Gifted Girl
My six year old qualified for gifted services this year. It's very weird to be a teacher of gifted students and have the added perspective now of having a gifted child. What's weirder is that, for now, I am her teacher because she attends my school. Once a week, on Wednesdays, she comes to my classroom with my first grade student (that's right I only have 2 on Wednesdays!). The three of us have decided to study dinosaurs. They both have a natural curiosity and fascination with the giant lizards who lived millions of years ago. Can you blame them? I'm learning it's a great science fueled topic!
Gifted children ask questions. All children ask questions but gifted children ask pointed questions in vast quantities. They want to know how everything in the world works. My husband and I have always encouraged this questioning spirit because we want our kids to love learning; and what is learning if not the constant seeking out of new information.
Jordan and her classmate wanted to become experts on the Stegosaurus. We started out by figuring out what they already knew. Next, I have the kids ask as many questions as they can about the Stegosaurus so that while we read books, watch videos, and look at pictures...we can answer our questions. Some questions they came up with:
How did the Stegosaurus grow its plates and spikes?- What were the plates used for?
- How did the Stegosaurus stay cool?
- How big did the Stegosaurus grow? How big was a girl? boy? babies? eggs?
- What predators did the Stegosaurus have?
- How did they defend themselves?
- Why did they live in hot places?
- What did they eat? how much did they eat?
- Where did they sleep?
- Did they live in herds or alone?
- Did they migrate?
As a parent, I'm excited that my daughter gets a chance to learn about a topic she is interested in. A child's natural curiousity is a great place to start when you want to enrich your child's learning experiences. They don't need to be in a special program to get this either. If you notice your child has a special interest; race cars, horses, the Titanic, WWII, dinosaurs. Start googling the topic with "for kids" afterwards. Find kid-friendly documentaries on Netflix, go to a museum or exhibit, attend a race.
Here's why you should do it:
- Keeps a kids mind active versus passive
- Exposes kids to new ideas
- Allows to kids to see multiple possibilities
- Adds excitment to weekends and summers
- Keep an open mind
- Relentlessly as questions
- Never label things boring
- Develop the mantra that learning is fun
- Find a new topic that you know nothing about
Wild Wonderment
My friends and family who know Emily, my 4 year old, know that she is a wonder to us all. It's kind of hard to peg her behaviors down. She loves My Little Pony...obsessively. She loves to play with water. She will disappear into her playroom and create these epic tales about her ponies; either re-enacting episodes of MLP or creating new ones where the story lines criss cross.
She has a million different faces for a multitude of emotions. She expresses complex emotions with a squish of her cheek, an upturn of a corner of her mouth, an arch of an eyebrow. It's amazing to watch.
She is still potty training.
She asks questions too but not with the voracious appetite for answers as Jordan. She asks more to create a conversation with you. She enjoys one on one time much more than group activities. After a short while in a group, loud noises begin to aggravate her. I haven't figured out if she has auditory sensitivities or just a control freak. LOL!
So...she is my What's That? Wednesday. Emily is my puzzle because she keeps her thoughts to herself. Jordan just tells you exactly what she is thinking all the time. Emily rarely answers a question directly asked to her and avoids confrontations at all costs. It will be interesting to see how this manifests as she gets older.
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