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You Know You're The Parent
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 ...Your
6-year-old and 11-year-old discover anime and manga, and a year later
they are deep into self-study of Japanese language and writing. -- Liz |
| This morning my kids and I had a lot of fun walking around the neighborhood looking at the yard sales and having a BBQ. The kids were all saying thanks and talking about the books they found. I asked, "Who is the best mom in the whole world?" All of the other kids laughed and said, "You are, mom." But my old-soul 6-year-old said, "Boy, that is quite a puzzle. I think you are a good mom and you do good things. But I have only experienced one mom. There are millions of moms in the world so, if you are looking for a compliment, I will say you are. But I really can not possibly know for sure. Even if I did know every mom in the world, it would just be my opinion, not a fact." :-) That'll teach me to ask a cocky rhetorical question to my very literal son. -- Heather |
| On the day my 6-year-old promoted to the first grade Sunday School class, he marched in and announced to his teacher, a high school math teacher, “I know what 27 + 27 is. It’s 54!” Surprised, she asked, “How do you know that?!” He stated confidently, “Because 20 + 20 is 40, and 7 + 7 is 14, and 20 + 14 is 54!” The amazed teacher replied, “I wish you’d come explain that to my algebra students!” -- Nan |
| My 5-year-old had a geography assignment to write the names of nearby towns that were to the north, south, northeast, southwest, etc. of his community. He not only wrote the names of the towns, but also their populations – from memory! When he realized that one of the towns was not directly northeast of his community, he wrote a clarification in the book: “north northeast”! -- Nan |
| My son, who
is four years old, has been writing stories for two years. I can only share
these with a handful of people who "understand." He loves to use MS
PowerPoint to write, illustrate, and animate his stories. He has been doing
this for two years. During the same time frame, he also expanded his art
work to creating fully animated karaoke programs. Lately he has been
writing, directing, and producing his own little movies. These are
definitely not going to win an academy award, but I think they are so cool
for a 4-year-old. He posted his latest, a music video, on YouTube. (He loves
YouTube.) So, shamelessly, I'm posting the link here. Where else can I hope
that folks will appreciate it :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWkVO6Bp8VM -- Sars Editor's Note: Sars posted this on one of the gifted support mailing lists. If you could use a little support and a safe place to brag about your gifted kids, try subscribing to one of these communities: Gifted Mailing Lists, Message Boards, Blogs |
| Your 6-year-old is bored with her Barbies. So when there's a project on Egypt, Barbie is, well, mummified. And a paper mache sarcophagus is made. The sarcophagus shrinks as it dries, so Barbie doesn't fit. Never mind, I'll amputate, says your daughter gleefully, and off come the feet. Perfect fit! Mummies and sarcophagi are much more interesting than ordinary Barbies! -- Helen |
| You know your 9-year-old is gifted when he climbs into bed with you early in the morning, falls back asleep, and then IN HIS SLEEP recites: "The Pythagorean Theorem is A squared plus B squared equals C squared." -- Shulamit |
| When my goddaughter (GD) and her mom have this tradition called "ice cream situations." If one of them has a bad day they can call an ice cream situation and they'll go and get a pint of Ben and Jerry's and find a place to cuddle and eat the ice cream. Yesterday GD got out of preschool and she was upset (she hates preschool) so her mom asked what was wrong and GD said, "mommy, it's an ice cream situation. A Funky Monkey one, not a Cherry Garcia one. -- Angie |
| When your three and a half year old, who taught himself how to read a bit before two, and then self-taught the Hebrew alphabet (and some Hebrew) at two and a half, and picked up some Italian in the interim, sees the Greek alphabet and asks to learn that, too. You get to the lambda, and he cries out "that's just like a Hebrew gimmel, but gimmel is a 'g' sound, and lambda is an 'l!' That's so cool. I love Greek!" He then begins bouncing on his bed yelling out his just- learned Greek alphabet "alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon... I'M LEARNING GREEK! YIPPEEEE!!!" and then "Mama, I have to pee: can you come with me?" -- Sarah |
| My older daughter was an early reader, and has always been socially asynchronous. Her preschool teacher told me in the spring, when my daughter was a few weeks past 4, that "she really appreciated and was amazed by how our daughter dignified the answers of the other children." My daughter would listen to others, and then generously referencing the answer of another child, she would extend their thought into another realm or level of concept. Her tone was never a put-down, but rather the notion that the other child would continue his/her thought in this (her) manner if s/he had more time or more words. My daughter is now 22. She finished a double major in French and English, and is now in graduate school in an ELL program. She tutors at a Hmong high school in all content areas. -- Teresa |
| My younger daughter has strengths in visual perception and touch. She wanted to know the geometric names of the shapes of all of my (big 1980's) earrings when she was 2 and 3 years old, and she would remember them and apply the terms to other objects independently. She would tell me at a second-hand shop that "this scarf is not silk, Mommy" by feeling it. She used to count things for the sheer joy in it. As a preschooler she would count the number of seconds it took for traffic lights to change, and could then predict when to "go". After we had large garage sales, we would close down and clean up the outside, and be surprised (the first time) to find our 6-year-old already spreading out all the bills and coins on the living room floor to count them; she was accurate with amounts up through $900. We never showed her how to do it. She is now 19, a graphic arts and design major with computer science minor, and will probably complete her B.F.A. in 3 years. -- Teresa |
| Your 2 year old loses his balloon and yells, " Quick! Someone get me an airplane!" -- Steven |
| Your 4 year old decides to finally show you how well she can read and write by writing a letter to Santa all on her own in two minutes... requesting a computer! -- Jenna |
| My son was always coming up with interesting connections. When he was 16 months, his father was tossing a tennis ball straight up as high as he could. When he stopped, my son ran to the ball and picked it up proclaiming, "Oh Poppa!! Ball moon sky!!! Ball moon sky, more!" -- Wada |
| When he was 19 months we were driving in the night across Nebraska when he asked, "Momma, is the moon a hole or a ball?" I asked him what he thought, he said, "It's a ball, but it looks like a hole in the darkness with the sun shining through." Wow. -- Wada |
