When this first started, we were pretty wigged out, but since then ... things kind of slowed down. He's not doing quadratic equations at three. I mean, he is starting to figure out the concept of adding, but his cognitive advancement isn't leaping forward in a way which would lead him to Cambridge at 8, so we're learning to take it as it comes.
One thing we've been really careful to avoid is any talk of giftedness around him. We don't refer to him as gifted or tell him he's gifted. We don't even tell him he's smart. In fact, I realized the other day, we don't talk about it at all. And he's at an age now that I think he realizes that he reads and the other kids don't and that this is unusual -- how can he not figure that out when every substitute teacher they have at daycare comments on it, when everyone asks him what signs say? So perhaps at home we need to just acknowledge that this is happening and talk about what it means (he has a neat and somewhat unusual ability at this age) and what it doesn't (that he's a freak).
So this evening on the way home, I decided to mention it. He's been talking about it recently, and he started again.
Him: I can read big words. I can read little words. I can read big words and little words!
Me: yes, you can!
Me: You can read all sorts of things. Did you know that it's unusual to read at only three years old?
Him: ...
I wait. And wait. And wait.
Him: yes.
Me: (trying again) Not many other little boys and girls can read words at only three. Did you know that?
Him: ...
I wait. And wait. And wait.
Him: yes.
Me: That's a pretty special ability you have, you know.
Him: ....
I wait.
Him: Sowbugs eat wood.
Me: Yes. Yes they do.
I guess he doesn't want to talk about it either.
1 comment:
LOL! Maybe his point is that sowbugs also do something cool and unusual that not many other bugs do? (And he has taught me something: I didn't know that sowbugs ate wood. Unless sowbugs are the same thing as woodlice. Clearly my entomological literacy is in need of remediation.)
A colleague of mine has told me about how she and various teachers handled her older son, who also taught himself to read extremely early. First, she sent him to the most non-academic preschool she could find, one where no one was trying to teach anyone to read and the kids spent a lot of time playing games, cutting and pasting (which he wasn't good at), having stories read to them for fun, learning to share and take turns, mucking about with sand and water and paint and plasticine, etc. Then they lucked into an awesome kindergarten teacher who told him very matter-of-factly that, yes, he read the words and the other kids read the pictures, and this was all fine. And nobody thought he was weird at all, at least not because he could already read when he started JK. (He also had some other issues, like needing eye surgery and glasses at six, and braces, and so on...) He didn't, in fact, turn out to be a genius; but he's bright, a good kid, a decent house-league goalie, good at math and Latin, likes to watch sports, self-sufficient, reasonably good to his mum. He's getting his MA in economics this week :)
You know something interesting? All the people (kids and former kids) I know who learned to read early have one thing in common: they figured it out by themselves. Take that, flashcard-wielding hyper-parents!! (Yes, Dad, I'm talking to you :P)
Post a Comment