Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion The ultimate brag thread

Thanks for the congratulations! It is soooo wonderful to have a place I can brag about DS7 and not feel awkward. You guys are wonderful!

Hugs to you all!
~S

Congratulations!!

This is not a brag. It just is.

Mr W had his 1 yr check up today.

We walked into the office holding his hand and he walked and ran a bit around the office. He then went through DW's purse, opening her wallet, pulling her phone from its case, then sorting the piles of stuff around him. He got ahold of DW's cell phone, dialed some numbers, and then held up the phone to his ear and said, "Whats up?" We went over to the fish tank and he said Fish and pointed at them. (We do not have one at home.)

This is "normal" to us. I know its not normal. But, we don't even think about it anymore.

There were other kids there and Mr W was more like the three year olds than the ones his age. In fact, he was the only kid who looked at everything and everyone in the room - and he smiled at everyone, too.

When the Dr looked at him, he examined her tools and then quietly and observantly submitted to the exam. He let her look at his ears, his teeth, and then laid down for the rest of it when she asked. He really wanted to look at her opthalmoscope when she laid it down, ( so did I, LOL) but did not reach for it. He did not cry on the first shot.

Then the Dr asked, out the blue, "How many words DOES he know?"

Which sort of took us back. We went over his Spanish and English vocab. ( He is up to at least 20+ words in English and Maybe 100 in Spanish - he knows his colors. )

The Dr is usually in and out, but she spent 20 minutes with us. The last thing she told us was, "W is UNUSUALLY advanced. You will have a wonderful and amazing time with him over the next few years. I look forward to seeing how he grows and develops."

That's fabulous! Regarding the spelling bee, do you think parents of gifted athletes feel that strange mix of pride and awkwardness about their children's accomplishments?

Interesting question, Inky. I had the same thought earlier today. I think I'd feel just as awkward being around the parents who my child had just beaten at swimming or some other individual sport, just because you're celebrating and their child is disappointed. On the other side, I don't think I'd feel awkward or like I was bragging if I was telling someone that my child had really amazed us with his athletic ability. Do you have an opinion?

Boo (aged 4.5 years) had stopped reading almost completely for about a year. She's had some terrible experiences where she's been called freakish because of her innate capabilities; e.g reading very young. Quite a few people sent her the message (some literally told her!) that she was too young to read or that she only thought she could. And during her short stint in preschool, she would comment that "kids my age are too little to read", proven in her mind, by that fact that none of the other kids could read, etc. In short, she got the message that there was something wrong with her and she adjusted her behavior and abilities to fit in. (I knew that she was still reading a bit, because she would occassionaly read a sign, etc, and comment on it.)

Now, she's finally starting to venture into reading again and using a combination of sight words and phonetic approach is rapidly increasing the difficulty of what she reads *AND* her comprehension is good. So she's not just decoding words; she's understanding at a pretty good level what she's reading.

Today she grabbed a book that she's had for a while, but never read. It's a chapter book in a series that she asked for. During the past year, we've purchased several of the books in the series with instuctions from Boo that she's going to read them "by herself". She took the book with her to her room, climbed into her bed, and came out about fifteen minutes later with a big grin. Then she read aloud a loud a couple of sentences and said, "I feel silly! I feel so giggly inside! Reading is great it make me feel bubbly inside."

I'm so glad that she's found her love of reading, again!

Mizz - great news about the reading! Boy that would frustrate me!
And Austin, just making it to the 1 year check up is such a big deal (for the parents!) Definitely worth bragging on, plus your ds sounds like he's doing fantastically with *2* languages!

And mama22gs - What a nice reception you got from the other moms! Awesome. And of course congrats to your ds.

I so enjoy this thread!

Mizz - thats great...maybe you should tell her she is a 9 year old disguised as a 4 year old. She is your secret agent reader!!

OK, just had to bump up this brag thread again. I just love reading all the stories of these amazing kids!

For my dd 3rd birthday my mom gave her a leapster L-max. When she first got it she played it all the time.

My DH loves to watch japanese movies with sub-titles (he's into the marial arts that in the movie)

So DD was sitting on the sofa playing her leapster and reading the subtitles out loud.

My husband and I looked at each other and he said "well at least we know she can multi-task"

Mr W (12m2w) is getting independent.

Last night at the grocery store he walked around the produce section grabbing the veggies and talking to himself.

It was really cute. One hag HAD to roll her eyes and I almost clobbered her with a lemon.

Mr W loved the lemons so much he asked to be put down when in checkout and walked/navigated 200 feet back to the produce section by himself and grabbed another lemon!!