| Then when he was 4, we were driving at night again when he asked, "Momma, why are the trees darker than the darkness?" -- Still Wada |
| Our other son, 8, is our quiet boy. I often wonder what gems of wisdom and insight we've missed from him because his brother runs circles around him in the talking department. One observation he recently made to our friend was, "I don't feel the war in Iraq will ever heal. It needs to be left alone to grow and develop as the people there determine. America needs to pull out of there and put all of its resources into the coast guard to protect us from terrorist. We need to block the seas as well as the lands. I know it seems isolating but it is the only way to preserve our sense of safety and well-being. That's what the terrorists have stolen from us.My little guy is scared of terrorism and I didn't even realize it. -- Wada |
| My son's K teacher was doing an exercise with the kids about different kinds of words--words for people, animals, places, and objects. First, she asked the class if there were any people in the classroom. Everyone said, "Yes! We're people!" Then she asked if there were any animals in the classroom. There was silence since they don't have any class pets. Then my son said "dust mites!" -- Cathy |
| My soon to
be 4-year-old started playing a game of "What goes with" after reading a
book which had riddles. When it came to... What goes with books? His answer "Bookmarks." What goes with Theory? His answer "Albert Einstein." What goes with eyes? His answer "Pupils and eyebrows." What goes with the planets? His answer "The sun and satellites." What goes with a naughty boy? His answer "Naughty Corners." He also loves homophones, synonyms and antonyms. -- Bharathy |
| My son, age 6, comes into the kitchen today and announces that, "I am just like Pluto. I am small and always cold and people always try to downgrade me by saying I am just a little kid." -- Heather |
| Your 6-year-old is struggling with cutting some tape for a craft project and finally succeeds in getting a somewhat mangled piece off the roll. He looks at it and then exclaims in delight, "Hey, look - a Mobius strip!". -- Elissa |
| I took my daughter to her 4-year-old check up. The pediatrician started asking her developmental questions, pointing out letters both upper and lower case for her to identify. Then the pediatrician asked my daughter if she could count to ten. My daughter looked her right in the eye and said "Well, yeah, I'm very intelligent!" The young intern who was working with the pediatrician busted up laughing and asked the pediatrician "Well, does that answer your question?" -- Julie |
| Some kids have imaginary friends. When my daughter was three she was an imaginary friend. C had an alter ego named Krissy. C was 3, however Krissy was 15. C does not like not tamale candy, but Krissy does. She would only answer to the name Krissy at times "I'm not C, I'm Krissy." And couldn't understand why she couldn't write her name as Krissy on her preschool papers. She no longer needed to hold my hand in the parking lot because "Krissy" was 15 and wasn't a baby any more. C and Krissy were "cousins". -- Julie |
| My 8 1/2
year-old son had drawn an interesting diagram on his Magna-Doodle. It looked
kind of like the flux diagrams that I remember from physics classes oh so
many years ago... "What's that drawing?" I ask. "It's a Klein bottle," he replies. "OK... What are those arrows?" "It's hard to explain. It's like the direction that water would flow around the bottle, if gravity weren't pulling on it." Oh. So it is a flux diagram. But in four dimensions. -- Dan |
| My 4-year-old daughter was watching my 17-year-old make dinner, which includes a sauce made (primarily) of tomato paste and vinegar. She walked over to me and told me, "The pH of the sauce is less than 7." She also came back a few minutes later and asked, "What if we added baking soda?" She likes chemistry experiments that end in an explosion... -- Brandel |
| My daughter was a math kid - and could count almost as soon as she could talk. When we put her into a pre-school, the 3-year-old class had to count to ten for their first "report card." My daughter came home with hers stating she couldn't... which confused me. So I asked her to count.. after a "heavy-not-again-sigh" she counted. The next day I questioned the teacher who stated that she called each child up and asked them to count privately, and my child couldn't do it... that she randomly called out numbers... I asked my daughter to count... again the heavy sigh and counting... the teacher asked her why she didn't do that yesterday. My daughter informed her that she did, and added "you didn't say do them in order." When she said that, the teacher realized she had named every number from 1 to 10, didn't skip one or repeat one, they just weren't in order. -- Tami |
| My 5-year-old Cheetah, being tested for Kindergarten, was sitting across from an examiner. The man would hold out his fingers and say really slowly "How many fingers am I holding up?" My cheetah patiently answered correctly for a few turns and then suddenly started giving numbers much higher than what the examiner was holding up. I was confused until it dawned on me that my cheetah was doing a running score of how many fingers were being held up because he was bored. The tester was dumbfounded when he realized it. Those cheetahs... when they run fast, they are out of sight. -- Danielle |
| It is my daughter’s 100th day of school project from Kindergarten. The teacher told them to go home and make a project that included 100 of something. She decided she wanted to do 100 animals at an African watering hole. She made eggs for many of the animals and counted them when tallying up the total #. She also made sure to only include African animals (so you won’t see any tigers or pandas). Another thing I just noticed looking at these old pictures is that she (accurately) made the female lion hunting. She had just turned 6... -- Rachel |
| You know you're the parent of two gifted children when you are doing Isaac Asimov's Super Quiz at the dinner table and the question is, "Who said, 'Eureka!'" Your 7 year old says, "Wasn't that the guy who got into his bathtub and displaced the water?" Then your 4 year old shouts, "Archimedes!" -- Cathy |
| Your 5-year-old points out from reading the labels, that two pills of the very expensive children's Motrin is the same dosage as a single pill of the very cheap generic ibuprofen the rest of the family uses. I double-checked with our doctor (who wasn't at all surprised that Cheetah figured this out), and she's right, it's the same dosage. "See Mom? I saved you money!" -- Carolyn K. |
| Your 4 year old receives a "Shark Tube" (a collection of a dozen or so small plastic sharks), and announces that it really should be called a "Cartilage Tube" when he spys the sting ray that was included with the sharks. -- Maria |
| Your 4 year old invents and uses new Roman numerals to represent numbers higher than 5000. "GGGLQQHMDCCXXIV". -- Brian |
| Your preschooler insists on being the "banker" in Monopoly. -- Brian |
| Your preschooler can recite the opening lines to all of the Cosmos episodes. -- Brian |
