Any parents of gifted children here ?

[shylyn]

tamarind:

When my girl was below 2 years old, I actually did not believe that any children at that age can understand and recognize words. So I never tried to teach her any words in the same way that you taught your boy. Now I knew that I have wasted that precious period of time when she could have learnt so much more.

Taramind
It is never too late to realize and nurture your kids’ intelligence. To me, I will also try to put some time away each day to spend with my boy, be it reading, playing together or talking to him. In fact, I’ll feel guilty for not accompanying him when he’s awake. Think I need to achieve a balance..cannot have my life centered around him..else it is also like ‘pampering’ him as well.

tamarind:

Your boy is one of those children who are excellent at word recognition Has he started to learn phonics in his MMI class ? That will enable him to read words even without you teaching him

Actually, my boy knows how to pronoun words that he has never come across based on the phonetic manner. I didn’t actually teach him phonics, not sure whether MMI does, but what I did was to ‘break up’ the words, using my hands to cover part of a word & read out the sound to him. He was even able to read out dialect names of my mil, fil, friends..etc So he wasn’t only able to recognize words..I guess when he was younger, maybe he did that but definitely not now. Now I’m only trying to cover more materials to let him achieve understanding/comprehending of the sentences as well..

tamarind:

Your boy is still very young, his attention span will improve when he grows older. At this age, I feel that mommy is the best teacher. You can try to think of interesting ways to teach him at home. For example, you can teach him the concepts of adding and subtracting by using real objects, like grapes, sweets, or even his toy cars, etc.

Crossing my finger that his attention span will improve with age..Thanks for your suggestions of the ways to teach them..I will try to include teaching in daily life as well ..i guess the possibilities are endless. I’m only trying to find time & effort to let him do more creative stuffs (like what u let ur kiddos to do), baking, painting, art & craft etc. I used to do that when I was young..but gave up all once I started JC.

tamarind:

My girl's PCF kindergarten has chinese spelling tests at K1. Checkout my blog. Scroll down to the bottom to see the word lists. The words are not easy !

http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2008/05/learning-chinese.html

Wow..I cant believe that at such a young age, they have to have spelling!! I rem disliking spelling a lot during my Pri sch days..schooling these days are definitely not easy already. How do u teach your girl spelling then? I think I will have a difficult time teaching my boy in the future..

[shylyn]

sleepy:

sleepy:

[quote=\"EN\"]Sleepy wrote
Learning is a life long journey. There is nothing to stop you from learning new things. There is no need to be certified gifted in order to obtain master, PHD or scholarship. Anybody can do it given their own motivation to work for it.

Yes, true. I studied till 29 yo
Then realized my interests shifted after all these years at home , no longer interested in my specialisation. Oops!

In fact, learning how to be a nurturing mom is a new specialisation for me, still learning everyday

Just to add
Agreed nothing to stop us from pursuing Masters or PHD at 55yo or any age
Learning is definitely a life long journey

What I'm trying to say is completing U earlier or even non academic stuff eg. grade 8 piano say at 10 yo is headstart, isn't it?
I guess most parents are looking at that headstart lor, hence the blooming early childhood enrichments, P1 preparatory class & even GEP preparatory class

However, a headstart is just that, a headstart
Whether successful in life & career eventually depend on a lot of other factors, not just academic qualifications or IQ lor[/quote]I also share the same sentiments..thinking back, I kinda feel that all the hard work, studying for exams, kinda comes to a waste once u started work. Maybe for my case, my work is totally unrelated to what I majored in during my Uni days..in fact, I have ‘returned’ whatever I learnt back to my lecturer/teachers..terrible isn’t it? Guess what I have still been applying is still communication and people skills mastered during my schooling days. My priorities have also shifted to putting more emphasize in bringing up my boy and nurturing him to be a better person.

[tamarind]

shylyn:

Wow..I cant believe that at such a young age, they have to have spelling!! I rem disliking spelling a lot during my Pri sch days..schooling these days are definitely not easy already. How do u teach your girl spelling then? I think I will have a difficult time teaching my boy in the future..

For the Chinese spelling test, I let her practice one or two times everyday for about one week before her test. For English spelling, she has no problem because she has a very strong foundation in phonics. She can listen to the sound and figure out how to spell the words. She attended MMI phonics enrichment class. I am sure your boy's MMI teaches phonics, they have a very good system.

