To ask how to raise an intellectual child?

[raindances]

I really want to nurture my DS potential, he is 4 and bright/advanced.

I have always done well academically and plan on doing a PHD but I wasn't raised in a way that nurtured this.

How do you raise intelligent, intellectual, well-rounded kids?

My grandparents were both teachers and my parents both had PHDs. I am deeply grateful for the fact that my love for foreign languages and reading was cultivated super early. They also tried their best to help my mind develop through chats, chess, exercise.

Thank you.

How did you learn foreign languages and from what age were you taught them?

I would say in exactly the same way you would raise any other child. Follow their lead, give them opportunities to try new things, talk to them a lot, encourage them to be curious.

All children have gifts. Putting pressure on or giving them the impression that their worth is somehow connected to their academic ability would be disastrous.

Encourage a love of knowledge and information the importance and uses of being knowledgeable about different subjects. Encourage with YouTube how its made series etc

I don’t think it’s possible to ‘raise an intellectual child’, but you can talk intelligently to him, read with him, not close down his curiosity let him see your own interest in the world. In the end, he will find his own level, though. I was raised in a deprived household with parents who struggled with basic literacy and attended very poor schools where I wasn’t encouraged, but am an averagely clever adult, in that I went to Oxford, have a doctorate and work as an academic. My ten year old is clever, has grown up in a book-filled household around people who all have multiple postgraduate degrees, but isn’t especially intellectually engaged at this point.

English is not my first language. I started learning English and Spanish when I was 3 and then I learned French and Italian at uni in Scotland. Now I'm doing German on duolingo and I hate it

I believe that speaking at least one language besides your native one opens many door. Of course, when English is by default your native language, it's an advantage

I fully agree with this, too.

Read, read and read some more.

Stick the news on the radio and talk about it.

Lead by example

By talking to your child about interesting topics and by modelling an interest in the world around you (culture, politics, nature, science, music, books etc) at an age-appropriate level as he grows up. All in a spirit of curiosity, not in a didactic or hot-housing way. Some people seem to talk to their children in a very limited, infantilising way, long after they have stopped being infants.

Read, read and read to them. Also languages and music are meant to be good for brain development, so if possible start them early with these too (I'm no expert)

Have books around, play different music and shows on TV. Take them to different places, museums etc.

I dont think it is quite that simple. All children are different and good at different things. Out of my 4 only one of them is naturally academic and excels at everything he does without needing much input, my others have struggled in certain things but shine in other areas.

Agree with this too, a child needs to have a natural aptitude, although from what you've described your DC does. Nuture that

Trillions of people are intelligent without being particularly intellectual. And you can be either or both of those things without being well rounded! Or you could be all three. <Polishes medal>

To give him the best chance of a satisfying intellectual life going forward - now and throughout his childhood read, read, read. To him, with him, have him read aloud to you. Any material, not just ‘books for four year olds’. Poetry, cookery books, decent newspapers, bits from old and new plays, washing machine instructions, menus, plant names, whatever.

But he also has to see you reading for pleasure (or research!) too. Model what you want him to aspire to. Do all that on top of giving him access to music, fresh air, friends, mud, and freedom to express himself wherever possible.

And be prepared to accept a child who cannot stand the sight of a book - if that’s the one it turns out you have …

Don't patronise them.

My son asked what the slave trade was. I explained it.

He's asked about gay people, racism etc. I explained them.

We talk about history a lot. You cannot be educated without at least some understanding of history.

Kids need to know about both WWs, the Cold War, what Russia is doing now, what the British Empire was etc

You give them opportunities
doesn’t need to be expensive, but it will be time consuming
think museums, festivals, check your local library / local Facebook groups
if you can travel, do it, if not, nothing wrong with nature/travel documentaries
youbtube science experiments and do them at home - at some point my DD had a wait list of girls wanting to come for a play date since once I did science experiments with her and a friend (nothing fancy, mentos and Pepsi and coloured water in oil) and from there they all wanted to come and “do science” (they mostly outgrew it very quick, though)
If you can, introduce him to people that are in academia, etc… but I’m a very kid friendly way (bonus point if you meet them in a park and they can chat to him while having an icecream after a run around)
let him develop a love of reading (even if it’s comics)
But most of all keep it fun and give him time to be a kid, make sure he plays, gets dirty, and watches dumb tv and makes dumb decisions

My ten year old is clever, has grown up in a book-filled household around people who all have multiple postgraduate degrees, but isn’t especially intellectually engaged at this point.

My teen dc are clever too. Dd's engagement with school work took a real nosedive in her early to mid-teens, but her she remained highly articulate, quick-witted and knowledgeable about certain things throughout and has now pulled it together in time to apply to good universities.

My DS was very bright/advanced at 4. He had lots of books - he could read at that age - and lots of discovery type toys. We also did lots of very varied museum visits.

What an odd question. You raise them exactly the same as every other child. Your child is no different, or any better or any worse than any other child. What strange thread.

Encourage the 'why' questions. Don't be afraid to say you don't know, but you can find out together. Don't just use Google - use books, show them how to use books.
Show interest in a range of things - cook together, collect leaves and do rubbings and find out what they are, do jigsaws of interesting pictures, go to museums and let them decide what they want to see, go to National Trust places - do the quiz/trail to encourage them to really look at things and question.
Encourage current affairs - children's newspaper or Newsround.
Once at school support with homework etc. Visit places or read books about the topic they are studying.
Encourage art, music, dance, drama.
Read with them, read to them, listen to them read.

But be lead by them - what they want to do.

I have two kids. One of them has a degree in business studies from a good university and works in healthcare research. The other dropped out of university and works taking scrap cars apart.

So in all honesty... I have no idea. I didn't do anything differently with them.

Lots of reading and talking.
When one of my children was interested in dinosaurs we went on lots of trips to the natural history museum. When one was interested in the Egyptians we went to the exhibition at the British Museum. When one was interested in the Romans we went on a break to Rome. If they show any interest in philosophy or politics or history I but them books on these topics.

Read to them every day and talk to them about everything and encourage them to enquire.

If your child is intellectual then provide the other stuff. They'll seek out the intellectual themselves. I read and read, I read whole encyclopaedias, asked questions, found documentaries on TV.

What your child needs form you is everything else, socialising, fun, activity, not becoming too perfectionist, keeping trying the the things they don't excel at. It'll be better for them long term and they'll do fine otherwise

Exactly.

If yours is a home where there are books and enquiring minds, then he will be what he will be, which, in spite of his being "bright/advanced" may not be what you think/expect/want. He will be himself. And the vital thing is that he knows you value him for everything about him: intellect, kindness, personality, craft skills, imagination - whatever.

Having an expectation that he should be an "intellectual person" is as bad as having one that he should be an artisan and cutting off other opportunities.

We need people of all different sorts and above all else we need to value them for who they are; and your son must feel valued for who he chooses to become.

My OH was an intellectual and it brought him nothing but misery, as with it came expectations and pressures that fed his anxiety.

Your son is 4 - children develop in fits and starts and he may seem "advanced" now, but the others will catch up in their own good time.

Let him be a child; follow and foster his curiosity of course, but let him veg out, make a mess, be a child. It is a precious time when their greatest asset is their imagination, which can be killed stone dead by fact-filling. He will not thank you for taking that away from him - he will never get it back.

Chill, laugh and play. Forget the intellectual bit - at this stage it is not remot4ely important. It is not a race.