Hi Chamonix,


Wow! And on the Kawasaki Disease bit, so sorry to hear, but I'm glad she's fine now. I would have been so scared, as you must have been.

On this topic of helping our kids, this is an old video that is very inspiring to me. My boy isn't very artsy, but what an eye opener! It's quite old, so I hope not too many of you have seen it.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Enjoy!

Hi Fettuccine,

The word "rough" isn’t quite enough to describe the lives of these people when they were growing up. A lot of how they put the unhappiness (even murder!) behind them comes from being resilient. Really, if it doesn’t break you, it makes you. These must be quite exceptional people - I don’t mean their smarts, but how they deal with the cards that life handed out to them.

jedamum:

breguet:

He read at 2 plus

I am not surprised that your boy may be quite advanced in the linguistics department cos I 'felt' (from your other postings in some threads) that you are pretty good in the English Department as well.

Whoa Jedamum! Don't get me started on my collar again!

jedamum:

chamonix, breguet,

how do your kids make up stories? you mean they retell the stories?

But about his stories - well, at first it was a long series of imaginary friends living in drawers. Then his toys (and even his gargling cup) make all sorts of conversation. Lately, he has this new country called Robotland (land is pronounced as in England, he insists) where, you guessed it, he's President and Creator :shock: He doesn't retell stories, but EVERYTHING has a parallel in Robotland, like their social behaviour (even adults play with Lego there) to currency (1 Robotics = S$2). Or fuel - they use hyrdrogen, so they don't pollute the earth, but they let out water (because it combines with oxygen) so they have to pee (and then a major hahaha!). :roll: Sorry lah, very weird, I know. He's very caught up with Robotland now.

Hi All,


The article (ok, tongue in cheek title!) set me thinking - I don't know if people are measurably smarter than they were a decade ago. If you check something called the Flynn Effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effectt, IQ scores have been climbing, but certainly not the extent that will cause the number of graduates to explode like it has (this is all anecdotal evidence only) in the last decade. My thinking is that perhaps, it is income levels rising, so we have more to spend on preparing our kids. But then, where's the differentiation out there when everyone is so smart? Maybe therefore, being gifted doesn't quite matter ... [The difficulty is in engaging them so that they even want to go to school, but that's the other thread ]

So perhaps we should go back to basics, like the article suggests, and develop a deep bond with our children. I haven't been a proponent of flash cards because of my own experience. But I realize (thanks to this forum!) that other people find it very effective - this in itself justifies the method, because it creates a happy bond between parent and child. Whatever method we use as a basis of interaction with our kids, so long as they are happy and well adjusted, they're better able to learn and to find their own passion in life.

Hope I'm making sense at 1.40 in the morning ... :lol:

Hi Jedamum,


I see what you mean. Sorry lah - didn't want to talk too much about my son before, but he does things that are amazing to me. [WARNING, bragging coming up :oops:]. He read at 2 plus - like the whole Richard Scarry Best Nursery Rhyme book first, and then it continued. When I taught him phonics, his reading just suddenly gapped up literally from one week to the next. Then it was road signs - he was quite crazy about it wherever we went. The other day, he told me - \"if I'm an ant on a globe (we have one in his room) the world will seem 2D. But I can see outside that, so things look 3D to me\". And this obsession with number patterns. Frankly, I don't even know how to dream these things up or how to teach it. The thinking is different, definitely. So, yeah, I agree with you - it's untrainable. Sometimes, he's downright intolerable too - so lawa! :lol: But it isn't like life is a bed of roses, he's got a lot of challenges. Mainly, he's too sly for his own good and he overthinks, so things get blown out of proportion.

Aiya, meant to make this into a thread about positive parenting. Didn't mean to stray into topics of giftedness :oops:

fo12eal:

生老病死
就是那麼簡單
當我們離開的時候
沒有什麼好遺憾的
因為我們在一起的時候
是快樂的
而那些記憶將是永恆的

Wow.

5.5yo boy


1. Lego
2. Lego
3. Lego
4. Reading
5. Reading
6. Reading
7. Drawing and making up stories
8. Talking a lot!
9. Going out on playdates to do all of the above and just plain running around.
10. Watching Inspector Gadget on Youtube

Hi Mincy, Thanks for sticking up for me. Dunno why I'm being picked on ...


Hi En, I really meant it tongue in cheek. I caught the expression about the collar from CKS' post and thought he was hilarious. Glad you understand. Your son sounds really smart though - certainly smart enough for you to sit up and wonder what else you can do for him. I know I would

But yes, freedom of expression is for everyone. We're all sharing opinions and ideas here. The best posts are those that hold different views from mine, so I can try to see what the other person's perspective is - probably because I'm worried about missing out, haha! I guess that's why I'm a kiasu parent .

I hope we don't lose sight of what the discussion is about. What I like about the article is that it asks us to focus on the child and not the label. A question I'd like to ask is, is preparedness the same thing as gifted? In this day and age especially in our society where we place great value on education, are we equating the two? And is it really the same thing?

tamarind:

breguet:

[quote=\"chamonix\"]Hi breguet,


Thanks for the article. Was just musing with a friend that every corner I turned into, there are \"gifted\" kids everywhere.

That's hysterical! I sometimes feel I'm the only one not gifted here. Gee, gonna try to get irritated at the collar

I know you are referring to the other thread I started \"Any parents of gifted children ?\" When I started that thread, I already expected that some parents will give remarks like the above. I know very well that you are trying to be sarcastic. But that is fine for me The beauty of an online forum, is that we have the freedom to talk about anything we like.[/quote]Tamarind,
I really don't understand what you're saying at all. Sarcastic about what? And why do you think it has to be about you? I replied to Chamonix in jest, which, I think wasn't off colour at all. She's not offended - why should you be? Didn't CKS say the same thing? I didn't see you attacking him!

I think you owe Chamonix and I an explanation and an apology.