I hve been advised by ds's playschool that he is V intelligent and operates on a higher level than his peers

[snowkitten]

This is of course, great to hear (and confirms my suspicions) but they did also say that he needs to learn to socialise with his peers as he will always have children his own age in his class etc. She estimates that he is 2-4 years above his peers in terms of knowledge and understanding of hte world and in his use of language etc. He is very bright though I do not do any kind of numeracy/literacy with him unless it is in play but he is very curious about time, numbers, words and the workd around him. Any one else got a ds/dd like this. What did you do? I want him to flourish and thrive but still lead a normal toddlerhood/childhood. I am considering Montessoris, any thoughts on this?

scuse typos , I have a kitten on my lap!

it will even out to a certain extent as the other children mature and catch up

we were told something very similar about dd at playgroup - she's the youngest of 3 with two very articulate older brothers and she started playgroup on a completely different level from the other kids. Tbh, playgroup wasn't an entirely happy experience for her as she got very frustrated. She'd be trying to direct the others in a complicated role play "I'll be this, and you be that and you be something else, and then I do x,y,z and you do a,b,c and you do etc etc" which would all fly over the heads of the others who'd lost track long before she'd finished.

The playgroup staff advised us that we didn't need to worry about anything academic with her, but we did need to encourage her social skills - tolerance, empathy, sharing etc

I don't think a Montessori would make any difference really - most of the 'good' bits in Montessori were long ago absorbed into 'mainstream' early years settings

You may need to keep an eye on how much he's challenged at school in the future though - dd's now in y2 and still streets ahead of the rest of the class and getting very bored

snowkitten what lovely news

mimsmum - that is exactly what they said to me. That he needs to know how to socialise with his peers as they will always be bagged with children of hte same age through school. I rang Montessori and they did seem to be singing from teh same hymnbook as playschool but for an awful lot more money! Thanks for advice. Hope your dd gets more of the attentnion she needs at school
lowrib - yes it was lovely news. Something to cheer me up!