| Your preschooler seems to have facility with fractions, exponentiation, and basic algebra--and you aren't sure where he picked it up. Then you drop in on him at his school and find him helping one of his teachers with her college mathematics homework. -- Brian |
| Your 4 year old starts writing his name with "Ph.D." after it. Mommy and Daddy both have Ph.D.'s, so he thinks it must be a hereditary trait. -- Brian |
| Your 7 year old asks what the X at the beginning of a chapter means. 5 minutes later he is adding and subtracting using Roman numerals up to 100. (He would have gone higher but I couldn't remember them.) I had to remind him not to do use them for his in school math assignments. -- Erica |
| And you know you are raising two gifted children when, to pass the time on a 4 hour drive, your 15 year old teaches your 9 year old logarithms. As mental math. -- Debbie |
| Your 6 year old watches his 12 year old sister using a graphing calculator, grabs your old calculator and gets upset when it won’t graph. -- Debbie |
| You take your 9 year old to an Italian museum that has ceiling frescos and when you come to a room that has lots of Roman gods and goddesses, she looks at the ceiling and says “Mom, why do all the other gods have their wives with them but Neptune has his sister?” (They were not labeled—she figured it out by their attributes.) -- Debbie |
| Your 9 year old comes down from bed, an hour and a half past bedtime, with tears in her eyes: “Mom, its so sad when Patroclus dies” (She’s been reading Homer unabridged under the covers.) -- Debbie, once again |
| You catch your 7-yr-old in her room with one of her wrapped Christmas presents, a tape measure, and a small notebook, making "calculations" to try and guess what's in her present! :She was measuring length, width, depth, and diagonals. Shaking it and writing down the results. She was even trying to figure out the weight of the wrapping paper and bow, and subtract that from the overall weight of the present. She was recording all her calculations in the notebook. -- Jill |
| Last Christmas our then five year old declared that Reindeer weren't real. When we asked him why, he said that they were like Santa - he's not real either. We started looking for ways to "prove" to him that they were real, but realized that everything could be faked - TV, internet, pictures. We ended up detouring to a farm that raised reindeer to show him that they really existed. This year he acknowledged they are real, but was very insistent that they can't fly. -- Amerika |
| In my case,
it's "... should have known ..." -- I was definitely clueless! My
3-year-old daughter was swinging on her swingset and shouted "Mom! Look what
I can do with my prehensile toes!!!" as she picked up a branch off the
ground using one foot. And on another swinging occasion at dusk, a bat
flew overhead: "Mom! I can hear its echo-location!!" And what were clueless mom's thoughts? "Man, she's been watching way too much TV." (Her favorite channel was Animal Planet.) -- Deb |
| You pick up
your 2-and-a-half-year-old from preschool and have this conversation: Mom: "What did you do at school today?" Child: "We did the letter M." Mom: "Did you have a good time?" Child: "Mom, I want to get to Z!" Mom: "Why is that?" Child: "Because I know all the letters already!" Mom: "Well, if you got to Z, then what would you do?" Child: (wistfully) "Silent E..." -- Cathy |
|
 Your
8 year old daughter puts a tiny Polly Pocket doll into an empty, unplugged
plug-in air freshener, turns to you and says "Look, I made her an MRI."The same 8 year old child points out (after watching the Dr. Seuss cartoon "The Zax") that if you keep going north (like the North-going Zax, who claims to ONLY go north), eventually you will start going south, and vice versa....while if you were to go east or west, you will always be going in the same direction...and then proceeds to demonstrate on her inflatable globe. -- both from Morgan |
| My 4-year-old daughter watched a friend of ours fixing your iMac (turned out to be the motherboard), transfixed by the whole software and hardware process. The next week, my dear husband was giving both kids a bath and was getting frustrated with them not listening. Finally he burst out with "Why won't you two cooperate?". To which my daughter responded "Cooperation has not yet been installed. Would you like to install it now?". -- |
| Your 3-year-old responds to a new adult acquaintance’s question, “Are you in preschool?” with the reply, “No, I’m homeschooling, which means that you don’t have to take a break during the summer!” -- Marynna |
| We were driving somewhere with his grandparents and my 2-year-old asked me a question. I honestly replied, "I do not know sweetie. I have NO idea." He thought about my obviously unsatisfactory response, then carefully asked again, "Well, do you have a YES idea, then?" I knew then, that I would have my hands full. --Amy |
| As we were riding in the car the news came on the radio. The reporter began a story about a polygamist that was arrested in Utah. My 8 year old daughter asked me to explain what a polygamist was and I did, and then I said the word was related to polygon. My daughter replied, “Oh yes, I see, it’s exactly like the polytheists of ancient Egypt.” -- Karen |
| We were playing a rhyming game. In turn, each of us would say a random word (not too easy) and then come up with a few rhymes for it. After 4 rounds, my 6-year-old blurted out "VIOLIN" and we were all silent for about 5 seconds. Then he said, "MYELIN" to make the rhyme. I stared at him, and he responded by touching his body and declaring, "It's something in your body." -- SW |
| I don't know what sparked him to say it, "I just don't get kids...they only like the things they're good at, and then it's boring--in like, two seconds." So, if he isn't a "kid" at 8, what is he? -- SW Another mom answers... An old soul? |
| My three-year-old decided to tell her grandparents what it was like in Mommy's belly. " I started out tiny and then grew bigger and bigger. Then I just wanted to get out, paint my nails and get some knowledge." -- Jennifer |
| My son recently decided to raise guppies, and was looking up guppy genetics and not really finding what he was looking for. I suggested he look up Mendel and went to bed. When I woke up the next morning he was discussing specific dominant and recessive guppy traits and the benefits of outcrossing vs. line breeding. He hasn't shut up about guppies for more than 30 minutes in months. He's planning to sell his baby guppies to the neighbors; his back-up plan is to sell them back to the store. He is ten. -- Brandy |
| My friend's 2-year-old daughter showed me a nature "trading card". I looked at it and said to her, "Oh, you have a picture of an alligator!" She looked at me in horror and said, "No, it's a caiman!"...and she was absolutely right! -- Morgan |
| I brought my 8 1/2 year old daughter on a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As we strolled through a certain gallery, I explained to her that some of the paintings were done by Monet, a very famous artist. She replied, "You mean they're Impressionism?" -- Morgan |
