Reality check in Wal Mart - Page 3

[StephandOwen]

Originally Posted by mammal_mama

But then I realized it must have started out in the gifted-child forum and then got moved here

Originally Posted by staceychev

This is indeed what happened.

I'm glad I read all the way through because I was about to make a snarky comment too

Can I request it gets moved back to the gifted, if that is where it came from? It kinda seems braggy "look what my kid can do" and I don't feel that's appropriate for the general parenting forum. Kinda sucks for those of us whose kids aren't doing age appropriate things (though I realize my "home" is in the special needs forum so kick me back there if need be ).

[mammal_mama]

Originally Posted by limabean

I was wondering when "reality check" started meaning "moments that reinforce my belief that my kid is smarter than all the rest."

[lindberg99]

Originally Posted by limabean

Oh, is that what happened? I was wondering when "reality check" started meaning "moments that reinforce my belief that my kid is smarter than all the rest."

Maybe manufacturers are putting higher age limits on puzzles, etc. because more people will buy them because it makes them think their kids are super smart!

[lilyka]

my oldest one was about 5 or 6 before she could do a simple 5 peice "puzzle" (you know the ones that were more find the right hole than putitng peices together) and still would only do them if i sat down with her and made her. her sister on the other hand could do them by the time she was a year or two. and the baby of course, true to to form, did stuff exactly when the lable said she would do it. she also crawled, walked, slept through the night and self weaned exactly when the baby books said she would. she was also spontaneously born at a regularly scheduled Dr. visit. weird little baby!!! (for the record she is accidemincally advanced but delightfully bubble headed, a social butterfly. easiest kid ever, except that she has no body awareness and is constantly injured. I love Ava <3 )

So here we are 7 years later, the two older ones are of average intellegnce. but have crazy different interests and areas of strenghths and weaknesses are opposite. I think some kids just gravitate towards puzzles and others don't and besides the obvious saftey issues the ages on packaging are average. there are going to be kids who are interested in those things much earlier and much later and those who are never interested and those who are interested in it long past what seems normal.

Just because my children may be interested in something labled for a child much older, i don't take it as a sign of any sort of superiour intellegence. I take as a sign that that particular item is something that sparks their interest. and when a child is more interested in something they are going to be highly motivated to figure it out.

[hipumpkins]

I'm 39 and still struggle with Melissa and Doug multi piece puzzles. I never liked puzzles.

[lindberg99]

Originally Posted by hipumpkins

I'm 39 and still struggle with Melissa and Doug multi piece puzzles. I never liked puzzles.

I think they are definitely something you either like or not. I like to do them but DH doesn't. He'll pick up a piece and if it doesn't fit where he first tries to put it, he tries to force it in. My 9 yo DS is the same way, although he generally won't even work on them. But my other two kids love them.

[griffin2004]

Originally Posted by SquishyKitty

This is a very strange thread lol.

If puzzles are a measurement of how smart a kid is, well my son must have the intelligence of a lava rock because he's never liked them nor been good at them.

Not a lava rock at all! My DD doesn't particularly like puzzles because, as she told me, "there's only 1 right answer and how boring is that!"

[lach]

Originally Posted by limabean

Oh, is that what happened? I was wondering when "reality check" started meaning "moments that reinforce my belief that my kid is smarter than all the rest."

Especially since that apparently just means knowing your letters at age 3, which I don't really think of as "gifted." My 2.5yo is the only 2.5yo I know who doesn't, because she doesn't watch TV or play with Leapfrog games. All of the other 2yos I know learned their letters months ago from TV shows.

Manufacturers don't really take cognitive ability into much account when they put those ages on toys. It's all just to avoid lawsuits because of child saftey hazards. I really wouldn't take those age ranges too seriously.

[Theoretica]

Originally Posted by limabean

I was wondering when "reality check" started meaning "moments that reinforce my belief that my kid is smarter than all the rest."

[lilyka]

Originally Posted by griffin2004

Not a lava rock at all! My DD doesn't particularly like puzzles because, as she told me, "there's only 1 right answer and how boring is that!"

We used to have a couplke of puzzles that you could mix up the peices in lots of different ways to make silly animals or mixed up houses. those were the only two puzzles my oldest dd liked and she played with those preschool puzzles probably until she was 9 or 10. i may have been spotted playing with them a coupld of times. even my child who likes puzzles played with those longest. I hadn't thought about it before but it is quite likely that there wasn't just one way to put it together.