Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Request for Stories: Raising the Young & Gifted

Dittoing the suggestion for the Parent's Guide to Gifted Children. It is a great resource.

My suggestion would be to avoid the computer and efforts to teach specific concepts like letters. There is quite a bit or research suggeting the most important things during the toddler and preschool years are to focus on having a wide variety of experiences. Some ideas: water and sand play, trips to the park, time in nature, pretend play - puppets, dolls, play kitchen, trucks, balls, wood blocks, etc. Look for toys that are open ended, don't have batteries. The work of the toy should be done by the child not the toy. Enjoy time together - songs, stories, fairy tales, nursery rhymes.

Hi Nes, welcome! Your ds sounds very fun - I love the phone story
I don't think you need to be worried about teaching or not teaching. Probably your child will be asking so many questions (about space, dinosaurs, and yes, probably letters) that you will just be too busy answering to wonder about whether it's the right thing to do...if they're asking, yes you should answer.

First thing that comes to mind is that you need to keep an eye on that timer, because she will almost immediately learn how to reset it for more time. Twisty-dial ones don't work any better. I recommend using the microwave timer, until they learn how to push the chair over and reach that.

An unrelated thing you might want to do, if you haven't already, is to check with your cable/satellite provider if you have one, and make sure that pay-per-view can't be ordered without a parental code. We had an unfortunate incident at with DS6 at about 18 months when he discovered how to order Playboy in both English and Spanish. It was less of an interest in porn and more of an interest in the channel numbers, but still something to keep in mind.

LOL DD4 purchase a naughty movie when she was about a year, the cable company kept telling me it was impossible for a 1 year old to order the payperview, yep we put the parental code in after that.

OMG ... I have not even considered the cable situation. And yes, it is definitely something I should be considering since the kiddo can maneuver her way through the TIVO. We have netflix on it and she can get into the sub menus and find the movie she wants to watch. She also knows exactly how a DVD works. Pretty funny to hear her talk about "scene selection". The nice thing is with TIVO we can't do the pay per view of cable on that box. But we do have a DVR in another room. Hmmmm... time to start locking things down. Really ... thank you for bringing it up b/c I haven't given it much thought.

Also ... rereading my post, just want to clarify that just cuz the kid can get to her movie of choice does not mean Mommy allows her to watch it. We regulate time in front of the TV and will now really need to enforce computer time b/c she seems to think she can use it whenever she wants. But days like today she spent zero time on the computer. And yes I think you are spot on with the assumption that she will figure out sooner than later how to manipulate the timer to her advantage.

I tell you staying one step ahead of these kids really is a challenge and I can only imagine as my DD gets older how much more difficult that will be.

As for the computer, ours is set to log in with password, so DS3 cannot log in by himself.
When he was sometime around 2 I would let him play on microsoft word. I would enlarge and change the color of the font every few min. and he loved it. I would also let him wander around on PBS kids website after he learned to control the mouse.
He now has is own MSN home page which I have entered a few weblinks on so he can move freely through his own sites. Starfall is is favorite.
As for a timer...there is no need all I have to do is offer him the choice to go outside play in the sandbox and computer time is over.
I do agree with the fact that I would skip most formal teaching, kids tend to pursue their own areas of interest...and giving them lots of variety is a must or else they will drive you crazy.

My daughter and I were in a playgroup when she was just a few months old until she was around 4. I loved the activities and meetings. My daugther is an only child and this was an easy way of teaching her social skills and manners. She is not a very social child and enjoyed the toys. We met at each other's homes. If I were to go back to this time, I would choose a group within the neighborhood for kids going to the same school.

She attended preschool at two twice per week in the morning. It was a really good one. For three and four (preschool), she was there three times per week, but participated in after-school fun such as science and French. I was glad that she went to Kinder with many of these kids. She has a hard time meeting people due to extreme shyness.

Most of the time, we explored. She was a very curious child and I tried to satisfy that by taking her places and talking to her. We could spend hours just walking down the street comparing different types of leaves.