| My 6-year-old was starving and dinner wasn't ready yet. He was begging for something to eat but I didn't want him to spoil his dinner. I had just put the pasta in the boiling water and looked at the box to see exactly how many minutes it would be before he could have his dinner. I showed him that it would only be 12 minutes (according to the box). He looked at me as if in horrible pain and shouted "But Mom, that's 720 seconds!!!!!" -- Christine |
| Over dinner, my 5-year-old expressed concern that the carbon dioxide causing bubbles in Dad's beer is poisonous. In the ensuing discussion about the atmosphere, I point out that oxygen is only about 17% of the air we breathe. I am corrected, "Actually Mom, it's 21%." -- Elissa |
| We were on
holiday with my 17 month-old son. We were at an art gallery, which had
a balcony that was at the same level as the tree tops, so they had a bird
feeder to attract the local parrots. My son wasn't interested in the
art for long, so I had led him onto the balcony to watch the birds, checked
it was safe, and was hovering a short distance away. Another patron, a
middle-aged man, went out onto the balcony and spoke to my son: Man: "Who's that you've got there?" Son: "Pingu..." (an amusing claymation penguin character, whose visual humour had my son in stitches) M: "He's got a big red nose, hasn't he?" S: "It's a BEAK, actually - he's a BIRD.....and anyway, it's orange." (said in the most admonishing tone a toddler can manage) Well, needless to say, the poor man nearly fell backwards off the balcony in amazement! He turned around to me, blushing madly, and announced "I think I've just been told off by a baby..." -- Louise, who, in hindsight, should have worked out way earlier that this child was going to be more than just 'quite bright'... |
| My son was testing to skip Kindergarten. He was asked if he could count to 10. His response was “What ? In English?? He then did it in English, Spanish, French, Russian, Chinese, ASL, and Japanese... -- John |
| For my son's
10th birthday he and I went to Rome--his choice. I had *no* desire to go at
all, but he's a history buff and really wanted to go there. It was awesome! The sights were wonderful. We had a hole-in-the-wall hotel, but that was ok since we were almost never there. My son knew everything about everything. I thought about hiring a guide in Pompeii, but he said, "That's ok, mom. I can show you around." I was doubting some of his information. "This used to be a restaurant. Here's where they would put the food to keep it hot. Part of this is missing, but there used to be a shelf right here..." Then we paused to let a tour group go through. The guide started speaking. "This used to be a restaurant. Here's where they would put the food to keep it hot. Part of this is missing, but there used to be a shelf right here..." I was floored. A couple more things like this and I stopped doubting him. -- Rebecca |
| Our 2 1/2 year old was with us while we were showing her grandparents a John Stewart about the government skit on the computer. There was lag of course. After watching it with us for about 10 minutes, the lag became so bad, the skit seemed to end. Our daughter looked up at us and said, "Does that man have any more ideas?" -- Jenna |
| After watching the final episode of Star Wars, your 4-year-old asks ..."if Anakin is a Jedi night who is not really a bad guy is really Darth Vader then after he killed all those people will he still go to heaven?" -- Dawn |
| Your two-year-old is watching a commercial for a lawyer's office and the catch line is: "If you have a phone you have a lawyer!" and he looks at you and says, "Mommy, you have two phones, you have two lawyers!" -- Eta |
| You discover your 9-year-old is putting all his homework in a computer folder titled "Stuff the world could do without." -- Allison |
| Four reasons
you know your 9-year-old PG child is going to a school where he's finally
found intellectual peers his age: 1. One of his best friends is runner up in a contest sponsored by the state gifted association., winning a trip to DC where he will interview politicians. 2. The school lists this accomplishment in its weekly bulletin and happily allows the boy to ask classmates in class some suggested questions. 3. Son's other best friends says: "Ask them when they are going to impeach Bush." 4. And the fourth graders actually understand the question, and get the irony. And laugh. -- Allison |
| My family
spent twenty minutes last night trying to identify one of the Flintstone
vitamins. We poured them out and found Fred and Wilma, Barney and Betty,
Bam-Bam and Pebbles and even Dino. But we could not figure out the one
that looks like an alien. -- Barb Another parent replies: It's The Great Gazoo! The Flintstones |
| My 6-year-old son came up with this restaurant joke: What kind of font do they use in restaurants? Answer: Menuscript. -- Kathy |
| My daughter
isn't quite 4 yet... Knock Knock Who's there? Howard Howard Who? Howard you like to eat at this restaurant? The real cute part is she came up with this while getting a mild scolding from me about something as we got to a restaurant. She's already using humor to deflect discipline... just like I used to do... that's my little girl! -- Debi |
| Your three-year-old wants to be a Big Boy for Halloween. No, not a big boy, a Big Boy. It’s one of the largest successful steam locomotives ever built. It has four lead wheels, two sets of eight drivers each, and four trailing wheels. Heaven forbid I should get any of that wrong! He’s going to be upset that I haven’t figured out a way to include the tender, since all steamies need tenders. “Mommy, you know better!” -- Beth |
| My 8-year-old is going to be a math tree... he is working on the design now, he will have roots (square, cubed, etc.) at the bottom, Fibonacci sequence up the trunk, fractals for branches, forgot what he told me the leaves would be -- prime numbers I think... every year he tries to incorporate a math theme :-)) -- Debra |
| When all your sources of covert discussion of cookies are decoded by your two-year-old twins - they learn to spell cookies, they learn Pig Latin, they begin speaking ubbi-dubbi.... You are forced to resort to foreign languages and ever-more-complicated synonyms. -- Nancy |
| I was just diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. My nine-year-old daughter has been concerned about me getting enough rest and relaxation. Yesterday she decided to help me relax by planning a "spa afternoon" for me. She made signs "Giselle's spa" and then mixed aromatherapy products in a bath for me to relax in, and gave me a facial, a manicure and pedicure. She put on a yoga tape for me to do, and then gave me a back massage. After that she helped my husband make a healthy dinner for me. It was very relaxing, but I was blown away by how thoughtful and selfless she was being (this is a child who usually seems to think the entire world revolves around her and her emotions). -- Sue |
| Your four-year-old comes out of the bathroom and says he knows what 3 times 3 is. What? you ask, playing along, knowing that he's mimicking his older brother who is learning his multiplication facts. He answers "9." Completely baffled about how he could have figured this out while in the bathroom, you ask the child how he knows that. He answers that his footstool in the bathroom has shapes on it that make a grid and he counted "three rows by three columns." He then goes back into the bath room and says he knows what 4 times 4 is ... It provided a good half an hour of entertainment as he worked his way up. -- Amy |
