Bright or Exceptional?

[Browntile]

Would like others views on this if possible please.

Boy aged 4 and one month. Obviously not starting school until Sept next year.

Able to recognise numbers up to 1000.
Secure in number bonds to 20

Can name square numbers to 100 and understands concept of what a square number is
Knows 2, 3, 5 and 10 times tables and understands concept as well as some other times tables and can invert (divide) the same
sums.
Can answer questions such as 42+3 or 68-2
Recognises shapes such as pentagon, hexagon etc

Is this just relatively bright or quite exceptional? Thank you.

It depends what he's been taught, personally focussed on etc. which will depend if it's just early acquisition of skills or something more exceptional.

Bright, not exceptional!

My nearly 4yo can do a lot of that and seems pretty bright. My dh is a bit of a maths whizz so I suspect he’s inherited that, my 4yo is certainly at least as good as my 7yo who is in the top 3 in his year for maths. I don’t know about exceptional though, I think it’s probably too early to tell. Keep encouraging him, keep him interested and don’t invest everything on him being a genius.

If he figured most of that out himself then exceptional. If he’s been taught then a good learner and more focussed than many at that age. Don’t get hung up on it I know a few really bright sparks who fizzled out by teen years.

I've not seen this before at this age and think it's exceptional.
I do agree with it being early days though.
I'd look for a school that will support him well with good differentiation at a suitable level for him.
Keep on doing what you are, encourage but don't push etc.
I will say some children who are exceptional in something don't always settle and of course there are those on the spectrum who prioritise one thing over everything else. I have one of these
We ended up doing a mix of primary state, home ed, and specialist subject school.
Good luck.

Exceptional!

DS did some of those at that age, he taught himself. He's considered bright. Once at school though he spent a while focussing on reading instead, until he was well ahead in that. He's in the advanced maths group (age 6), in a class with a lot of mathsy children (lots of mathematician parents), and I'd say he's on a par with those other mathsy children now.

I would think this is exceptional. Unless he's been pushed hard to achieve this, in which case, still extremely bright but leave him alone.
You have a delicate balancing act now to nurture his talents but also ensure he's well rounded. Good luck!!

That's exceptional! (oh- and ignore anyone who says it's bright because they have no idea what they are talking about!)

That's definitely exceptional. Don't know why people always talk about kids who they know and who fizzled out. If a child is doing something exceptional, let's just call it that.
Op - Do look for good primary school options around you. Ask questions on how they are going to stretch a child who is ahead, when you tour schools.

I actually love these threads. People will always say breezily “ah, that’s quite normal”.

I swear my kids and I are of bovine intelligence compared to MN parents

Thanks all. I really appreciate your input. He is my third child (so you’d think I’d know what I’m talking about by now!) but seems way ahead of the other two at that age but frankly I can barely remember.
Embarrassingly it is certainly no pushiness from me and has mainly been learnt from Numberblocks on CBeebies which he just loves.
There is certainly some impressive mathematical ability in mine and and my husbands families though certainly not from myself.
For now I’d just like him to be a 4 year old and play but will certainly encourage his love of learning where he’s enjoying it.

Of course it is exceptional, in terms of maths ability.
What are his other areas of development like ?

Definitely exceptional. Whoever thinks it isn’t is just trying to knock you down - petty behind-a-keyboard type stuff.

It seems somewhere between bright and exceptional.
My reservation on all these sorts of threads (my child knows... Does this make them gifted) is that being able to know times tables, recite square numbers etc doesn't necessarily mean there's mathematical understanding.

I'd be fairly wary of deciding on a judgement so young because to be honest it makes absolutely no difference to the child.

His other areas seem reasonably bright but not out of the realms of ‘normal’ (hate to use that word but you know what I mean). He recognises all letters and their sounds and is able to read simple cvc words. He is happy and sociable. He doesn’t much want to pick up a pencil (though that has changed a little in the last week or so).
He does appear to understand the mathematical concepts LolaSmiles, ie he walks around with 3 lots of 3 blocks and will say look mummy I’ve got 3x3. That’s 9. I think that’s what impresses me as his 9 year old sister has only really seemed to grasp that concept relatively recently.
Have no intention of changing anything I do with him and not assuming he’ll be some sort of genius. Was just curious as to how unusual his behaviour is right now.

I swear my kids and I are of bovine intelligence compared to MN parents
Bovine!

It's mediocre by the standards of MN posters (most of whom are probably lying IMO).

OP I found your post very interesting. My experience is similar; DS1 is almost exactly the same age and can do about 85% of that, and reads to around level 3. It's only become apparent to me in the past few months that he is some way ahead of the others at nursery (taking into account the fact that he is now one of the very oldest), as he's pfb it's hard to tell!

I said to his nursery teacher that he seemed to us to be bright but not exceptional (mostly based on my browses of MN) but she said it could be more.

I am obviously delighted he seems bright but am concerned he will be bored at school eg adding 2+3 when he can do 40+49 at the moment. We're visiting schools soon and will try to find out if/how they differentiate work for the more able pupils.

I would say that's quite exceptional and by the way you've further posted, you don't strike me as the pushy parent 'my child is a genuis' type so actually, he will do very well because he doesn't have a mum that knows he's very bright but gets all boasty about it! You let him do it on his own merit. Maybe he will become a chartered accountant when he's older. I love maths too and work in finance but definitely couldn't multiply at 4 😂

It’s exceptional. Bright children can do far far less than that at his age.

Seems exceptional to me. My 4yr 3 month son is bright and can't do much of that. I'd be really concerned about school tbh. Ds has started school, and his homework is to practice counting to 10. Which is something his 2 yr old brother mastered some time ago!

Exceptional

Mine couldn't do that when they were 7!

I actually love these threads. People will always say breezily “ah, that’s quite normal”

I swear my kids and I are of bovine intelligence compared to MN parents

yes!!!!

I think the little fellow sounds exceptional!