.

Giving foreign language lessons to a bored kid who then becomes more engaged isn't hothousing to me. That's solving an educational problem. Nor are afterschooling to keep a child challenged nor gap-filling to help a child make a smoother transition into a grade skip. That's just good parenting!

OTOH, forcing a child to take a foreign language he doesn't want so that the parent can use the child as some sort of status symbol, or out of some misguided attempt to not let the child "fall behind" (of what?) so that he can feel like a good parent? To me, those are hothousing situations.

I usually figure that if the kids are happy, they're almost certainly not hothoused. Anxious, stressed out kids who hate to learn but have to so Mom doesn't flip out are probably hothoused.

The world according to me... But that's my take, FWIW.

And here we are thinking it must be norm b/c it was so matter of fact that 6 year olds will need to be able to do a PP presentation. This is why I really do appreciate your opinion; it gives me a reality check!


People look at me like I am nuts b/c my DD 27 mths is not in preschool yet. I hear time and time again that their children were on the waiting list since birth and my poor child ... I never thought about wait lists until right before DD was 2 and now we have the opposite problem of her possibly not getting in b/c we might be too far down on the wait list.


I certainly do not live near NYC or Chicago but do have one of my BF that does and her child has been apart of that pressure that you describe. For clarification I live in Austin, TX and our dynamic appears different to even the larger cities in TX. Dallas and Houston rely on private schools much like NYC and Chicago b/c the public school districts are a joke. We have the opposite here. People rely on the zip code which makes housing prices soar for this district, which of course makes it impossible for economic diversity and further divides this area.

Just to let you know about another metro area - it's normal in the mpls/st paul area for preschool for 3 or 4 yos, but not younger. Also, I am shocked about the powerpoint presentation! I thought maybe it was an urban legend.

Yikes. We have relatives who lived in an austin suburb for awhile (round rock? red rock?), but we never heard stories like that about their schoolager. I suppose that's far enough out of the city.

Yes, those are all signs that you're in a specific sort of situation. Different from NYC, but similar in many ways from the sound of it. It's interesting to hear you describe it.

I'm in a middle- to upper-middle-class suburb of a major city in a midwestern state, but not an especially huge or wealthy city. I've never heard of a single person in our area being unable to get into a pre-K program. No one signs up until the Feb. before the school year they want in, and while it's possible that your first choice might fill up if you wait too long, there are always good programs with some openings if you're not too picky about date and time. The most popular programs are the non-academic church-based programs. But even these have openings right up until school starts pretty much every year. They tend to be child-led and very much about exploration, making friends and having fun in an educational manner.

There is a brochure that our school passes out from the state that details what constitutes K readiness, but it isn't hard to get to that level of readiness. The play-based half-day programs do just great with getting the kids there. K is also half-day, though more academically focused than pre-K. 1st grade is typically the "learn to read" year for us and so it's where many GT kids run into trouble, though I know in some places that happens in K.

Are there just not enough pre-K programs in your area, or is it about getting into the "right" program? I can't tell from your post what the tenor of the area is for you. A true shortage could be unfortunate for your DD. But if it's more a case of "get into this pre-K or all is lost!" then I'd be more likely to shrug it off. As long as a pre-K program is safe, clean, child-led, and has plenty of stuff to mess with, I'd bet dollars to donuts that she'll be fine.

Plenty of kids don't go to pre-K at all and they live long, happy, productive lives. Be reassured! All is not lost!

I wish it was that we are being picky and trying to get into the 'right' program. [sigh] The area we live in has so many churches and most of those churches have preschools. (In fact our area of town has a much higher ratio of churches then even downtown probably because of the views.) I AM limiting myself to church preschools (FYI) because I do not need a 5 day a week program and theoretically want preschool more for socialization for my child, but from talking to the directors of these programs it appears that the church preschools are more prep than anything else. (Referring all of you back to Powerpoint.) I have to admit that if I was willing to send my DD to daycare 5 days a week I could get her in no problem, but I am a stay at home mom and just do not see the need to put her in that and FYI MOST moms are stay at home in this area so this is why the church programs are the most popular. And since they start at 2 instead of 3 and everyone and their dog have been on the waiting list since conception!!!! we get to sit on 4 waiting lists (and I could have added ourselves to more but the ones I didn't submit to are the highly sought programs and I knew it was not worth our time. So we are on the list of the lower end programs and still fear that we won't get in. [sigh]

St Pauli,

It does sounds like an urban legend yet I am reciting it from a director of one of these preschools. You know, I am going to have to ask one of the moms in my DD dance class if any of their children HAD to do powerpoint. Most of them have their first child in Kindergarten so might not get the answer for a while, but one mom has a child that is in either 1st or 2nd grade. So I am going to ask and report back to you to see if the director was just on something or it is true! [Detective Mom on her way!]

The suburb is Round Rock which is north Austin and not far away just a different build up with socialeconomics. We live in West Austin on the lakes and in the hills. Round Rock has a lot of the typical suburb stuff such as track homes and lots of apartments and with that comes that ability for all walks of life to live there and therefore diversifying the school districts.

You know as I am typing this I wonder if I just come off as a pompous arse. We moved into this area last March for two reasons: My husband would not have that far to travel to work which was a concern due to gas prices and the other is the Austin school district is not that great. Round Rock is a better school district than Austin. I am still in a lack of culture shock. I am use to south Austin and the pockets of culture, my favorite being the Hispanic areas. I always said I would not want to live in North Austin b/c it looks too much like a little Dallas. So I was a southy forever and now we moved into this weird mix and are going to have to get on board with some of it I guess. But my concern is in this type of school environment how are they going to react to a HG+ kid. I predict that eyes will roll but I am hoping I am wrong. Time will tell.

You don't sound pompous at all to me - you sound like a concerned mom. I believe you about the pre-k competition, i was just sharing my shock because we had relatives who used to live nearby. I'm sorry you have to deal with this extra layer of grief.

A quick call to the school district can confirm the powerpoint. (of course we're all curious now!)

And you never know how a district will deal with HG kids until you get there. There have been positive stories too!

This is a little off the subject of PP presentations, which sounds almost incredulous for a K student to do, but I have a question for those of you out there.

My DD will be 3 in Jan. I am still in a bit of GT denial -- some days I think she's smart, other days I think she's ND. How unusual is it for her to be doing simple math in her head. She started at 2.5 subtracting the number of cars in the garage if my DH went to work. Now she's been adding 4+1 and 8+1 in her head which kind of blew me away. Is this just "kinda smart" or "wow smart"?

I get so used to the things that she does that it just doesn't seem that weird to me. Then I see my niece, same age as DD, and I think something is wrong with my DN. Anyone else do this??


I find it hard to believe that DD can be that smart when I'm having a horrible time getting her potty-trained. As I write this, she's running around in wet underwear and she does not care that it's wet and gross. But that's for another thread, I suppose.

Okay I made a few calls and here is what I found out. Powerpoint is not a 'requirement' at Kindergarten but IS at 3rd grade. At kindergarten level it is an axillary and the teachers do teach them powerpoint but is a step by step process and it is not required that they know it. So the director of the preschool was not completely accurate but she was right that powerpoint is used in kindergarten.

That is exactly what we have done and she is in a dance class once a week. I will probably get her into a swim class as well. As for the music schools they do not accept kids before 5 around here and music is an important element for us so we are going to have to wait for that one. As for art, I am an artist and we do a lot of activities around here for her that surpass what is offered so I think it would be a waste of money for us.