| Your
7-year-old gets into trouble at school for not standing during the Pledge of
Allegiance. He stands when asked to by the teacher but protests at home
afterward -- "Why should I have to stand? I don't stand when I pray at home ..." "The Pledge is not a prayer." "It sounds like a prayer and we talk about God." "That's true ... but it's really not a prayer." Finally, you tell him that standing and reciting the Pledge is about being respectful to our nation. "Oh, o.k. ..." -- Amy |
| You're six-year-old asks, when seeing you going to sit down at the computer, "Why aren't you running Nor-Ton?" You have no idea what the child is saying (poor kid has speech issues) -- "What do you mean, Nor-Ton?" Child says, "You know, to keep the computer safe from viruses..." (Duh, Mom!) You begin to get a clue but have no idea where the idea came from until you see the manual for Norton Anti-Virus nearby and it all becomes clear. The manual was, of course, previously on the book shelf. You find out he's been reading it for fun. And yes, he's right -- Norton isn't running. He helpfully tells you he could turn it on for you. You decline and say that Dad (the software engineer) is in charge of which programs are running (thereby successfully passing the buck because now your head hurts with the idea of a six-yr-old who reads computer manuals). -- also Amy, who's got her hands full! |
| “Why is it never tomorrow? What time does it turn into tomorrow? Can I stay up and watch it? What will it look like?” -- Anne |
| They can
read backwards before they're potty trained. and... At age 3, at 7:00 a.m., when you're barely awake they want to know "What does falling in love mean?" and "What is God made of?" Sorry, but Mommy doesn't do the "meaning of life" questions until after 9:00 a.m. -- Nadeen |
| Before bed your almost-6-year-old son asks, "Mom, are we REALLY alive? or are we just toys that God's grandchildren play with?" -- Paula |
| You're not a *real* parent of a gifted child, until you've stepped on a Lego at 3 a.m. -- Shell |
| When you call your 7-year-old daughter to the table... "Okay, put the calculator away now. It's time for dinner." She replies, "Mo-ooom, I just want to do one more function!!!" -- Tamara |
| A few days ago, my six-year-old son and I got into the car (one of the very hot days of summer). My son started to put on his seat-belt and touched the metal. He yelped and then looked at me accusingly and said "Mom, you let the molecules move too fast again." -- Erica |
| When your just-turned-5-years-old simultaneously sucks his thumb AND excitedly watches his new pre-algebra video!!! -- Heather |
| You are just trying to get your son to come up with three clues for kindergarten "letter E sharing" before bedtime, and you end up having to research and discuss whether electrons are point particles that have no measurable size and how that could be for something that does have mass. -- Yvonne |
| Your wife is
an atheist, you are an agnostic, your 5-year-old has been to church less than
2 times in the last year, yet when he is given 2 children's Bibles (3rd and
4th grade reading level) for Christmas, you get called into the principal's
office because your child is the 'Playground Evangelist', spreading the Word
on the playground and in the cafeteria of a public school. I believe our best advocate in the school is the principal. The teacher and assistant principal were in the meeting, but missed the relevance of the fact that this little Apostle came from a godless home, but I could see the light go on in the principal's head. -- Tom |
| ...when
Reading children's bible stories at night with your 5-year-old is
challenging..."Mom, I don't know if you're smart enough, but I have a few
questions." On the creation--"When God made the earth, what made it stay in space?" he did not accept my answers of God being all powerful good enough which led to brief discussions of gravity and the law of physics. Adam and Eve--"Why did God make that tree?" I said to see if Adam & Eve would obey. "I don't think that was very smart of God. Because he knew about that crafty snake. If any part of that apple was in my mouth I'd spit it out immediately. God sure messed up by planting that tree." Noah & the ark--"I understand that Noah was good and he got on the boat with his family and that the other people were bad, but why were their kids bad? And what about their animals and pets because some animals got on the boat and some animals didn't, so are animals good and bad?" Joseph being sold--"The whole problem with this story starts with the dad because he was mostly good and some bad. He's bad because he had a favorite. That's just wrong. It made his brothers upset. What they did was wrong, but it's all the dad's fault. Haaman in Esther story-- "How can one man be so bad that he wants to kill a whole country of people and why would everyone else let him? It's not fair and very upsetting." "Mom, it's okay, we can stop reading--I know you're head is hurting." |
| You're driving down the Blue Route (and you all know why it's called the "blue route"), 2 parents, 2 kids, 2 laptops, one connected to the Internet by the cell phone, having just picked up the girls from SATs and talent search Saturday classes, looking up the vocabulary word your eldest wants defined, having read it in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" - just the reading material typical of 13-year-olds, right? What a picture! -- Mrs. Hoagie |
| Our 7-year-old son wanted to find out when his favorite cartoons were showing. He checked the cable menu only to find that the listings all said TBA. He ran down to Dad and said "Daddy, all the listings for cartoon channels say To Be Annoyed." Now, he giggles when we tell people about this - that he has created a joke that adults find funny. -- Crystal |
| My 8-year-old
son had missed multiple days of school for the combination of IQ and
achievement tests, as the tester kept scheduling him for more sessions as he
used up their time allotments before reaching his limits. "Mom, if I keep getting the answers right, do I get to miss more school?" "Yes." "OK, Well then, I guess I will keep giving them the right answers." "Well, don't you always try to give them the correct answer?" "Not exactly, sometimes it is more fun to show them a more interesting answer." And we wonder why these guys don't always score as well as we think they will! -- Marilyn |
| Why would a
pig would be eating beef? I mean, sure...going to the market I
understand. And, if one goes to the market, it's best if one returns
home, so that's acceptable. And the piggie that had none--well that's
just a little sad, but not weird. And then the one who squeals wee wee
wee all the way home--he's just doing what pigs do best and I understand him
best of all. But that pig that eats roast beef. Do you think the
pig feels guilty for eating the roast beef? Perhaps the pig is almost
