Any parents of gifted children here ?

[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.

[shylyn]

Hi EN

I started when I was preggie by reading to my bb every night. My hubby also participated by reading & touching my belly while reading. I’ll also listen to classical music whenever I can & try to relax whenever I could. Also, eating a lot of fish helps as well.
After my bb was born, I’ll talk to him whenever I could…basically just narrating whatever I see or do with him. I also bring him to the library to borrow books & read to him when he was a few mths old. In fact, while watching a video taken of him at 4mths old, he was really concentrating when I was reading to him. Apparently, it was not normal for a bb to concentrate at books. Guess he enjoys reading at such a young age & it is still his fave activity till now.
I also exposed him to many experiences like visiting the zoo, malls, playgrounds etc…letting him feel & touch the different textures while telling him the difference. Oh yes…he also enjoyed watching “Baby Signing Times’ when he was younger…I also let him watch “Brainy Baby” & some Chinese educational prog as well. I tried to minimize his exposure to TV programmes but of cos, cant be helped when U hv older folks in the house. However, just try to narrate to him (no baby talk) what he was watching all these while. Also, I played Classical & foreign CDs to him while he was playing.
He attended Shichida when he was 1 yr old…actually wanted to start him earlier but my hubby felt that he would not be able to concentrate & understand so we only started at 1 yr old. I also did a routine consisting of flash cards, reading books, playing with stickers etc I didn’t realize what I have been doing helps until one day when I causally asked him which word is “at”,”is”,”I” etc & he pointed to me all correctly. Soon, he recognized all his alphabets, colours, numbers etc
Now at 33mths, he is able to speak fluently like an adult so I tried to speak more in Mandarin to him as he seldom use Mandarin to communicate w me. I still continue my reading session with him but now, I added some supplementary worksheets (from Shichida & mostly bought from sprees, bookshops) to ensure he understand instructions and follow accordingly cos he will still prefer to scribble rather than do accordingly. Also trying to let him improve on his fine motor skills but letting him do lotsa cutting, writing, drawing, painting etc.
I hope these help whoever reading. I’m really glad that we are able to share our ideas/experiences to nurture our kiddos into a better person. More details in my blog but I’m not comfortable sharing it in the forum thus, pls pm me if u r keen to read more.

[tamarind]

shylyn,

Thank you for sharing I am sure your experience is helpful to many parents.

angel64:

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.

Yes you are right that a lot of cartoons on TV are not good for kids. They are either too violent, or meaningless. The only one I like is Dora, the girl is cute and they teach some Spanish

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

Tamarind, Angel64, Shylyn, thanks for sharing. Here is a snap shot what ds has since baby. I’m quite backwards & a bit lax until I realize school syllabus are totally different than what is being taught now.


DS was placed in a full day NTUC Childcare at age 1.5 as I’m a working mum. He then attended PCF kindergarten when he was in nursery. Been formally reading to him & visit library weekly when he was in nursery. Tried teaching phonics. Just simple words like ending with at, it, in & I then add alphabets in front. He learns fast, so I started on ladybird series which he reads but he really hates. I get him to watch phonic vcd which he refused. So to encourage him reading, I allow him to pick books from the library. He only select non-fictions on animals which is too difficult for him to read, so I read it to him.

To prepare for P1, when he was in K1/K2 I bought some math & english books from popular for kindergarten kids. Can’t remember the name but one is orange & the other is green. We did the book daily for less than half an hour. The work is easy to understand so don’t take so much time.

I’m guilty about tv. I don’t restrict him as long as he is not watching show meant for adults. Among the rubbish that he picks up from watching tv is art work, science experiment & he loves to watch documentary (about anything).

P1, I realize I did not spend enough time coaching him on his school work, so I buy several math & english books for him to work on. My regrets is that I should have exposed him to more than 1 language at home.

P2, going through his school work daily. He will start some music lesson soon. To help him, I’m learning too. DH is taking up music lesson on other instrument as well. So as a family, we learn & motivate each other. I sort of promise him to learn chess. So far I can’t squeeze anymore time. But it will be in my this year list of things to do.

We do visit zoo, bird parks, science centre, coral farms, botanic gardens. Dont think he learns anything but merely enjoy running around & be let loose.

With regards to his why, why & why, hee, it has finally stop. But it has been replaced with "I noticed that…". Sometimes he asks, sometimes he tells me what he noticed & why it is like that. For parents who is hit by that irritating why, just try to explain in lay man term. Some answer don’t need to be in detail. Dont always have to rush. Can find the answer from internet together. Or can also post back the question to the child "what do you think". If ds makes an observation & commented on it, I just compliment him as an encouragement for being observant.

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

Continuation :


Accidental learning. I read to my elder dd daily & while I’m preggy with my son. If reading aloud is good for the baby in the womb, I guess a lot of baby will benefits if their mother works in a job that involves verbal communication like teachers/lawyers etc. When ds was still a baby, I placed him beside me while I’m reading to my dd. Haiz. If leave him in the baby cot alone he will definitely wail. When I was teaching my dd (she was in nursery) ds should be around 1.5 years old. He’s a scaredy cat & will play quietly in the same room while I teach my dd. I think he picks up learning by listening.

I tried to introduce him to great English book. So far only a few authors that he likes. I tried him on Charlotte Web, I got told off after reading 2 pages. He said "Dont you know we’ve got to wake up early tomorrow?" Time is only 9.20 pm & he usually sleeps at 10 plus. It’s a subtle hint that he don’t like it. So, I stop & did not attempt to make him read it again.

[kiasulang]

I remembered before my elder son entered his preschool, I had him enrolled in MPM math, Kumon math, Mental math, I Can Read, Morris Allen, Arts, etc…


However, when he entered his preschool, the principal asked me to stop them.