What is your child doing now? (Dec 08) - Page 3

[VanessaS]

Maybe when they're babies they are thinking, "If only I could get up. Then I could walk like everyone else and follow mom down the hallway." Then they get up and find out all they can do is stand there and fall over.

Okay. I had to chuckle at that image.

but not as amazing as a lot of the kids on this board

Actually, to me your kids sound pretty amazing. I think we're all amazed by children doing something we aren't personally used to.

[vaw]

My son Alex is 6 and he is only highly gifted (with LD)

We spent most of the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas doing magnetic experiments.
He has moved on, but hasn't latched on to anything in detail. Our latest mini research projects have included:

meteors (how big can they really be)
black holes
spiders (how many poisonous one live here, can they eat a bird)
wasps (how can a wasp kill a tarantula)
Archimedes principle of water displacement (why does the water go up and down in the bathtub when I get in an out)


I've gotten where I keep a notepad to write down all the questions I can't answer and then we go stump the librarians too
we have flying squirrels, static electricity, fishing cats (do they swim?) and, how do they make legos? so far to look up.


We are currently reading our way through Journey to the Centre of the Earth, original Jules Verne text - because he wants to read the book they kept referencing in the movie.


Still going back and forth with school, but maybe we will be able to make them understand HE IS BORED!
He is in public Montessori and not completing works. The teacher won’t assign him higher works until he completes the lower works.
He tested at 3.6 for math and 4.8 for reading – 99th percentile for both – but the teacher insists on giving him beginning grade level work – sigh.

[Augusta]

My guy is 6. He's in first grade. He started recently spending his free time at the end of the day (the time they get to get organized, pack their back packs etc) going through the calendars in his school agenda. We discovered that he can with near perfect accuracy tell you what day of the week any date for 2008 or 2009 will be. He can also answer questions like "what is the 3rd saturday in April 2009" in seconds. He does the calculations so fast that you'd think he has every single day memorized photographically. I guess he may but when I asked him about it he told me he only had to memorize what the 1st of each month is and then he can figure out any day. Makes sense. But even knowing the 1st of each month I have to think about it for a few seconds (okay minutes) to figure it out. He answers almost immediately. We thought it was kind of cool.

[eilonwy]

Originally Posted by no5no5

I know. I have some sort of mental block. Same goes for clothes sizes. I mean, I know that she is advanced and large for her age, but for some reason I think she shouldn't be more than a year or so ahead...and then she goes & proves me wrong.

I probably shouldn't laugh, but this just struck me as absolutely hilarious. Clothing sizes? Really? Most kids don't wear a size related to their actual age. BeanBean did, and does-- he was always exactly the size that his age indicated he might be (i.e. a 6 month size at 6 months, a 12 month size at 12 months) and everyone in my family laughed and said he was some kind of alien. Bella & BooBah are/were both small for their ages (Bella will be three at the end of March and still wears a lot of 18/24 month sizes), Bear is HUGE (he is also wearing 18/24 month sizes, for length), but Bean's still true to size-- six years old, wearing a 6 slim. He prefers a 7 in girl's pants, probably because the whole low-rise phenomenon makes things a bit uncomfortable down below if you've got hanging bits.

BeanBean is reading The Hobbit. : Yay. It's his first "real" book. He's very excited.

[VanessaS]

I guess he may but when I asked him about it he told me he only had to memorize what the 1st of each month is and then he can figure out any day.

Umm... I found even the caveat astounding.

I always wonder if Becky understands anything we say. Today I got proof that she's not just hearing yada, yada, yada. We were doing "If you're happy and you know it" and she followed along perfectly even though she wasn't facing my direction. She had turned around at some point and just continued facing that direction for the rest of the song. So she must have been able to follow my tone and inflection, at any rate. Not definite word comprehension but still better than yada, yada, yada.

My DS did another 50-number dot-to-dot sheet (in the Sunday paper) correctly and I discovered that he does not, in fact, understand how to count that far up. He's just picturing what the picture is supposed to look like and connecting the dots accordingly. Which is still kinda cool, don't you think?

I watched my DD doing a 18-piece puzzle this morning and noticed that she finds the puzzle board to be a complete distraction. She puzzles exclusively by the picture. The opposite of my DS who matched the pieces' shapes. Interesting.