Her vocabulary grew, but she did not want to read early. I read to her and she loved it. I did not approach teaching her to read. She was a hands on kind of girl. We bought lots of baking soda and she liked using fine motor skills.

Her public school was great and had many very bright students and exceptional teachers. She learned so much there. She began reading in kinder, but did not pursue it too much. She was still ahead of her "supposed" grade level. Many students in her class were three years ahead. However, due to her hands on personality, she loved writing. She began writing early and just wrote and wrote constantly.

Then, in first grade, she decided to read and was three grade levels ahead by the end. The teachers allowed the students to read on their own so there was a box for her interest and level.

Now, she is almost twelve and at least four years ahead in every subject. I strongly suggest just being together and satisying your child's curiosity. We were not that structured and just went to museums and zoos and places she could explore her world. If your child is gifted, he or she will have insatiable curiosity.

At this age, go with the flow and follow his or her interests. They may not be typical (such as my daughter not wanting to read), but this is an important step for teaching them to love learning. That will carry your child very far. She is presently taking a Latin course and it is satifying word order in sentences and roots, suffixes, prefixes and other questions she has.

Hi Nes,

Mine's 27 now. Our pub. sch. sys. in met. NJ was cold-hearted to 2x Except. It's my belief that you can get better care in a priv. sch. if you shop around. As I look back, I'm sorry I didn't: 1. habituate him to whole foods, no artificial additives and 2. get him into group sports around 5 yrs. (before much soc. anxiety starts) Ours had a problem with social skills. (153 IQ, very asynchronous) I think if we'd have done those, he wouldn't have suffered so much with excitability, adhd, and social anxiety. His mind's amazing. I stayed at home for some years with all 3 boys. Museums, bug collections, plenty of books read, weekly library activities. The more confident they are, the more they can withstand the peer pressure to dumb down and the teasing. He hasn't needed Ritalin in several yrs; they often mature and self-manage better. He's now more organized than ever, cares for his personal appearance, and has made straight A's in college and grad sch. compared to when he didn't do homework and got failing grades in pub. sch. All the best to you all.

My parents would LOVE your post. I hated high school. Every minute of it. I felt like I was in jail, bored out of my mind, and I felt like I would go insane. However, once I got into college...well, let's just say 4.0 with a Ph.D now. My teachers tried to put me on Ritalin, however, back then it wasn't such a big thing to do. I had exceptionally high psychomotor activity, which is commonly misdiagnosed in GT kids as being ADHD. I can assure you that your child will have a very bright and fulfilling life. College saved my life and completely changed my mind about the educational system.

Your DS sounds a lot like Mr W who is now 17 mos old. He walked at 9 mos and ran at 14 mos. He did stairs long before he walked. He prefers kids who are 3-6 years of age. Most people think he is 2-3 years old. He just has to see something once and he has it nailed.

Have you tried Starfall.com?

He will watch the ABC game all the way through and will press most of the letters by himself. I got him a trackball to work with on the big screen TV, but the TV went out right when I got it.

Enrichment:

Our babysitter speaks only Spanish with him during the day and he gets both English and Spanish books during the day and evening. He likes to have 10-15 books read to him at at time. He has brought me some adult books to read to him and will point at them wanting to know what they say.

Music:

He has been exposed to all kinds of music from a very early age. He loves pianos and has one of his own. He also has a recorder he likes to blow on. he has not figured out how to work the IPOD yet, but manipulates us to get to the songs he wants to hear. He has several favorite artists.

He knows and understands FAR more than he lets on.

We let him help around the house - unload the dishwasher, take out the trash, throw things away, - as well as when we go out - he pushes the cart, will put stuff in the cart, and helps unload it at the checkout counter. We try to include him as much as we can.


Oh, and he has a full range of activities - puppet shows ( yes, we lie about his age. ), playdates with kids > 3 years, museums, zoos, ranch, library, book store, mall, grandparents, etc.

He goes everywhere we go.