Experts in early childhood education actually say that it is a bad thing to make pre-schoolers memorize spelling. They should learn to write words purely based on phonics techniques, not by memorizing the letters. They should learn to write by feeling a \"need\" to write. In fact, teachers should not correct their spelling even if it is wrong, so that they are not discouraged from writing. Your boy's MMI may not have spelling at all.

But since P1 in government primary schools has english and chinese spelling, this kiasu mommy(me) don't mind letting my kids have a headstart

I also let my kids feel that they have a \"need\" to write lah. I tell my girl that mommy is very forgetful, so she must write notes to remind me to do things. That have worked quite well for her :lol: So she has the best of both methods (modern and old fashioned) of teaching.

[kiasulang]

tamarind:

sleepy:

Say if the child finishes U at a much earlier age, he can spend the remaining time undergoing more indepth studies such as at master or PHD level
or he can explore new area of interests, assuming he is not already doing that concurrently

And ideally can get a scholarship so not so financially draining for parents

Yes working in the university will the best arrangement for the child, or at one of the A-Star reseach institute. But it is very very difficult to be successful doing scientific research. It is easier to be a PD

kiasulang:

It may seem ok for now when they are children. For adolescents, it is challenging. For a child with a IQ level of 150 at age 4 has a mental age of 6. For a adolescent with the same IQ of 150 at age 12 has a mental age of 18. Is she ready emotionally and socially?

I am actually teaching at one of the IHLs(Institutes of higher learning), my students are young adults above 17 years old. The majority of the students are still crazy about computer games, PSP, etc. Boy girl relationships are actually very rare. Most of them still don't know what they want to do with their future. Young adults nowadays are not as matured as you expect them to be.

Personally I don't think that a very bright 12 year old kid will have much problem emotionally and socially when in a tertiary institute in Singapore. At that level, they don't have a fixed class. Every student move around lecture theatres, classrooms, labs, etc, according to their own schedule. Students can actually skip lessons if they find that the lecturer boring. But a child who truly loves to learn should be disciplined enough to attend all the lessons.

However, I will be worried if the child goes overseas to a university in UK or the USA, don't know what goes on there.

Do you think those 18 years olds will want to interact with a 12 years old socially? If not. wouldn't he/she emotionally hurt?

[tamarind]

kiasulang:

Do you think those 18 years olds will want to interact with a 12 years old socially? If not. wouldn't he/she emotionally hurt?

Why not ? My students are generally very friendly, I am sure the 12 year old can find friends, especially if they all like to play the same type of computer games. In fact, I told my girl that mommy is teaching \"big children\" now, students who are taller than mommy, but are actually still like children inside.

In fact, I have a student who is physically handicapped. He has no problem finding friends. The school environment in Singapore is very different from what we see in Hollywood movies.

Some children like to be on their own, they prefer to observe others quietly. It does not mean that they are not happy. There are also some children who do not know how to be sensitive to other people's feelings, then the problem lies with the child, not with other people.

[en107rn.01056yahoo.01056com.01056sg]

Tamarind wrote [quote]A very bright child, may have no concept of money, or what it takes to support a family in the future. They cannot possibly spend their whole life learning, well not unless their parents can support them forever. [/quote]
If parents are open & willing to talk about the concept of money to a bright child, don't see why a kid is not able to grasp the concept.

Whole life learning does not need to be on academic only & just what Deminc has written Learning does not always hinge on fees. Been doing that myself. Save lots of professional fees in setting up our entertainment area & the reef aquarium. Lots of reading, experimenting, discussions & physical effort is needed. But we are learning.

Sleepy, kiasulang, Angel64, shylyn, would you be able to share what are the enrichments or daily activities your child has since baby to date? It might be good to share to other parents on picking out the good enrichment program suitable for their kids to allow their children for a head start.

Chamonix, Tamarind, deminc, feel free to add. But I think, I've managed to gather much based on other threads you have participated.

[angel64]

Hi EN,


My boy is now attending the Berries Chinese, Lorna Whiston English and also ACT3 speech drama.

Arts and music are coming up. I will pull him out of Act3. Since we have decided to put him into a more chinese orientated primary school, which offer higher chinese. I will look for a chinese speech and drama instead.

I must say parents’ involvement is needed too. Cant solely dependent on all these enrichment, keep forking out $$$ out of pockets. Me and my hubb, have been reading to him since he was very young. Language dev start as young as infant stage. The love for reading has to be cultivated. Personally I myself loves to read. Of course those novels days are over, now is more like those enrichment books, to learn more about kids dev, kid’s diet and also personal likings like baking and cookery books.

