I'm a proud father ...

[Frustrated Father]

Some of you already know, but I am the father of three children, Anasalea (going on 11), Sabryna (going on 7) and Spencer (will be lucky to see 6). Very loving children and above all for me, well behaved. Sometimes I wonder why some parents have children that are real hellions and of course secretly wish beatings upon them.

:goodbad:


Now, with all that being said, my oldest has a near perfect photographic memory we learned when she was in kindergarten in a Montesori school (worth it, but expensive). Has absolutely no problems with school and homework is pretty much a breeze for her. Study it once and she has it, no need to waste time doing it again in her opinion.

Now for the second one, Sabryna, who has always been our 'special' child, and by that I mean we sometimes wondered just what the hell was going on in her head and whether she was either extremely intelligent or in need of a protective helmet. 'Thinking Outside of the Box' is something you can apply to her quiet easily. Hates playing video games, draws and reads all day, and is pretty much a 'leave me alone I'll entertain myself' type of girl.

So we get a phone call on Friday from her 1st grade teacher who says she wants to meet with us Monday. Great - what did she do now was what went through my mind.

We show up, and we find a teacher that is practically vibrating in place as she informs us that we have a very bright child. I smile, nod and say, 'We're in Georgia, that's not too hard to do in the state school system'. Heh, that went over well. Despite that though, once she laid out what she had been doing I was suitably impressed. My six year old, 1st grade child is doing 4th grade math and is reading at a high 5th/6th grade level and has complete comprehension. Needless to say, I was rather stunned. 'Our child?' I asked. Yup - that one reading a book over in the corner.

Now this may make me seem like an inattentive parent, but it really isn't so. Sabryna has always gone her own way, doesn't want praise, and more often than not you have to FIND her in the house. She's not exactly introverted ... she just likes to do things her way and her way only. That of course explained all the trouble we've had over the summer with her. She was bored. Very bored.

Now they are setting her up to go through some special test or whatnot in the next few weeks and if she does half as well as the teacher seems to think she will, we're going to have to do somethng about it as she's basically at a level four grades higher than what she actually is. What the hell do I do now? I want her to be interested and pushed to progress (in a good way) mentally and intellectually, but what the heck do you do with a six (seven) year old who is in a class full of ten to twelve year olds? Doesn't seem like a good idea when you think of it that way. We're going to have to figure something out but I'm not sure what.

Then to top it all off, on my way out the door to work today, my youngest one, Spencer, comes home and hands mom a note from school and goes off to play. The look on her face stopped me and I asked 'what?' and she was just shaking her head as she handed me a piece of paper that was from my sons kindergarten teacher.

Heh .. guess what.

Apparently Spencer far outstrips the kids in his grade and they have found him functioning at a 2nd grade level for reading, comprehension and math (yes, he does math very well, that much I knew) and now we've got another meeting setup at the end of the week to discuss him.

Sounds like a bit of bragging and tall telling, but it honestly isn't. I'm still sitting here wondering what the heck is going on and how I got the lucky jackpot of having three gifted children.

Hopefully now I won't have to worry about college money.

:dancing2:

[Duende]

After the space aliens find out about this, they will be coming to abduct you and your wife to use in their breeding program to seed other planets with intelligent humans (for a change).

Congratulations, FF! I hope the aliens will let you set your own stud fees!

:bowsucker:

[Klute]

Well my 2 kids have Masters Degrees in Scooby Do and Tom and Jerry.
They are also very handy with playdough.

Seriously Nathan you must be very proud of them and yourselves.

One thing though......dont push them too hard. I hate seeing parents push their kids like that.
Sounds like they don't need any pushing though. :thumb:

[Frustrated Father]

(laughing)

If anyone went and disapeared over the kids, I might be wondering where the wife was and why my mail wasn't being delivered.

:tongue2:

Seriously though, I'm rather pleased overall and we do challenge our children to push themselves mentally and physically but in ways that I think is healthy. We certainly don't get upset with them if they find there is something they can't do and usually try to sit down and explain things as best we can.

The testing is supposed to happen here in the next week or so, and we are now discussing options on what we should do with the middle one, on moving her through some classes or put her into tutoring and extra schooling. Still not sure yet, but we'll be sure to check all the options and try and pick the healthiest.

[Celtic Lilly]

Freaky!

[Sakura]

Well, geniuses allmost never have genial parents. Most likely both you and your wife have a gen for high inteligence, and all your children happend to inherit both of them.
A rather slim chance, but well...

[Frustrated Father]

Well, geniuses allmost never have genial parents. Most likely both you and your wife have a gen for high inteligence, and all your children happend to inherit both of them.
A rather slim chance, but well...


Hey Sakura, glad to see you prowling the forums.

Yeah, my wife and I are far from geniuses, believe me. At best, I can say that I skipped two grades when I was younger but that was likely due more to my mothers attention to schooling me than any inherent gene and these days, I feel like a right idiot (I blame drugs in high school damnit - and I'm sticking to that story!).

I doubt we have the little geniuses that pop out of College at twelve with two masters degrees, but I do hope, that we've got some that find learning a breeze and find a way to challenge them properly.

