DS is 2.2. I've known he's quite bright for a while but not anything 'out the ordinary' so to speak. At 18 months he knew his letters, what letter something begins with and the phonics (sounds) behind each letter. If you asked him what 'door' begins with he'll say D and then sound d d door as with anything else you ask him. As far as I have been aware he could not read many letters though.
I've not done a lot of counting with him but he can count to and count out 26 items (mummys age) and he recognises written numbers 0-9 (I didn't know this until he started pointing to page numbers in books). He's known all shapes and colours since around 15 months. He's always been quite a good talker. Most people who meet him are quite amazed with his ability and it's only more recently since going to toddler groups like singing / drama etc that I realised how bright he actually seemed compared with others.
He was rushed into hospital a few nights ago struggling to breathe (turned out to be croup). But in A&E he had an audience of nurses, docs, and the ambulance crew all gathered round intrigued by how much he knew which made me think perhaps it is a bit out of the ordinary then. He's my first so, to me, he's completely 'normal'. My mum, who has experience with 6 children and 5 grandchildren is more like "I told you so!" as she has said for a long time how bright he is. I just thought she was a bit precious over him.
So, today I decided to print off some dinosaur pictures for him to paint and colour. Above each dinosaur was the long name of which dinosaur it is. I was quite amazed that when he was painting an 'apatosaurus' he pointed to the 'a' and said what it was. So I asked him the rest of the letters and he knew them all. I was completely amazed! I did not know he knew these at all.
So then he got me thinking and I thought I'd teach him his name so printed off some hand and foot prints with names on - Nanny, Mommy and other childrens names we know, obviously including his own. As they were printing out he got quite excited and said "look, Nanny!" and then "Mommy" and "his-name". He did not know the other childrens names though.
But, I am stunned. Completely stunned! He's either reading my mind or he actually knows. Perhaps I'm not giving him enough credit.
I'm now sitting thinking that perhaps I need to be stimulating him a bit more than I do now. Should I be trying to see if I can teach him to read simple words and count up more than 26? Should I be doing more activities with him around these?
He's a long way off nursery. I cannot afford to send him privately. But they've changed the intakes around here so he isn't due to start for another 1 yr 8 months. This is quite a long time I think and maybe I need to be doing things at home with him? If so, what exactly (obviously other than the normal day to day activities)?
Or do I just leave him to pick things up himself? I really don't know. Someone please advise..