[no5no5]

Originally Posted by eilonwy

I probably shouldn't laugh, but this just struck me as absolutely hilarious. Clothing sizes? Really? Most kids don't wear a size related to their actual age.

I fully admit that I have some issues. I'm glad you find it so amusing.

I love reading about all these amazing kids. : Keep 'em coming.

I realized today that DD basically knows NO shapes. Except, oddly, hexagon. She has known all of her colors, all of the alphabet, every (common) animal, every common household item, etc., etc., for over a year. I wonder if that is my fault--for failing to actually attempt to teach them to her, though I didn't try to teach her any of those other things either--or if she just isn't a spatial person. It would be odd, because DH & I are both fairly spatially-gifted, math-loving people. Ah well. I told her she could start (very, very relaxed) homeschooling when she turns 3, so I guess that is one of the things I will teach her.

[nimblemama]

My two very spirited children have been testing my patience tonight and am not quite sure what to do with them. Then my dd decided to practice her piano. She is 4 and has been taking lessons for half a year. She is almost done with her current piano book and picked out a more "difficult" song towards the end of the book. She has never played this song before and played it perfectly, even getting some of the harder concepts correct. When she was finished, I told her she played the song wonderfully and she ran off to watch Thomas with her brother. I then justed kneeled down and bawled. My kids are soooo intense, but every now and then they really do something amazing and it just gets to me. Those moments make me understand why they behave like they do and I want to help them develop to their full potential in the coming years. Now the question is, just how exactly do I do that??!!???

[VanessaS]

I totally know what you mean.

I told her she could start (very, very relaxed) homeschooling when she turns 3, so I guess that is one of the things I will teach her.

That's when we started homeschooling, too. I guess it's like preschool but we're doing elementary work. My DS is learning to read now and I can tell he hasn't really caught on yet but he's having lots of fun with it.

[tabrizia]

DS shocked me today by sounding out and reading the word jump. I wasn't really thinking he was quite at that level yet, I know he knows his letters, even if he can only pronounce some of them, but I didn't realize he was up to putting the sounds together to make a word.

He also seems thrilled to follow along on starfall and the learning to read section, not just the letter section, I really wasn't expecting reading or even pre-reading for another year or so minimum, eek!

[MovingMomma]

DD1 came to me tonight & said "Mommy, 3 plus 3 plus 3 plus 3 equals 12!"

I said, "Yes, how do you know that?"

She said, "From my angel blanket." (A 4x3c quilt.)

I told her that there were 4 rows of three, and then said, "Another way of figuring that out is multiplication. 4x3 is..."

And she said, "12!"

We're on MUS Alpha, lesson 10, & haven't talked about multiplication yet. I'm so excited that she figured out the concept. And that I have a place to share!

[EXOLAX]

Our 4 year old has officially started reading phonetically. She seemed to be a site reader, reading really strange words out of context for awhile but totally took off with phonics. She's cruising through the pre-readers. We do though have to offer distractions because she will work herself to the point of frustration.

We think her passion for reading may be coming from watching her 7 year old sister get completely absorbed in books. She's currently into "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman after breezing through her first graphic novel "Coraline". She's alternating though with spurts of reading "The Hobbit" as well but going through that quickly because she choose the graphic novel version of it too.

Both girls love math and ask to play math games or activities a lot. Thanks to some links from another thread DD2 spent a good portion of the day over this weekend making tetrahedrons for her teachers, friends and family. While DD1 was doing that I was helping DD2 learn how to use the compass.

Sadly I am tired of playing chess and I need to work on that because both the girls always want to play.

DD2 has taken up fencing because she needed a physical outlet that allowed her to use a sword. We went for a casual program just for the fun of it. She's a very physical and muscular kid and the coach has taken to her and DD2 apparently is doing exceptionally well (we don't know squat about fencing). While we're not pressure folk we're now looking out to make sure the pressure doesn't come any outside sources because the coach keeps making comments (professionally and in private, but it has made us aware).

[VanessaS]

Fencing? That is toooooooo cool! I'm a big historical-novel buff so the idea of fencing is just... cool.