I invested in good books, started off with non fiction. Only recently, he started with those fantasies like some disney movies, Wall E, Mc-Queen racing cars. I do not allow those violent ones like pokemon, transformers etc.

We never allow TV to be on without permission. Since now he knows how to call my phone, or rather he can rem my phone numbers, he will call me to ask if he wants to watch any DVD or go out cycling along the coridor. Then I will speak to my maid … to watch over him.

What about the rest of the parents ??

[tamarind]

EN:

If parents are open & willing to talk about the concept of money to a bright child, don't see why a kid is not able to grasp the concept.

I know many young adults who do not know how much money is needed to support a family. They do not know the cost of living. For example, if they want to stay in a private condominium, drive a new car, have 2 kids going to the top pre-schools, have a maid, travel overseas for holidays every year, etc, how much do they have to earn every month in order to afford all these ?

I am going to educate my kids about the above, as soon as they are able to understand. I want them to know that, if they want a certain standard of living, then they need to work hard. Don't expect mommy to be able to give them all that. I have a rich Aunty who actually bought houses for her daughters in California. But this mommy cannot even afford to buy an HDB flat for the kids lah.

angel64:

We never allow TV to be on without permission.

Same here. In fact, I only have 5 Leapfrog DVDs when both my kids were below the age of 4. Both my kids learn all the phonics letter sounds by watching the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD. They watch these DVDs over and over again to learn phonics and maths, and they enjoy watching them. They don't find the Leapfrog DVDs boring, simply because I don't have any other DVDs for them, so they cannot compare

I started buying Little Einsteins DVD for them about 1 year ago. These are excellent educational DVDs, I have about 8 of them now. The kids were crazy over them for a period of time, so I am glad that I let them watch the Leapfrog DVDs first. If they have the Little Einsteins DVD, they may find the Leapfrog DVDs too boring.

As parents, we only need to let the kids watch some of the best educational DVDs. There is no need to let them watch as many as educational DVDs possible. Kids still must learn mostly from books and in real life.

[angel64]

Hi Tamarind,


I agree with your approach. Wat our kid watch over TV have to be controlled tightly. the media is another influence that kids can easily get hooked to. Not all cartoon on TV are good for kids, I would say majority are not really suitable.

I am still giving my boys non fiction DVDs. Sounds quite boring right !! But I always believe to teach the kids on the real things than those fantasies. That’s why my boys are very hooked onto those construction stuff.

As for phonics, my boy are quite ok with them. The monte phonics has taught him quite alot and I also reinforce at home. Now I want him to escalate more to sentence construction, simple grammar then move on to writing etc.

As I said, school. enrichment are only a part of it, we parents have to supervise what our kids are going thru.

Really never easy as compared to our childhood days, our parents brought us up like a breeze … Sighhh…

[shylyn]

tamarind:

For the Chinese spelling test, I let her practice one or two times everyday for about one week before her test. For English spelling, she has no problem because she has a very strong foundation in phonics. She can listen to the sound and figure out how to spell the words. She attended MMI phonics enrichment class. I am sure your boy's MMI teaches phonics, they have a very good system.

I guess it is impt to hv a kid who is willing to cooperate w u..i'm only keeping my fingers crossed that my boy will do so ..heheh..cos apparently, he will only do the things he likes/wants to do.

Hmm..i guess MMI does hv phonics taught but i still have hesistation with regard to my boy's cc..long story lah..anyway, he's now in his new class, still cries every morn when we reached there..he's not the type who can adapts to changes easily.

tamarind:

Experts in early childhood education actually say that it is a bad thing to make pre-schoolers memorize spelling. They should learn to write words purely based on phonics techniques, not by memorizing the letters. They should learn to write by feeling a \"need\" to write. In fact, teachers should not correct their spelling even if it is wrong, so that they are not discouraged from writing. Your boy's MMI may not have spelling at all.

No wonder I find it a pain learning spelling in the past..hahah..we didn't hv phonics in the past b4..all based on memory..
That's why I'm thinking whether to switch my boy to NTUC when he is older..cos no matter what, he will still go to Govn sch in the future.

tamarind:

I also let my kids feel that they have a \"need\" to write lah. I tell my girl that mommy is very forgetful, so she must write notes to remind me to do things. That have worked quite well for her :lol: So she has the best of both methods (modern and old fashioned) of teaching.

That's a gd idea...in fact, (due to my poor memory), I will ask my boy to help me rem things..will try your mtd on him once he is able to write..currently, mainly scribbles though i can see he is improving with his hand eye coordination.