Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion The ultimate brag thread

Not really a brag about ability, but happiness at sticktoitiveness. DS put together the first sample robot from Lego Mindstorms, Shooterbot, all by himself, though it took him a while. He seems to be picking up the visual programming environment quickly, too, though he has only recently learned a little about programming prior, and in a Java environment at that.

A quote from last night: "If you see someone throw a villain into a dumpster, that doesn't mean he's a hero. He might be a supervillain."

Here's my addition to the board:

My son, 23 months, learned (in less than a day) to say the alphabet backwards and now we're constantly counting forwards and backwards, as he loves numbers. Last night, he wanted to count backwards from 35 (which he did), so tonight I expect we'll be doing from 40.

Without any real math instruction prior to 3-4 months ago, and no math exposure beyond simple counting and other games (Punch Buggy, The Ladybug Game, etc.), my five-year-old son is now well on his way to completing third-grade-level math, at least if you go by indications of the IXL website tied to our state standards. He has completed some of the skills up to the fifth-grade level. This is not a brag so much as a sigh of relief for me, at not putting him behind by focusing so much on verbal and problem-solving skills early on.

He continues to improve in his ability to work without fear of failure. (It has been slow going at times for us, but like anything else this is a skill that can be learned.)

I installed some puzzle games on my Android phone recently. One, called "Glow Puzzle", asks you to complete a tour of points connected by paths, traversing each path exactly once. He was excited to try this, but then was chagrined when he didn't get the eighth puzzle on the very first attempt. He wandered around for a while essentially afraid to attempt it, until I gave him a brief pep talk; then he quickly zipped up to number 35, spending no more than about 30-60 seconds on each one, and completing each one on the first try. My wife and I had previously tried these and had each had trouble on a few of them (they are a mixed bag), but not him. Before doing 35 he announced that he was getting bored with it and wanted to take a break, so after doing that one he did. He can also do quite tough "Bubble Blast" levels, which take me a while, with ease. (Edit: Over at a friend's house last night, he was able to do "GalCon" puzzles on the purple level, some in under 20 seconds.)

DS19 is really "blossoming".... I don't mention him much because he is already in college, but he is also MG (probably just MG, but maybe higher). Last year, he buckled down and got fabulous grades. He's already off to a good start for that this year. He has had a lot of (college) Major changes due to his multiple interests. He is now thinking of Minoring in one of his interests as well, which would help let him pursue more than one of his interests. (Chemistry as a minor, Enviromental Engineering as a Major, I believe is what he settled on last, but he's also tried out Physics and Computer Sciences {he's one of the top programmers in the nation, according to the FBLA contest he was in} )
This summer, he had a injury/illness of his lung which required some surgery and almost a week's stay in the hospital. He *plowed* through books on math and science.
I think coming from the reluctant reader, kid who dropped out of gifted programs because they were too much work, and performed not nearly up to his potential in high school, I think he has turned into a very fine young man .

That is a wonderful update Bassetlover! It sounds like he has really come into his own and now that the choices are his he is more able and willing to work hard. Thanks for sharing.

How terrific, Bassetlover! He indeed sounds like a fine young man. It's so great for those of us with littles to hear stories about kids further along the path, too--what an inspiration!

peace
minnie

I put this in the preschool thread but I'm a put it here too- get double mileage out of this brag. My boy's still over a month away from turning three and I wrote these words on a separate sheet of paper and he copied them by hand into a little booklet printout. I *think* that's on a level of third of the way into kindergarten or maybe something like a bright 4yr. old. ? Either way I'm impressed, again.
http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad296/Hablame_today/ead2bff7.jpg

We are keeping our fingers crossed for our DD4 who is in Pre-K at her Elementary School. Her teacher informed us yesterday that she has talked about DD at Staff meetings and is trying to get permission for DD to go to the school library and check out AR (Accelerated Reading) books and for DD to be able to test for them on the computer. She said she will let her start on a 2.4-3.6 level. We were worried that she was just there to play and help other children. I looked up the series she is currently reading (Rainbow Fairies) and they are a 3.3 to 5.0 level so I think she will move up quickly. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

DS6.5 started last week playing "Kid Chess" once per week at school. On Tuesday, when I picked him up, the chess coach overheard me saying I was there to pick up DS, and he went on and on how he has yet to teach DS more than a few basics, and is truly amazed at 1. how quickly he's picked it up and 2. how he studies the entire game as opposed to just the move (as in he's thinking ahead). He's only played chess a handful of times with me, and it's been at least a year since the last time and that's it. It was a very proud Mom moment. The chess coach is very excited to teach him more (me too)!