Is there some thing I should be doing with possibly gifted 5 year old?

[Nursejackie1]

My son is 5 years old. Since being a baby he has always had at any one time one or more subjects he is obsessed with and will learn absolutely everything he can using TV, Google, books and asking endless questions. He has a fantastic memory and can remember the numbers of hotel room we stayed in from when he was 2 years old. For example he has taught himself about all the countries of the world in great detail, all the flags, knows a ridiculous amount about the human body (last night he was telling me about peristalsis, the whole digestive system and was asking what would happen if our pancreative duct got blocked). He figured out for himself that the countries of the world look like a jigsaw that could fit together and asked me if it was once one and broke off. This was last year. He knows all the parts of the eye including things like vitreous humour and what each part does and the same with the ear etc. When he has a sore throat he will tell me his oesophagus is hurting. He taught himslef to read maps and kbows evwry street in our town, hes like a mini satnav. He loves maths, taught himself to read and just in general has a massive thirst for knowledge. He is otherwise a typical boisterous and loving boy that has a very witty sense of humour. He does really well in school and the teachers have picked up on some of it but I don't think he let's on just how much he knows.
As he is my first son and I have not really been involved with kids so young I have no idea whether he is gifted, or just very bright and what if anything goes I should be doing about it? The reason I ask is that my Mum says one of my cousins was the same when he was young but unfortunately without the right guidance he ended up going off he rails and she feels his intelligence was wasted.
I haven't said much to his teachers, I somehow feel like I'm boasting when I describe what he's like and have no idea whether I should be making more of a thing of it or not. Can anybody offer any advice...are there any extra curricular activities I should be getting him into or clubs or anything or just go with the flow? Should I be discussing it with the teachers?

And I just want to add that I do want to challenge him more because he is well aware he is clever and I don't want this to turn into cockiness or laziness as he gets older. I do praise his learning but am always careful to make it clear that I'm praising the work he put in to learn whatever he is telling me about.
I'm looking into piano lessons, I think the music suggestion is a really good one.

Really zzz? I consider myself very lucky in terms of dd's primary. With one very short lived exception, she had very experienced, wonderful teachers who did their upmost to try and meet her needs. But only one class teacher was enough of a natural mathematician to be close enough to her wavelength to teach her anything new, and openly admitted that once she had absorbed any new topic she mentally leaped ahead of them in it. And by early ks2 she was beyond that teacher too.

Luckily they did find someone to come in for her, and generally that person provided dd with differentiated work for normal class lessons, or dd read/ did something else. But there were other occasions when for whatever valid reason dd didn't have work provided by the specialist, and the class teacher got it very wrong. Not through lack of effort, or because they deliberately under or over estimated her ability. Just because they weren't that way inclined, so their genuine attempt to provide what they considered suitably complex was sometimes wildly off target, in both directions.

Obviously not a problem because a) they acknowledged she was beyond them and b) she did have access to suitable work for the most part. But still made things difficult for the excellent, experienced staff and school.

Throw in less experienced/ competent staff or slt, who refuse to believe any dc might have a depth of understanding in some areas beyond many adults, and you have a problem.

Music music music

Languages and musical instruments. Make use of that absorbent brain! And, if at all possible, team sports and drama. As much working with other people as you can manage.

@zzzz yes he can read, he basically taught himself and all the things he likes he teaches to himself, I do what I can downloading programmes, try to learn with him, read with him, take him to places he will find interesting but everything he knows is mostly from you tube, TV, Google and books. He likes to quiz us grown ups incessently and unfortunately we are usually unable to answer most of his questions on the current subject he's imessed in. Therefore yes he needs soemthing that's difficult for him. He does have a problem when he can't do something he can find it hard to deal with because he is used to things being easy.
He absolutely loves school and there is no boredom with the stuff they are teaching so far so as yet no problems.

Piano lessons it is then 😀

If he turns out to be good at piano, then by all means let him carry on, but find something else he's not so good at. Naturally I'm probably bottom 10% for musical ability at the most, quite possibly bottom 1%. But due to good co-ordination, memory and various other cross over skills I was definitely above average, if not good as a child, without much time or effort. If I'd carried on or vaguely enjoyed it once I got to my teens and my cross over skills were no longer an advantage, it might have been a shock to discover I was infact naturally awful.

Dd is naturally better at music than me to start with, and able to apply the same cross over skills. So we went down the route of dancing as an extra curricula where she has to really try just to stay within the average for her class, and regularly gets to see those with more natural ability sailing through exams that for her required years of work and effort.

Oh I hadn't thought of the hand size thing. I only went for piano because he has a go at my nans and loves it but maybe that's missing the point!
He has a couple of younger siblings already but won't be having a swarm lol.

I'm not interested in pushing him as such but if the talents there i just don't want to waste it if I'm not doing certain things as this is all new to me. And at worse don't want him going off the rails if he gets bored.
That's a shame about the grammar school I would have thought theye would thrive being round kids of simitation abilities but I suppose there's alot more to it.

I think that very much depends on the alternatives. In our case a very selective independent is so far brilliant for secondary, despite not knowing anyone who went there when she started and the underserved imo reputation it is a bit of a hot house. The local comprehensives available just wouldn't be suitable. In other areas they might be ideal, and the selective schools unwilling to differentiate for any outlier. I shouldn't worry about it yet, not least because local secondary options could be very different by the time he gets there.

Oh I hadn't thought of the hand size thing.

All mine played piano from toddler age as did I. It wasn't formal lessons then - they were just copying me. However I did start them on lessons early but was very picky about the teacher - I wanted someone who would foster the love of music and the skills and not drill them for exams.

Music should be available to all children but can be particularly useful as an extension subject. If they get involved in local bands/orchestras they also get the discipline and team work and social life on a par with sports or drama (also both good extras).

Languages - especially a language from a different block to the mother tongue.

Creative arts - because schools struggle to fund enrichment in this space

Trips to see places and things to talk about. Art galleries or the local park can both serve this one.

Science of the type you don't do in school or which is difficult to maintain in school - projects which take time to follow like weather tracking and reporting, growing plants over a year, modeling etc

All mine ended up in sciences post 16 but derived massive benefit from a solid arts/humanities base and could have gone either way.

The hand size issue needn't be a blocker. Both my DS's started piano before turning 4. You have to pick pieces that avoid stretches but the introductory books generally don't require any intervals beyond a 5th so are fine with a small hand. DS2 is 5, median size, coming along quite well.

Recorder is also fine for this age - good for learning the treble clef and can lead on to various woodwind instruments. You can also get 1/8 and 1/4 size violins and cellos which are small enough for 4/5 year olds.