Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Response to "easy" questions

This might be kind of rambling, and I guess my question is do I try to make her be serious and answer the question correctly or let her be "silly" since she knows the answer.

Whenever DD who is 2 and 1/2 is asked a question she knows the answer to by anyone, us or other adults such as in her co-op pre-school group or library story time group. She gives the wrong answer and gets a goofy grin on her face and giggles. If she is asked which one is larger, or smaller, lighter or darker...I think she finds these questions to easy. She has known these concepts since she was one and is extremely verbal, on par with 6 years old verbally. If asked what color something is she will give the wrong answer many times and laugh hysterically or just give a mischievous grin. Now when she is just speaking in everyday conversation she will tell you what colors things are correctly, which is larger, smaller, smallest, etc.

Other people believe she thus does not know the concept because she is giving wrong or, as she will tell me "silly" answers. This isn't really a problem right now, as DH and I know she knows the concepts and I don't really care what others think, but I am concerned about when she starts school. I am already thinking about kindergarten, and possible early admission since she has started to spontaneously read some words, can memorize entire books after hearing them once or twice, etc. Of course I am thinking of having her tested around 4 to do early entrance to kindergarten.

I don't know if this is just a phase or if she will keep this up. She is definitely a ham and has a sophisticated sense of humor, which surprises adults that she is around. I wonder if I should make her be serious and answer the questions posed to her by others seriously or just let it go and hope she grows out of it and eventually understands that even if a question is easy and bores her she needs to answer it correctly.

She has even told me certain questions or activities posed to her in her groups are "easy for me mama" or boring.

So sorry for the ramble, but guess I want to know if I should try to nip this reaction to easy questions in the bud or just let it be. THANKS

She's a baby. Please, please, please let her be silly. Silliness is what childhood is all about. And 2 is way too young to learn about right answers and wrong answers. Just laugh right along with her. And the next time she asks you a question, do the same thing she does.

Ty, that is what I was thinking. I just wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing. I have been just letting her have fun and be silly and she likes it. But my MIL was telling me I should make her say the right answer if she knows it and I strated to doubt myself. Should never listen to MIL LOL

Hi, I would agree with the previous poster. Let her be silly and play along if she knows the answers and is bored. Most adults will know by her grin or giggle that she is being silly. DS4 still does it when watching Go Diego Go. At the end there are questions about an animal and he shouts the wrong answer thinking it's funny. I think your MIL is proud of her and wants her to show off her skills, maybe.

Jen

Jen, Ansley does the same thing with Diego. "does a slouth like to swim or drive a car" and she will scream out drive a car and laugh hysterically LOL. Thank you both for reaffirming what I have been thinking and doing.

Wolf did the exact same thing and I was ok with the silly answers as long as I knew he knew the real answer. Good news is that he's 5 now and in 1st and understands the need for serious answers vs silly ones.

It means she has a terrific sense of humor, far advanced for a 2 year old! I agree with everyone - let her be silly!!! You'll be amazed how differently she will be when it comes to school time. And if you're lucky to get good teachers, if you don't HS, they will see through the silliness, IF it even exists with them. Both my DC, especially DD3.5 are VERY silly when it comes to answering easy questions outside of the school setting, but both of them get more serious when dealing with teachers at school.

Your DD sounds so cute and funny! My DS would give silly answers to easy questions all the time at that age. We sometimes had opposite days in the house (still do).

We did warn his preschool teacher that he sometimes does things like that if he thinks it's easy; we suggested giving harder questions to see what he did, and never heard of any problems in preschool, so he probably just answered correctly. And during the kindergarten screening, which DS did at 3, he liked showing off to strangers, so he didn't mind answering any of the questions.

He went through a (short) phase where he wanted workbooks. So we did some. I found that if he did something once, he would do it correctly. If, later on, there was something basically the same, he would answer incorrectly on purpose. I ignored that and went on to newer material.

You mentioned possible testing. One time I did talk to him about giving correct answers was before his IQ test at age 4. I told him that he will probably be asked some questions that sound either too easy or too silly, but answer them anyway because you have to answer correctly to get to the more fun/interesting/challenging questions.

DS used to do the same thing, mostly when he started a pre-school at 3. they said they wouldn't have academic stuff which is why I put him there. But I observed one day and they held up a circle and asked DS what shape it was. He said it was a hexagon and then laughed. It was white and he said it was pink. I never cared, just thought he was bored and making a game out of it. He didn't do it forever in school...just for a bit. And whenever I would agree or say "right" he would quickly be like "no, no, that's not what shape it is" and we would play back and forth. I loved all the silliness because it ends too quickly.