starving and is left without options. Under those circumstances, if you
were the pig, would you eat roast beef? Do you think there's a roast
beef eaters anonymous for little piggies? -- bath time discussion with my
8-year-old -- Cathy Anyway, the whole pig-beef issue worries me." |
| I finally
realized that the voice I was hearing in my office today was coming from my
cabinet. Specifically, it was from my purse inside my cabinet. My precious
9-year-old not only figured out how to record his voice onto my cell phone,
but also how to make that recording my new ring tone. It was only after it
stopped that I realized that the slightly static voice I'd heard, but been
unable to understand, was the recorded voice of my son saying, "Hey, you've
got a phone call... Hey, you've got a phone call..." This is the same child that got a real chuckle last year out of using the demo phone at the office supply store to call me while I stood in line at the checkout, and to call home and leave a message. Never a dull moment! Does this suggest a future in communications? -- Carol |
| We had a variety of molds, including stachybotris, a.k.a. toxic mold. It was actually rather amusing when we went back for an inspection with our attorney and our landlord... Our then 3.5-year-old son had been learning all about stachybotris, so he led the tour. Neither the attorney nor the landlord had any idea what to make of him... -- Corin |
| (or, Why it's
hard to test a two-year-old...) Tester: Hides an object under a cloth. There is a block sitting nearby. "What is under the cloth?" Child age 2: "I don't know, I want a different problem" Tester: "What is under the cloth?" Child: "I don't know, lift it up and let's look" Tester: What is under the cloth? Twin one " I.... DON'T.... KNOW!!!!!!! but it isn't a block!!!! Days later I have a similar cloth sitting on the table...child sees it and laughs...."I bet there is a hat under that cloth!" (yes, giving the correct answer that she wouldn't give to the tester.) -- Marilyn (Note: this is NOT the actual test question, just the child's actual reaction...) |
| My
five-year-old is a voracious reader - non-fiction only. We went to a flea
market and bought him several new books on geography and weather. As we drove
home, he was in the backseat reading. "Mommy, did you know that Tennessee is
the damnmedest state in the country?" I figured I hadn't heard him right. I asked him to repeat himself. "Mommy, Tennessee is the most dammed state in the world." OK, so I start getting worried. We don't use that kind of language. Where did he hear that? "It's right here in my book." My husband is laughing and making it harder for me to keep a straight face. I ask him to read it word for word. "The Tennessee Valley has more hydroelectric plants than any other region in the world." -- Mary |
| My 8-year-old son asked yesterday, "Why doesn't the letter 's' want to be seen with 'c'? Because that would create a 'scene'!" He cracked himself up. -- Amy |
| As you are
snuggling your just-turned five-year-old to sleep, he tells you that one
classmate is his best friend, and another is his "half" best friend. A
girl he is not so fond of his is one-quarter best friend; a child he dislikes
he describes as his "one eighth or even one sixteenth" best friend. Then, before falling to sleep, he tells you he loves Daddy "four-halves" and Mom "eight-halves." -- Alison |
| Suddenly I realized that all of his neediness as a baby wasn't insecurity (that's what the baby books said), it was because I was his conduit to information. Even as a baby he literally expected me to carry him around and show him everything. Throughout his babyhood, I was a dependable transportation and information device. -- Debbie |
| My introverted
9-year-old told me recently that he was happy that he now had 5 friends at
school. I was rather surprised by this number, and asked him to list them. "X, Y, and Z, My Brain and Whatever Book I'm Currently Reading......and I think that My Brain is my best friend, as he's always with me, has lots of interesting things to say and is never mean to me." -- Louise |
| So, my
6-year-old comes down tonight and she's made herself business cards. They say:
{my daughter}, Kid Gingyus "Genius, huh." I say. "If you want people to take you seriously, you might want to spell 'genius' correctly." "I'm a MATH genius." Oh. (She doesn't really think she's a genius or anything--she was just joking.) So, then we had this whole conversation about why the spelling of words is standardized. She says, "Everyone will know what I mean anyway." I say, "But sweetie, we standardize the spelling of words so that everyone can recognize the words. Think about a stop sign. Wouldn't it be so confusing if some people spelled it 'stup' and some spelled it 'stoup' and some 'stop'?" "Mom, it's a red octagon. Everyone knows what it mean--who cares what it SAYS?" -- Barb |
| My son recently lectured me on the incorrectness of using the word "empty" to describe anything on earth, since technically unless we are discussing a vacuum, there is air filling the space. He's 6. -- Sara |
| This morning's breakfast conversation with my 8-year-old including a five-minute mini-lecture on HDL vs. LDL, and the following mind-bending question: "What if DNA were a Moebius strip instead of a double-helix?" -- Sarah |
| Conversation
between a mom and her 8-year-old son... a. I would like to change my name mom. Why? a. When I convert it into numerical code, I would like the sum to be prime. I have tried my first name, and my last name, and both, but none of them are prime. mom. Maybe we can find a prime nickname. a. Ok, great ! -- Marilyn |
| I remember that day when my son was 3, and I was driving home from his daycare (yes, daycare), and he asked me "What is the biggest number and what is the smallest number?" I told him the numbers just go on and on, and we call it infinity and negative infinity. I had already explained the number line. I was quite certain that the other moms were not explaining infinity on the way home. I think that's when it hit me that this kid was really extraordinary, and suddenly I realized that all of his neediness as a baby wasn't insecurity (that's what the baby books said), it was because I was his conduit to information. Even as a baby he literally expected me to carry him around and show him everything. Throughout his babyhood, I was a dependable transportation and information device. -- Debbie |
| Why did my dear child have trouble falling asleep? Because he was trying to do a math problem in his head and was having a wee bit of trouble turning a base 8 fraction into a base 8 decimal (or is that an octimal?) in his head when he was exhausted! Once I figured it out for him (and he finished chiding himself for not seeing it, because he'd been so tired), he fell peacefully asleep. -- Meredith |
| I work in a school and was screening a 5-year-old kindergartener for gifted. I showed him a picture of a hexagon and asked him if he knew what it was. He replied, "Of course I know what it is. It's a hexagon." Then he added, "Actually, if you cut it in half, it is two trapezoids, one on top of the other." -- the Kindergarten teacher |
