To wonder when your DCs interests/talents emerged?

[ArtisanPopcorn]

Just that really. I'm really looking forward to being able to encourage/support DDs 'things' when they become more clear so I'm just wondering if your child is into or good at something specific (drawing/team sports/history/writing/computing/music/whatever) when did it become clear?

My dd1 won a "design a Christmas card for the council" competition when she was 7. She's now at Glasgow School of Art.

Dd2 has been playing with makeup since she could hold a lipstick 💄 and is off to study Beauty Therapy when she leaves school this summer.

Ds is a real all rounder. What he loves most is football but he's not very good at it! So he did a referee course to do that instead and is hoping to study graphic design.

My DD (16) only discovered her passion for languages when she was around 13, realised she loved french, and then a year later she realised she loved Spanish too. Is currently studying them at a level and is hoping to do a degree in them :)

Just now ... at Y9 .. and with the help off Food Tech GCSE, she has discovered a love for cooking, and is showing real flair.

She’s good (Grades 7 to 9) as most school stuff, particular maths and science ... but she really loves cooking.

I had tried every activity going when she was little, and thought she would never find her thing.

Now to find a career that combines all her loves 😊

Ds2 is particularly gifted at football and maths. Football started to emerge as best player in the team around 9/10yrs old. Maths started when he was about the same

My dd does gymnastics. She was by no means a natural. She just really loved it and worked very hard. She started to show promise at 6/7 years of age. She competes and wins, not at a very high level, but she doesn’t care about that. She enjoys it and compared to her peers is now obviously stronger/faster etc because of all the training she does. They have a phrase on gym ‘hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard’.

Remember too that they don’t always necessarily love the thing they’re good at! My son is simply fantastic at dancing, I mean he’s a natural, instinctive mover. Hip-hop type stuff he’ll make up on the spot etc, just amazing to watch. The rest of us in the family are total dollops at dancing.
This was apparent from about 3-4 yrs. He would happily dance until he was about 8 then nah, no, not likely mother. That’s how it stayed. He’s now 13. Not interested, which is fair enough.
It still astounds me that he can watch the latest craze on YouTube or wherever and watch it once and do it perfectly. His friends all get him to do stuff at break.
Maybe he’ll come back to it one day!

Don't be too complacent my DS was a maths genius at primary school, I used to gloat over how clever he was , years later ..... the tears, stress and tutor fees to get him to achieve a very modest grade C at Maths A level !

His "talents" lie in sport, he has played at county level ... but again, get to uni and you are lucky to get a place in the third team !

The first step is to make sure they learn to practice and persevere (practice this on achievable goals) so that when they find the things they enjoy they put the initial effort in. I genuinely believe that participation in sports and music have enabled dd1 to discover her capabilities and her grades academically have steadily climbed while she says others are declining! And you would never have imagined she would have sporting success - it's her technical ability and drive rather than natural sports gifts that have made her successful.

Dd1 loves team sports. From about 10. Funny, we used to despair at teaching them both throwing and catching skills in the park even at age 7.
Dd2 is problematic because the only thing that gets her going is adrenaline sports so difficult day to day. She is into languages and reading as well though since 11 and used to make PowerPoints about stuff for fun age 8 and I think she will continue to enjoy esoteric academic pursuits.

My children don't match the usual MN levels of genius but my older ones tended to discover their real interests and talents when they were in their teens.

The things that they are good at now are things that they showed no obvious aptitude for when they were at primary school.

Agree with what previous posters have said about being good at something does not necessarily mean they enjoy it. It will also depend on the quality of the tuition. My three children all do the same sport and are all on the GB squad. This has undoubtedly helped my eldest in terms of uni applications. I very much doubt she will carry on once she is there, as she just isnt committed enough. Two younger ones would also give up certain aspects of their training if I let them....I have lots of chats with them about the benefits of being able to compete at a high level, and obviously the health benefits, but ultimately, I think they would choose to give it all up to play X Box constantly if they could.

Wow I forgot to check this after DD went to bed, thanks for all the responses! And nobody's been ride on AIBU, amazing!

I think when she starts junior school there are more chances to do different things. I'll keep on getting her to try a range of things, I'm lucky that she doesn't tire easily and is always quite happy to try things.

I see your violin playing 4 year olds; maths genii 2 year olds and Anne Frank reading 10 year olds and raise you a child who was average walking, talking, delayed reading and underperforming throughout their school career..........They applied to Oxbridge because they loved their subject. Got a place in a very competitive subject, won every exam prize, and came out with a starred First. They are now heading to the top of their career path at 30, happily living with the love of their life and living a fabulous life in a capital city.
In contrast, I used to live with a bona fide genius, who won all kinds of accolades from a very young age. He now lives alone, no friends, estranged from family, in squalor, whose only meaningful contact is the psychiatric team when he tries to kill himself or goes missing.
Go figure.

My DC show their interests from early to mid teens.

I'm genuinely impressed with my grandson, and proud, of course. He is a young accomplished chef. It's taken a lot of time, practice and patience (especially his parents patience). He loves cooking, lives for it, started young.

But, there's only so many buckets of pretend soup you can eat in one day.

IrisAtwood sounds good. That violin playing four year old had an interest not ‘a gift’. They worked hard, practiced daily, worked through the grades, cried when an exam piece was ‘too hard’, chose orchestral summer school over ‘just chilling’. Let’s not pretend an interest is synonymous with an easy ride.

She too did well academically. She too won prizes and found the love of her life.
She was heading for top of her career but after ten years of the hard slog that is medicine she, and her husband to be, have accepted a job running a hospital in rural Africa for a stipend. They move out after the wedding. Could not be more proud of her choice. Excited about visiting.

What is there to ‘go figure’?

My 3yo is very talented at doing huge poos

DD1 was drawing while in her highchair. We were watching for the family artistic streak in one of them, and boom - there she was. I have her very first drawing, done in pencil on a postit, annotated with what she said, which was: "I draw a boat; I draw another boat: two boats!" She's an artist and teacher.

DS shut himself in his room for a week aged 15 and taught himself to play guitar. He's a musician working on his third album.

DD2 has more talents than anyone in the family - she can run like the wind, sing like an angel and make people laugh themselves sick with her impersonations. She showed all these talents by the time she was 4 and she won't do a thing with any of them!