He also seems thrilled to follow along on starfall and the learning to read section, not just the letter section, I really wasn't expecting reading or even pre-reading for another year or so minimum, eek!

We're in the exact same spot. My DS is just spot-reading some words but he sounded out a few yesterday and I wanted to jump up and shout, I was so excited. I'm a bit desperate for him to learn to read since I currently get chased around all day with books.

[Theoretica]

I love this thread! I don't have much opportunity to talk to IRL mamas about my girls, I feel like I'm boasting or something? Anyways it's great to read about what everyone's kiddos are up to!

So here's us:

7yoDD

-knows *everything* about ancient Egypt. She got an Egyptians trivia game for cmas and gets ALL the questions right...even the 'adult' level ones. I'm lucky to get the 'easy' ones right lol! We were playing the other night and the question was "what is the name of the explorer who discovered King Tut's tomb in..." and she jumps in yelling "1922!! It was Charles Howard (or whatever the guy's name was) and she went on to give the details of the entire expedition. It was cool! There were several other seemingly random facts about Egypt that she knew and it made our jaws drop!

-She writes 'books' (stapled papers) endlessly about really bizarre topics. Her latest is entitled "All About Sex: A Book For Grownups" THAT was fun to explain to grandma...

-She is currently reading The Odyssey. And when people ask that here IRL it's inevitable that folks think I mean some comic book or that we're reading it together or whatever. Nooooo....we're reading Madeline L'Engle together She's plowing through Greek mythology on her own (her other fav topic)

-She read my entire collection of Calvin and Hobbes comic books when she was 4-5, she has most of the entire strip memorized. So now she writes new Calvin adventures, usually to Calvin's demise LOL

-She's currently REALLY into the "Tycoon" games on the computer (Roller Coaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon, and Monopoly Tycoon) and she loves Age of Mythology.

-She spent this morning designing a newspaper that covered current events, the weather, and book reviews. She would LOVE for me to find a newspaper template that is printable if anyone knows where to find one?

8 month old DD: We don't know yet if she's gifted, as she's SO young. But she's definitely a little advanced. We don't know HOW advanced really, but I know compared to other babies we've been around she's ahead. I know there's a chart showing gifted 'levels' that talks about infancy, so if anyone knows where to find that let me know, just for the sake of curiosity

-She's standing independently, can hold and pass items from hand to hand while standing, doesn't usually hold on. She can bend her knees and clap while standing too. She's cruising furniture (since 5 months) and walking while pushing things (toys, laundry hampers, the cat, whatever moves with her holding on) (since 7 months). She's been crawling since 4 months.

-She 'reads' every book she touches. She sits and turns pages, looks at pictures, and talks to the books. It's so adorable! She occasionally eats the books, but usually just sits and 'reads'.

-She's signing Mama, Daddy, milk, more, give me, all done, phone, and she shakes her head 'no'...all in context. She says Dada and Mama.

-She 'talks on the phone' and puts a phone or toy up to her ear and starts babbling. It's hilarious! She also 'types' on the laptop keyboard...but only if it's on.

Thanks for letting everyone share, keep the stories coming! It's so much fun to hear what everyone is up to!

:

Bellevuemama

[VanessaS]

Yeah, this is my favorite thread, as well.

Her latest is entitled "All About Sex: A Book For Grownups" THAT was fun to explain to grandma...

:

[Theoretica]

Yeah...one of the many reasons I'm THRILLED to be homeschooling


Bellevuemama

[mom2ponygirl]

Originally Posted by eilonwy

[color=DarkOrchid]

BeanBean is reading The Hobbit. : Yay. It's his first "real" book. He's very excited.

That was ponygirl's first real chapter book at age 6 as well! She got a little worried at one point and I had to tell her that Bilbo would be okay so she could finish it. She was motivated to read it once she heard there was a dragon in it!

She's 10 now and still into dragons. We just got the letter a couple of weeks ago letting us know she won the Book Arts Bash poetry division for 3-6th graders! : She was ecstatic. She used her Barnes and Noble gift card that she won to get Coraline,The Tales of Despareux (we loaned out our copy and it disappeared), The Giver, and Animal Farm by George Orwell - what a combo!