| When my kids played soccer and they got to chose their own number for the back of their jerseys they always picked 42 and marveled that no on else picked it. So they'd be out there with teammates #1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, etc...and then, 42. -- Kathee |
| When my 18-month-old daughter requested Coke to drink, I went to the refrigerator and grabbed a cup that had Coke from a day or two ago and gave it to her. My daughter said, "Mom, this doesn't taste like Coke, what is it?" So I gave it a taste and said, "I'm sorry, honey, this is Coke but it is flat," and I took it away. I got two steps away from the table when my daughter said, "Mom, I prefer round Coke." -- Sara |
| When my son was just starting kindergarten, he kicked his older sister and was sitting on the couch crying and throwing a tantrum because he got in trouble. (All I have to do is tell him he is in trouble, and he gets upset.) In the middle of the tantrum, he stopped suddenly and asked me if "kick" was spelled with two k's, two c's, or one c and one k. I explained how it was spelled. He looked at me for a moment, then went right back into his tantrum! -- Karrie |
| After a difficult day with my 6- and 9-year-old, I threatened to finally go back to the working world and hire them a baby sitter. For a moment, I though my 9-year-old would miss me when he spoke up and said "Aw Mom, a baby sitter would never meet our needs, Maybe you should hire a philosopher!" -- Sue |
| You have a have a row of clear plastic zip-lock bags on your kitchen bench, which contain all manner of foodstuffs. They are numbered, labeled and dated in true scientific fashion, then left and examined at regular intervals! Your 6- and 8-year-old kids are fascinated to see the decay process 'in action'. Some went slimy, others grew technicolour 'fur' and others got shiny dots! -- Louise |
| You know you're the grandparent of a gifted child when... your grandchildren are visiting, they're playing with the neighbor boy, and the 7-year-old boys are being a bit... like boys. Your 3-year-old granddaughter puts her hands on her hips, and tells the boys to "Stop that insipid behavior!" -- Kate (And her parents don't even know where she learned that word!) |
| When your 2-year-old suddenly begins climbing down out of his high chair at dinner time and, when asked where he's going, says "Go watch Jeapar-wee." And he proceeds to do so, glued to the television until Final Jeopardy is complete. (He's 15 now and I asked him the other day why in the world he liked the program so, since he obviously didn't know the answers to the questions. He answered, "Mom, I just loved to listen to the words. It was the language." This is a kid that's 12,000 words into writing his first novel, set in an original fantasy world of its own.) -- Carlene |
| At 5 we made him try soccer. At the end of the first practice I asked him "How did it go?" and he answered "Mom, you won't believe it! There's this girl, and her dad's a BIOLOGIST!" -- Juli |
| Your 5-year-old takes an astronomy class, and the teacher asks people to draw a picture of what the Earth would look like if there was no gravity. Everyone else draws the "correct" answer, with people floating away, etc. Your child draws an asteroid-looking thing. His response to the confused teacher: no gravity, no atmosphere. No atmosphere, no life. -- Patti |
| Your six-year-old is "it." She counts
to twenty, unhurriedly says, "Ready or not, here I come..." and then says in a
voice pitched just loud enough to carry..."Jaaa-son, I have a piece of
chocolate for you." Item: she has no such piece of chocolate. Item 2: Jason comes at a dead run, where he is promptly tagged and finds himself "it." -- Barb |
| My not-quite-3-year-old likes using homonyms as a way of giving me a hard time -- if I say I need a stamp, she'll ask, "Stamp? Like with your feet?" and I'll say "No. I need to mail a letter." "A Letter? You mean like A, B, C?" and so on. -- Donna |
| Your 7-year-old tells you, "The teachers are really nice people, all of them. And I understand about other kids needing to learn. But sometimes I wonder - what about me, in terms of learning?" -- Allison |
| Your 2.6-year-old announces that half of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich looks like Utah -- and it does (and you don't live in Utah), and then declares that the other half looks like Montana (He was right -- and we don't live there either!) -- Sarah |
| We've never used the word "gifted" to
our 6-year-old son, preferring instead to discuss how he learns quickly. On the way home from school the
other day, he announced that he "drives his car on the freeway," while "most
kids drive on the main roads," and "some drive on the neighborhood streets." After a moment to process this analogy, I said (trying to start a discussion on his feelings about school, a situation driving us all nuts) that it would be frustrating for a freeway driver to slow down on the main roads. He agreed and stated he felt like he went to a neighborhood school (speed-wise analogy, remember, not a slam to any local public schools). Although I would have given his school a higher speed limit than that, I think it illustrates his current frustration quite well. -- Sarah, and her older son |
| Your 5-year-old who is just learning to read points to his baby sister's picture book and says the picture is an iguana. Being helpful, I say "No honey, it's a lizard, see, the first letter is an L." He says "No Mom, it's an iguana, lizards can't curl their tails." After checking with the local nature center I discover he is right, of course, and the baby book is wrong! -- Mary |
| Your about-to-turn-7-year-old requests a Palm Pilot PDA for her birthday, instead of a GameBoy! Two years later, and she's still using it... -- Carolyn K. |
| My daughter (three in a week) was sitting on
my lap while we played the "and what starts with the letter ...?" game. I
said, "And what starts with the letter "d"?" "W." (Double-you.) I was a bit unsure of how to respond since she so often is playing the clown. But you know, she's RIGHT! -- Barb |
| Your 6-year-old's preferred waiting-for-restaurant-service activity is sweetener packet binary math. Sugars (white packets) are 0's (because white has zero color, of course), and blue (or pink) packets are 1's, and then I have to calculate the binary value (she's always up to the 1024's place so far) and see if it matches her calculation. -- Carolyn K. |
| You are putting your kids to sleep, telling them quietly "now is the time for all the animals on this side of the world to go to bed - all the boys, all the girls, all the mommies..." and your sleepy seven-year-old interrupts you and says, "Mom, did you know that early primates were colorblind, which made them nocturnal? So unlike today, they wouldn't be sleeping right now..." -- Allison |
| My 4-year-old was riding in the back seat of our car and talking about "doing Math" (she loves to do first grade Math sheets). At one point I said something like "Yes, Math is good for you." She abruptly replied, "No, Mom, proteins, complex carbohydrates, calcium in any form... these are good for us." How we got from Math to food - your guess is mine, but I couldn't help but laugh! -- Heather |
