French Toast Girl

Gifted?

More reading I've been doing lately, in between going through my collection of old Ellery Queen novels, has been stuff like The Survival Guide for Parents of Gifted Kids. Paul picked this up from the library with Sophie in mind, but reading through it actually put some things about Angela in a different light for me. Regarding her behavioral issues, some of the points hit home -- for intstance, acting up out of boredom (which she has freely admitted to me) and her stubborn need to do things her own way, and the fact that she tries to negotiate with me about them like a little lawyer. (She's 3.) While I'm not labeling her anything, it's certainly opened our eyes to a wider scope of what we might be dealing with here.

As for Miss S., we've known since before she could talk that we were dealing with a kid that was off the charts. At her one-year checkup, she knew all her colors, body parts, and about 10 shapes. She taught herself to read at two, can write, draws constantly, can find all 50 states on a map.... we just keep trying to answer her questions and feed her thirst for knowledge, and make sure she gets outside a ton and plays away from books. (She's 4 now.) The other night at dinner we were talking about opposites with the kids. After a couple of minutes we had gotten through all the obvious ones, and I said, "Tasty.....?" Sophie thought for a minute and said, "Inedible."

And Petey.... I think Peter is biding his time. He's been working on seeing how far he can jump and pretending he's cooking the family gourmet meals; a habit that I for one want to encourage. :)

Labels: kids