She got to spend a couple of days with her super bright step-cousin who is a freshman in college. He's another math fanatic and they spent some time working on Number Theory problems over Christmas. The rest of the cousins thought they were freaks, but they didn't care!

[VanessaS]

Congratulations to her! That must be so exciting.
And cool that she has someone to "hang out" with.

[eilonwy]

Originally Posted by bellevuemama

She's currently REALLY into the "Tycoon" games on the computer (Roller Coaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon, and Monopoly Tycoon) and she loves Age of Mythology.

Bean's been asking for Age of Mythology. He's played Age of Empires, but for now we figure he's busy enough with Majesty and Civilization IV.

Originally Posted by mom2ponygirl

That was ponygirl's first real chapter book at age 6 as well! She got a little worried at one point and I had to tell her that Bilbo would be okay so she could finish it. She was motivated to read it once she heard there was a dragon in it!

Bean's not into dragons; In fact, the mention of Smaug had Bean quite disturbed until I told him that there would be swordfighting later in the book. Oh yes, and the "magical map." Map + magic = COOL!!

She's 10 now and still into dragons. We just got the letter a couple of weeks ago letting us know she won the Book Arts Bash poetry division for 3-6th graders! : She was ecstatic. She used her Barnes and Noble gift card that she won to get Coraline,The Tales of Despareux (we loaned out our copy and it disappeared), The Giver, and Animal Farm by George Orwell - what a combo!

What a fantastic selection of books!

She got to spend a couple of days with her super bright step-cousin who is a freshman in college. He's another math fanatic and they spent some time working on Number Theory problems over Christmas. The rest of the cousins thought they were freaks, but they didn't care!

That's so cool. Mike's sister recently married a man with a 16 year old son who's something of a math geek. He's a bright kid, and gets a real kick out of talking to me because I find his math jokes terribly amusing. When we went over for dinner, he was wearing a t-shirt that said, "There are 10 kinds of people in the world; Those who get binary and those who don't." I have the impression that he doesn't often get to hang out with people who get his jokes. In any case, he had a nifty new toy that he brought to the huge family gathering to show me-- it was (i believe) a magnetic icosahedron. He was terribly excited about it. I just thought it was adorable that he was just as eager to show someone his cool new toy as BeanBean might be.

[Theoretica]

Originally Posted by eilonwy

"There are 10 kinds of people in the world; Those who get binary and those who don't."

HAHAHAH! I've actually never heard this before...hilarious!!

OMG I *love* playing with logarithms...it gives me such geek glee :

[Aufilia]

For Thanksgiving we flew to visit my FIL and stepMIL. Their kids are all 20+ and they didn't have any toys. Finally FIL found some cars (DD's very favorite thing lately) and a wooden US map puzzle. We were there 3 days, and in that time she managed to figure out all the state names and (mostly) where they go, even though the puzzle frame didn't have state lines. She was much more aware of the whole traveling process this year and very excited to learn which states she'd been to (8 of the 50; we traveled a ton back when she flew free).

She's been really into pretend play for the last month or 6 weeks. The first time I noticed was the day she got down from the breakfast table and announced that she was going to the moon that day, and that she was going to take her favorite duck and her cars with her. I asked if she had a rocket ship, and she told me of course not -- she was going to go outside and hold onto her helium balloon, and it would fly her there. She's come up with a number of elaborate stories lately, and her collection of toy cars is always up to something -- she lines them up in the living room and feeds them food from her play kitchen twice a day. Her bathtub duckies are all different duck breeds now (Mallard, Scaup, Merganser, Wood Duck.. the list goes on) and are divided up into dabbling ducks and diving ducks.

The last time her physical therapist came she told me at the end she never did pretend play with her kids for a whole hour, but Vivian was still going strong when she left.

She's been singing a lot, too. Just this morning DH asked me if I'd taught her Jingle Bells. I didn't. I think she learned it at school. Her version includes the first two stanzas.

Oh, and while we were with FIL we visited the Salt Lake City planetarium, and she picked out a bag of rocks in the gift shop for herself. That bag of rocks kept her entertained for the whole week we were away. She played with them constantly until she started putting them in her mouth and I had to take them away from her.