To think that gifted pre schoolers need to learn through play

[ReallyTired]

A bright child who is nursery age needs formal education like a hole in the head. It is desperately important that they learn the social skills they need for life. A well run nursery is good place to foster a range of skills.

If a gifted child is bored with nursery/ reception its often a sign of autism and if anything they need more learning through play rather than less. Possibly an autistic child might need an adult to show them how to play and foster good social skills. There may be bright children who need intensive help with their social skills who aren't autistic.

A really bright child will learn faster through self directed play than sitting in a classroom doing formal actvites.

:) DS1 is 6. I wonder what he'll be like at 12!

If he's anything like mine, he'll develop an aversion to soap and water (if he hasn't already - I remember DS telling me at 6 that he liked his life as a boy because it was smellier [yuk!])

He plays chess for England and the team manager once told them on the flight home that they'd better wet their soap in the airport toilets before they saw their mums again

Re: rote learning - we don't do much in our culture. I remember reading somewhere that in other, orally based cultures, kids as young as 5 or 6 have repertoires of songs in the high 200s.

I know lots of kids who rote-count, it's a very different skill to counting objects/ 1-1 correspondence etc.

DS1 is doing times tables at the moment, on his own - I've resisted the urge to teach them by rote, finding patterns and working them out is time consuming, but he's having fun.

rote-learning can be done in a fun , play-based way too :)

Yes, I use it a lot teaching music!

"Hopandskip, could it be that instead if being highly gifted your son is highly jealous of your high need baby? Also intelligence isn't a pass to trashing a house? Is it?"

He could have possibly been jealous of the baby, but he did it when he was bored. No, it isn't a pass to trash a house, I never said anything of the kind quite the opposite, I found something that stimulated him, stopped him from getting into trouble and gave me time to change nappies. It happened to be academics, I guess I could have plugged him into the box instead.

The reason I said he was highly gifted is because our local school district tested him and said he was.

Tanith, my son went away for ten days to train (at age 11) and wore the same pair of jeans the whole ten days. EWW. He did tell me he showered and changed his undercrackers though. I wonder if the toothbrush got touched.