We'll see though - like I said, we're in Georgia - not too difficult to be a freakin' genius down here.

:tongue2:

[EricJ]

See, if life were fair, your full time job now would be empregnating women on the governments $$...unfortunately...

Although now that I think about it, isn't being 5 grades ahead in Georgia just but right on track for the rest of the country? :vb_tongue

[Spacemunkie]

In my experience much of it is down to parents. Most 'learned' behaviour comes from home at a young age.

Nature and genetics certainly plays its part, but nurture and environment can be far more positive (or negative!) influences.

Reading is the key....

[finn17]

On having the good sense to marry an intelligent woman :thumb:

[Ritual]

Here's an unusual sight:

finn17 posts: 1

:surprised

[EricJ]

at least we got Finn17, not cranky 'ol Finn18

[Frustrated Father]

(laughing)

Welcome to the site Finn.

As for my children - the are reading fools. I think what really helped them out is that the oldest one had a few years alone with me and mom and everyone paid extra attention to her as well as giving her learning tools (toys, books, leappads .. etc) and when the other two came along and our oldest went to school, she would come home and 'play school' with the other two, giving them her lessons for the day as well as homework.

Truth be told, I never gave it much thought other than 'awww, that's cute' but I think that is where it started off.

None-the-less - very pleased with it. And yes Eric, you are quite correct on the GA situation sadly.

[wiccanpony]

:thumb: Congratulations ...to quote my mom..”you must be popping your buttons” be sure to ask your kids what they want to do..I remember the school wanting to bump my sister’s oldest up a couple of grades. But the kid was super shy and didn’t want to leave her friends, so we settled for some tutoring after school.

[Grumb]

Nathan;

Have you asked your wife who the father of her children are????

Seriously, that's fantastic, but will certainly be a real challenge for you and the missus. Keep us updated on the progress.

Cheers,
Grumb


Some of you already know, but I am the father of three children, Anasalea (going on 11), Sabryna (going on 7) and Spencer (will be lucky to see 6). Very loving children and above all for me, well behaved. Sometimes I wonder why some parents have children that are real hellions and of course secretly wish beatings upon them.

:goodbad:


Now, with all that being said, my oldest has a near perfect photographic memory we learned when she was in kindergarten in a Montesori school (worth it, but expensive). Has absolutely no problems with school and homework is pretty much a breeze for her. Study it once and she has it, no need to waste time doing it again in her opinion.

Now for the second one, Sabryna, who has always been our 'special' child, and by that I mean we sometimes wondered just what the hell was going on in her head and whether she was either extremely intelligent or in need of a protective helmet. 'Thinking Outside of the Box' is something you can apply to her quiet easily. Hates playing video games, draws and reads all day, and is pretty much a 'leave me alone I'll entertain myself' type of girl.

So we get a phone call on Friday from her 1st grade teacher who says she wants to meet with us Monday. Great - what did she do now was what went through my mind.

We show up, and we find a teacher that is practically vibrating in place as she informs us that we have a very bright child. I smile, nod and say, 'We're in Georgia, that's not too hard to do in the state school system'. Heh, that went over well. Despite that though, once she laid out what she had been doing I was suitably impressed. My six year old, 1st grade child is doing 4th grade math and is reading at a high 5th/6th grade level and has complete comprehension. Needless to say, I was rather stunned. 'Our child?' I asked. Yup - that one reading a book over in the corner.

Now this may make me seem like an inattentive parent, but it really isn't so. Sabryna has always gone her own way, doesn't want praise, and more often than not you have to FIND her in the house. She's not exactly introverted ... she just likes to do things her way and her way only. That of course explained all the trouble we've had over the summer with her. She was bored. Very bored.

Now they are setting her up to go through some special test or whatnot in the next few weeks and if she does half as well as the teacher seems to think she will, we're going to have to do somethng about it as she's basically at a level four grades higher than what she actually is. What the hell do I do now? I want her to be interested and pushed to progress (in a good way) mentally and intellectually, but what the heck do you do with a six (seven) year old who is in a class full of ten to twelve year olds? Doesn't seem like a good idea when you think of it that way. We're going to have to figure something out but I'm not sure what.

Then to top it all off, on my way out the door to work today, my youngest one, Spencer, comes home and hands mom a note from school and goes off to play. The look on her face stopped me and I asked 'what?' and she was just shaking her head as she handed me a piece of paper that was from my sons kindergarten teacher.

Heh .. guess what.

Apparently Spencer far outstrips the kids in his grade and they have found him functioning at a 2nd grade level for reading, comprehension and math (yes, he does math very well, that much I knew) and now we've got another meeting setup at the end of the week to discuss him.

Sounds like a bit of bragging and tall telling, but it honestly isn't. I'm still sitting here wondering what the heck is going on and how I got the lucky jackpot of having three gifted children.

Hopefully now I won't have to worry about college money.

:dancing2:

[Drake Farstrider]

Well congrats on having the 3 most intelligent children in all of Georgia. :five: Keep them challenged but don't over burden them, let them be kids as well.