Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Do all Gifted kids have early academic interest?

Yep.
We never used flashcards or gave worksheets to our kids because we believed it would actually have the effect of loss of interest for learning and schoolly stuff. Each started school with high expectations then quickly learned how mundane the worksheet/multiple choice test early elementary curriculum really is.
We did not want them to know that fact in advance.

eldertree, great way to describe Gifted. That's the stuff my kids display (which makes parenting quite interesting....)

Our local school district seems to view gifted mostly as "high achievement" and so do many parents that I know. So it's tough to advocate for my kids when there are kids showing higher school achievement early on. Some of my neighbors question why I drive my older kids to a GT magnet school everyday when their kids are "fine" at the local elementary and well above grade level in achievement testing.

Oh it's not that I want to. It's more about what some others with kids his age are doing locally and making sure I'm not doing him a disservice by not presenting more formal cirriculm. There are some families in our neighborhood that push formal learning starting age 3 or so. I think some of it is cultural and I guess I'm feeling like I should be keeping up (they do lots of rote memorization.) It seems so important in our local elementary that kids have high achievement coming into school for GT services. Seems the families that push this stuff do so because they say their kids are "cognitively ready" even though in most cases the kids have no interest in doing so just yet.

It helps to see these comments because I think I am reassured that he's gonna be ok without this stuff. My preference is to spend time reading to him, taking trips to the museums, parks, doing legos, etc.

When my DS8 started a new preschool/daycare at 3 I met the teachers and they stressed that they did not push academics and were more play based. I remember worrying about this, thinking he would somehow be behind the curve when compared to all the kids going to more academic oriented preschools. Then I heard reports that studies were showing more and more that children in play based pre-school did better later on in school. (I also remember my DH used to quote a report he heard about providing a "toy rich environment" as we looked around our excessively cluttered family room )

It is easy to fall into the trap worrying whether we are doing enough for our kids, but I worry that we may be doing too much too soon. Play is so important to learning.

We did do a lot of what spiritedmama mentions - reading, zoos, museums etc. And he showed an early interest in computers (at 8 months old he wanted to sit on my lap and press the keys and watch the screen) so we spent a lot of time at the library playing different games.

Ultimately, the best advice I could give is to follow your DC's lead and your own feelings.