| My mother, a teacher, said she would try to explain palindromes to my 5-year-old son, because she is currently doing that with her third and fourth graders back home. All she told him is that they are words that read the same frontward and backwards, like "mom." My son sat quietly for a few seconds and then said like "race car." My mom immediately said no, like pop or bob. I had to jump in and tell her to think about race car for a minute... she almost fell out of her chair, it was priceless!! She said she would have had to write it down to see that... -- Debra |
| Your two-year-old takes up a spatula and bangs out the first few measures of "Ode to Joy" on his little toy piano. I looked at his other mom and said "Fluke." Then he banged out the next few measures, and then after a minute or two, the next few. As if to say, "You think? Not." -- Jay |
| Your 5½-year-old daughter announces:
“I love you THIS much.” With the backs of her hands together. You see, “this means none” (palms together) “and this means infinity!” (backs of hands together). -- Ambre |
| Your 7-year-old begs for a new book,
with just Romeo and Juliet, because she can't carry the Complete
Illustrated Works of Shakespeare volume around (about 10 pounds!). But
it has to be the original text. So you sit on the floor of the bookstore, reviewing different books of Romeo and Juliet with her, all original text. First, she finds an error in one of the books... it's missing a key word in a narrative. She picks another, with a modern translation on the opposite page. And that's what she buys with her bookstore Christmas gift card... And this is the kid who would barely read chapter books a year ago! -- Carolyn K. |
| I should have known my child was gifted years ago when her teacher complained that she tuned out during class, and seemed to have difficultly focusing on her work. Any parent that hands their 6-year-old a book about ADD/ADHD to read and see if it sound like them, should realize that their child is gifted! |
| After three and a half hours in an art museum, you suggest to your three-year-old that it might be time to leave (because you're exhausted), and she begs to stay: "But mommy, we haven't seen all the paintings yet! Can't we stay a little longer, please?" -- Brenda |
| We were at a tourist trap where the
offered delights included pink and purple candied popcorn. I laughingly
said to my daughter, then 6, "Well, they have your demographic!" She asked what a demographic was, and I broke it down for her, Greek wordroot demos + Greek wordroot graphic, and then I turned down her request for me to buy the aforementioned pink and purple candied popcorn. (I'd seen what Grandma had already bought). And off we go, to the next tourist trap. The kicker? While leaving, I heard the counter-teens talking to each other 'Oh, that's what demographic means." Sigh. I hadn't really even thought I was doing anything odd. -- Karen |
| Your 7-year-old awakens in the night and you find her devouring the last chapter of the Harry Potter book she started reading earlier that day. |
| Your 5-year-old comforts you when you've got a cut by saying, "Don't worry, mummy, the platelets will fix that." |
| The second time you try to use reverse psychology on your two-year-old, she stands at the balcony, hands on hips, grinning down at you… “Mom, I know what you’re doing.” |
| A cashier asks you for your phone number on a check, and your 22-month-old answers correctly for you without looking up from her "Arthur" book, then returns her pacifier to her mouth. You just smile and shrug your shoulders at the cashier's incredulous look. After all, YOU don't even know how she learned her phone number! |
| At dinner, your five-year-old asks what infinity plus one makes. He isn't really asking, he just wants to tell you his theory that it must be less than infinity. |
| You walk into you four-year-old daughter's playroom, where she creates vast and intricate scenarios with all her little plastic figurines, to tell her it's time for preschool. She looks up and says indignantly, "Mom! You are disrupting my game!!" |
| Your 4-year-old boy on gender differences: "Have you noticed that boys like to solve their own problems and girls like to solve boys' problems? Now that's a problem!" |
| Your 18-month-old makes his first pun... Says he, holding up the cross shape from his shape sorter, "I'm cross with you mummy", with a cheeky grin on his face. |
| Your barely four-year-old daughter already attends a preschool for gifted children, where she has learned to read, add, subtract, etc. Nevertheless, she asks to attend night school so that she can learn more stuff. After all, she explains, there is an awful lot to learn. |
| Your 18-month-old walks from the garage saying "all done" with a screw driver in hand... and a wheel from the tricycle in the other. (yep! I got pictures and 2 neighbors as witnesses...) And yes, she took it all apart. |
| You ask the whole family, "Does anyone want P-I-Z-Z-A for dinner tonight?" and your just-turned two-year-old answers, "Yay!" |
| After his first scary movie, your nearly 7-year-old son has a nightmare... He dreamed that he was in a huge, huge library trying to find information about a particular dinosaur... and he couldn't find the information. He raced frantically from book to book, but the research was just nowhere to be found... |
| Your 2-year-old decides to learn the Latin names of cacti. You can imagine how people look askance at our toddler who could tell an Opuntia from a Candelaria! |
| Your 4-year-old is watching a show on domestic cats, and sees a gray cat, and exclaims "He's just like Mungojerrie (our white cat) and Macavity (our black cat) tied together!" |
| Your 7-year-old sees the Business Math papers you're grading and asks why all the work is so easy, and then explains what the pupil did wrong on a question! |
| Your child in kindergarten remembers the spelling of "level" which your 3rd grader is studying . . . she says it's easy because it's spelled the same way front and back, so she only has to remember 3 letters. |
| A sitter reads a story to your 2-year-old, with the words, "There was a blizzard outside, and it was snowing," and he comments, "That's redundant." |
| Your son comes down stairs fairly late, and says, "I'm having trouble sleeping, but one good thing is that I thought of a funny joke. Why can't 2x2 +5x + 3 eat?" I don't know, of course... "Because it's a polynomial (poly no meal)!" <very big groan> |
| After hearing your son's joke, a friend's son asks "Why won't 5x + 3 eat at McDonalds?" ... "It's a binomial (buy no meal)!" |
| Your almost 6-year-old asks how much longer it will be till we get there and you answer, "we are going 70 miles an hour and it's 30 miles away," and she says, "oh.......27 minutes." |
| The doctor tells your 5-year-old she will give him some goop to put in his sore eye, and he says, "Oh, you mean antibiotic ointment." |
| You find your child at 4 a.m. watching a nature video and reading an encyclopedia because he had a dream and wanted to check its factual content. |
| Your child takes 3 different books along on a picnic to 'classify' any creatures you may come across. |
| <img src="_themes/hoagies/btzbul1a.gif" wid |
