I am amazed at the talents and abilities of my children. I have a creative one, an entertaining one, an athletic one, a cute one and of course the kid who constantly surprises me, the smart one.
I love them all and try my best not to compare them to each other. However, when I talk about Parrot around Goose she gets jealous and upset. I am sorry but he is only three and he blows my mind every single day. In fact it terrifies me.
All of his life, Parrot has thrived on stimulus. As a small baby he was more alert than a normal infant. He only slept for 20 minutes at a time shortly after birth. Colors, shapes and sounds captured his attention as an infant. I also had to nurse him round the clock. I was his nutrition and pacifier.
Before he was a year old I noticed that his cogitative abilities were a lot more advanced than my girls were. Parrot started doing raspberries at two months and spoke his first word at five months. By the time he was a year old he was talking in complete sentences. I knew I had a gifted child whom would need special attention.
I don’t want to sound like I am bragging about my wonderful child. I’m not. Like I said before, I am scared. I don’t know how to raise a child like this. Every day I worry that I am not giving him the attention he needs in order to reach his full potential. I’m also concerned about how he is going to do in school. Will he get the attention he needs from his teachers? Will the other kids bully him because he is so smart and sensitive? Will I have to find a special school for Parrot?
He can navigate around a computer like most adults can. He also loves to play educational games and has self taught himself elementary school concepts through these games. He know where all the states in the US belong on a map and about 80% of their names. Yesterday he was playing a game where he had to add fractions. The scary part is he got most of the answers right.
God blessed me with my wonderful children and I know that they are all in my life for a reason. I may not understand why today but I pray every day that they will do great things with their lives. For now all I can do is encourage their individual abilities and gifts and pray.
OH my… I remember this stage! You'll do fine as Parrot's mom because you are already aware he is bright and you'll find ways to channel that. I had one of those and he now has 2 masters and has galleries selling his work. He's amazing. AT times he was very tiring to raise but still amazing with the things he made me notice.
Diana
Gifted children are scary and rewarding at the same time. Be prepared to be his advocate since the attitude of many schools and administrators is that you should just be grateful to have a child who's smart and they're too buy dealing with red tape to provide anything geared toward your child's abilities. Take a look at the Davidson Talent Institute: http://www.davidsongifted.org/default.aspx.
Thanks, feefioto. I will visit that link.
Oh my second born was like this and I was home schooling…knowing that I could never fully teaching him to his capacity. God in his wisdom took care of all of it, he is now 25, finished his degree after 13 years of being under my schooling and is looking into a masters program. He has topped out all goals set before him in his company…now we just deal with him talking down to us….LOL He made it and God walked us all through it. The other five just know him as their brother…maybe a little prideful at this time, but their brother….LOL
Blessings as God directs your path for your little one…enjoy!
As long as you realize his potential you'll be fine. I have three smart kids that kick my but, especially in Math and English. I had to take my kids out of public school because they were bored and didn't learn anything they didn't already know. Boredom leads to trouble, especially my youngest son..
The are online curriculum, charter schools etc to help out in homeschooling. You can also take a more un-schooling approach since it seems to cater well to smart kids..It does with mine, and they were at a 9th grade level of Math and Language art at the age of 9 and 8 when they were tested….
Investigate well before you put him in public school, they do a poorly job in meeting the needs of gifted/extremely smart kids. GATE program may be good in some areas, but they were a joke in the several schools we have been to.
wow that would be tough! Knowing just how much to encourage him and provide what he needs must be hard!
I think things will all fall into place and he'll take the path that he's meant to take!