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?

There’s never any guarantees but opportunities to engage in different things must help.

my 11 year old used and enjoyed the free Duolingo app for a while which she used for learning a language.

We do museums, theatre trips, watch documentaries. We use the library and I encourage them to read around the subjects that they see most interested in. My eldest adores Roman history and Greek mythology, which all started at school but was encouraged further by us. She now wants a career in archaeology. With the exception of a theatre trip, none of those things are expensive to do.

So I would say pick up on sparks of interest and encourage further engagement or discussion. Always allow them to ask questions and always listen to their perspective on things.

I would say my kids are bright and intelligent - intellectual, who knows?

It's not my priority. Just as well really, seeing as my lovely kind children are distinctly average

Talk about adult topics with them...politics, current affairs, the news. Ask them their opinion and encourage them to think and explore that. Encourage them to be critically minded about what they see and hear, could there be another explanation for this, does this source have bias? When they have a question, talk about it and then teach them how to research it so you can discuss what you find.
Encourage reading. Museums, theatre. Be curious, let them see your interest in what is happening and talk to them about your thought processes. Treat them like the little developing sponges they are, they take in everything they see modelled around them!
My dad is super intellectual so I'm just thinking about how he treats his grandchildren!

Seems an odd question - surely the same as any child. Talk to them, read with them, encourage an interest in the world. Do not put pressure on them to exceed academically (or pressure to do anything they don't want to) whilst encouraging them to work hard and try their best in studying.

Also to echo previous posters..you want emotional and social intelligence too. Please focus on those things, and on fun and play!

I dont think you can affect your child's academic success. You can offer opportunities to learn but you can't force the learning. You also can't impact their learning capacity.

One goal that's important to me as a mother is to teach them how to be content. Working hard is important and treating others and themselves well. But I don't have big ambitions for their academia; that's up to them and I won't judge them either way. I just want them to feel content with their life, which I think, to some extent, comes from accepting yourself, whether that's academic or not.

I read and read, I read whole encyclopaedias, asked questions, found documentaries on TV.

Unfortunately countless children grow up with no domestic access to encyclopaedias, (and may not have a library at school,) don’t share much conversation with parents and wouldn’t know where to find documentaries on TV …

On another thread recently a poster had been given a modest sum of money to buy something nice for her small children. Rather tongue in cheek (because I could predict the response) I suggested the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, a Thesaurus and an encyclopaedia. Subsequent posters were apparently ‘howling’ with laughter at this ridiculous idea.

I don’t think you can affect your child's academic success.

Eh?

Much the same advice as others have given - read to them a lot, talk to them/with them a lot, give them the opportunity to listen to different sorts of music and look at art, visit places and join the dots with history, architecture, science and so on - and the natural world. Have them learn to play a musical instrument. And enjoy one or more sports, for balance. I'm not so sure it's about raising an intellectual child as one who has a hinterland, who is curious, who is able to find something interesting in a topic or museum or whatever which appears boring at first sight, who is able to think about, question, discuss stuff.

And don't intimate or tell them that they're clever, because it can set them up to worry about failure. Emphasise effort.

The biggest predictor of a child's academic success is the mothers level of education. So get yourself a library ticket while you're at it

Reading, always reading. And not just non fiction stuff, but fiction, imagination is vital!

But also doing and talking.

Did you have an issue with that?

The reason I say that is because I know many families with children who have achieved very varied academic success.

I think rather than exposure, it's more down to genetics, natural aptitude and work ethic.

Obviously exposure has some part to play. People won't learn unless they have the opportunities. But providing the opportunities doesn't mean your child's going to become a genius. Nor does academic success make a person happy.

Did you want to add anything meaningful to your response, than "eh?"

DH came from a WC background where there was very little interest in education, he did every well at school, uni and did a PhD and a post doc at a prestigious uni. Sometimes it’s just in you.

I know lots of people with one academic high flyer and one who really isn’t.

Honestly it’s the same as any other child. Take them out, if they show an interest in something go with it.
Don't however pressurise them too much. I’ve seen this go so wrong, children pushed and pushed to be academic and then fall apart when they get to uni as there’s no one there pushing them every step.

Exactly this.

This won't be massively helpful but is anecdotal

My father was raised in a dirt poor family with parents who themselves left school with no qualifications. They had no interests other than watching telly.

My father put himself through the open University in his 40s to PhD level, was a voracious reader and loved to discuss politics, philosophy, history and literature with whoever would join him.

I have absolutely no idea where that drive or interest came from. It certainly wasn't from his parents, and he had a very ordinary comprehensive education and left school at 15.

He of course, tried his best to pass on all this love of learning to me and my sister with middling results. I love reading and learning but am not academic or intellectual - my talent turned out artistic. My sister went to university to please him but dropped out as she wasn't remotely interested in academia.

A friend of mine has a son who is at a very well to do Private school. He has been tutored to within an inch of his life and can function at a high level academically but you can see it gives him absolutely no pleasure and is actually incredibly stressful for him.

So I guess what I'm saying is that there is no guarantee, whatever you do, that you raise an intellectual child. It would seem some are born intellectual, some achieve intellectualism and some have intellectualism thrust upon them!

My response wasn’t the entirety of what makes an intellectual child just one aspect 😉

Talk with them a lot about the world-science, history, geography, current affairs

I think a better attitude would be - how I can ensure that my DC reach their potential. I agree with what other poster have said about not laying down expectations.

But the best gift you can give a child is reading. A child with strong reading and comprehension skills will do better overall than one who doesn't.

Comprehension of the arts feeds into everything - following instructions, empathy, imagination, solving complex problems, absorbing large amount of information, focus and concentration.

The key to unlocking strong reading skills is finding material they engage with. Reading a story and asking questions - how do you think x characters feels? Or following a simple instruction - what do you think we need to do? When your child is older, reading instructional posters/signs is good - it's a simple as - can you read X and tell me what we need to do e.g at a Doctors surgery - everyone must wear a mask. Please use hand sanitizer.

Whether you're someone who follows the arts or the sciences, whether you're a maths genius or a phenomenal piano player - the act of reading applies to everything.

But, push the wrong thing, or make it a chore, and you can damage it. Whether it's flip books, or bedtime stories, flash cards or newspapers - you have to find the balance between encouraging and pushing.

I think each person's intelligence, aptitude, whatever is largely innate and cannot be changed a lot.

What you can, and should, do is try to expose them to as much knowledge, information etc as you can. And to make this as varied as possible. All information is good information, even if you never use it again.

So I guess what I'm saying is that there is no guarantee, whatever you do, that you raise an intellectual child. It would seem some are born intellectual, some achieve intellectualism and some have intellectualism thrust upon them!

Quite so.
Probably better to think in terms of doing what you can to let your child fulfil their individual potential. That may or may not include 'intellectual' elements.

Converse with them and ask questions that encouareg them to be inquisitive about the world. E.g. if they like snails (what small child doesn't?) ask why they think they leave silvery trails or how they think the shell is attached, then go together to find out.

Foster their interests by buying them books on subjects they love - don't police what those are. Parents who decide in advance what a child should be interested in risk killing the child's enthisiasm for learning. Equally, don't take over their interest and get so over-involved that they have no space to make it their own. As they get older, watch accessible documentaries together or listen to podcasts that intrigue them.

Have family film nights where you watch age appropriate classics.

Take them to museums and galleries but keep the visits very short and planned. Don't drag them around the British Museum or National Gallery - they will lie on the floor and howl. Just take them straight up to the mummies or Van Gogh's Sunflowers then go for cake. Next time, look at something else, then cake. Do days out where you spend 30-40 mins in a museum followed by a trip to a toy shop or a ride on a boat so they associate learning as part of a fun experience. After a couple of years (ime) they are the ones nagging to go to exhibitions.

Read to them every single night. If you really want them to speak foreign languages, maybe read some very easy picture books in Spanish or French and have some cartoons they only watch in those languages and play songs in those languages. They pick up a lot from popular culture.

Don't be snobbish. My kids watched all sorts on TV. I remember DS aged about 7 wandering into the kitchen asking, "What's an epiphany?" I explained and gave him a 30 second version of the Road to Damascus story and he trotted off satisfied. Turned out he'd heard Homer use the word on the simpsons and wondered what it meant!

Reading everyday and varying the type of books they access. The Weekly is a great news resource for slightly older children. We watch nature documentaries, science experiments on YouTube and replicate at home. Invoking curiosity in the world and talking to them with varied vocabulary. We try to boost culture capital at every opportunity, visiting museums, art galleries, seeing shows, musicals but asking questions and finding out new things with each visit. At 4 years old for example we would go and hunt for a certain artwork or fossil and learn about it. Then at home draw it and create artwork based on it.

You are spot on. Last Xmas I bought my nephew and niece a copy each of Encyclopedia Britannica. I couldn't think of a better gift to feed an enquiring mind.

I had no access beyond school book, we grew up in poverty with no books on the home, I'd spend break time in the school library, the P1 teacher realised what I was like and organised the mobile library to visit my home. So I read and read, anything I could get my hands on. I was reading science text books in p5.

For a while in my adult life I resented the lack of an intellectually nurturing childhood but over time I've realised what I did get was more important for me. Intellect came extremely easily, I passed exams while working 2 jobs to help support the family and doing my homework on the school bus and came out with top of year results. Imagine what I could have done with a different background...

But then I've done well regardless and I have all these other life experiences. I'd say it's more important to nurture a less academic child academically, a less social child socially etc because they'll excel at what they're good at but the other stuff is where they stand to lose out.