Child Genius

[Whizzz]

on now.......this merits a MN thread !

Ooo- I thought Dante's parents were dead wet, Bink! Too much handwringing and angst and intensity, boundaries not firm enough, fun in short supply.

agree, scummymummy, they just didn't know what to do with him. should have got him off that bloody playpen for starters. and where were the siblings? v weird.

Angsty wringers - I suppose that's just more my cup of tea than chest-puffing (or thinking your children, all four of them, are a litter of messiahs). I guess Dante might have ground them down, though? I think that's what I was sympathising with.

However, do completely agree with one thing - Dante could have done, from toddlerhood, with more JOKES.

Sorry, of course Adam is a normal name I suppose I was really thinking of Dante and the 4 robot children.

How strange about the womans name being on missing persons websites.

I enjoyed the programme, loved Adam and Peter and Aimee.
The little 3 year old was brilliant, so cute.
Dante was a complete pain.
The boy who wrote books and cooked, Michael?was interesting, I wouldn't have eaten that pigeon though!
The 4 children in the family were odd, they go to a normal school but don't seem to have any interaction with other children outside those hours. I also wondered if the dad was allowed to speak, he seemed far too quiet! The girl who got her 11plus results was 11, I'll show my ignorance here and ask a question as we don't have the 11plus here, is it so extremely hard an exam that it would be worthy of all those presents if you pass?
Don't mean to offend anyone only they don't do them here in Scotland so I don't know anything about them.
Can't believe we have to wait 2 years for an update.

I'm pretty convinced that a lot of those kids weren't actually truly "gifted". The chess boy was - and he and his family seemed normal and lovely. And I suspect the musician girl was. but none of the rest really stood out to me as much more than precocious, mostly posh, and pushed.

but, thinking about it, it's always going to be an unrepresentative cross section - even of families with gifted kids - they;re not only families with gifted kids, but families who are willing to take part in a tv documentary (hat imagines a satisfying Venn diagram)

I loved Peter, seemed really full of fun, and sad that he's got no friends. His parents and grandad seemed 'normal' if a bit overwhelmed at their son's abilities. Loved the hug the grandad gave Peter at the result of his IQ test - even though it was obvious he didn't grasp the significance of a score of 170!!!!

The 3 year old was incredible, how is that possible? That he can work out those sums? Completely beyond my pea brain.

Interesting what others here have said about the siblings. Horrific for them. Adam's little brother - having to move around to accommodate Adam. Don't know if boarding school is a good thing - will give parents a break and give the brother a chance to LIVE, but it does prove a point - what on earth do you do with these children?

As for Oxford Don woman - freaky relationship with kid. Reminded me of the antiques guy who eventually became a woman!

I was deeply troubled by this programme. The chldren ALL struggled socially (or will do when they are put in that situ IYKWIM). The siblings were completely odd - and totally dominated by their Pantomime-Dame of a mother. Did I hear right when she said "When they achieve what we wnat for them we'll be very proud"? IMO, pride in your kids should be as natural as breathing and is NOT conditional on their academic prowess matching up with your amibitions for them.

Dante, I thought was a very unhappy child. REally witty, lots of fun - and ENORMOUS energy, he was never still except for when talking philosophy th the professor chap - but deeply unhappy and uncertain. Agree that he needed more dicsipline.

Except for chess boy and perhaps the musician (Aimee?), all those children could easily get the impression that their parents' love was conditional on their doing well. What message does this send to their siblings as well as to the 'geniuses' when they don't do as well? As for poor little Adam, boarding school at 6? Poor wee thing.

Will be interested to see the update.

I thought Mikhail and Aimee were pushed/coached and that the family were probably just "bright" rather than brilliant (the mum definitely had problems, the make-up was such a giveaway).

The other boys all seemed pretty outstanding. I felt desperately sorry for Dante and Adam though.

I thought all of the children were lovley, esp Michael and Peter. FElt enoemous sympathy fror Dante and his family, his intellect seeems to cause him a lot of self doubt. He is not as emotionally developed. I felt sorry for his parents as they seem to not really have pushed or trained him. Most of the other kids I felt were being pushed. Little Mikhail is being trained like a puppy with his maths which was clear in his test. Dad's eyes when the Prof spoke about working on other areas.
As for teh Grafton Clarkes- psycho parents. The CCTv thing well spooky. I was looking for the number for Social services. Poor kids I hope All of tehm get what THEY want from life.

But no matter how precocious, posh and pushed, you cannot force your 6 year old to understand quadratic equations...

Michael the novelist boy annoyed the h*ll out of me - he was soooo precocious, and odd. Felt very sorry for little sis...
Aimee was sweet, but her parents seemed to demand so much... is it really necessary to do every music contest in Surrey, she is only 10...

Adam (maths boy), little Mikhael and Peter were gorgeous, but my heart broke when the family were discussing sending Adam to boarding school. He is only a baby....

I felt dreadfully sorry for Dante - yes he was rude and badly behaved, but I think his parents from an early age never set any boundaries nor told him off, so I think he is floundering a bit. He certainly did not seem comfortable with his giftedness, and struggled under the weight of it. I want him to have a happy ending most of all...

Family of 4 was odd and freaky. Mum scared me, dad seemed to have been lobotomized, and the children were not children but freakoid adults... very very odd....

Fantastic programme though - I was glued to the TV and kept thanking my lucky stars that my dc are of average intelligence.

My 6 year old ds asked me if he could be a dog this morning, and i let him

what is this program? Is it repeated?

IQ testing is crap, btw, I completely don't buy it.

I thought both Aimee (who was lovely) and Mikhail were put under a lot of pressure from their parents (but was pleased to see Mikhail at least being sent to school). Poor Aimee will struggle with that amount of outside school activities as she gets older (what with the Guildhall + her school work that she seems to work very hard at + competitions).

Excluding psycho family for the moment, thought the others came across as properly gifted - thought Adam and his family were lovely but wanted to just grab them and tell them to be a bit stronger about picking a school for him and sticking with the decision.

Felt for Dante - you could almost feel his pain through the TV and I did feel sorry for his parents because I think they virtually admitted that they found him very challenging and hadn't known how to handle him.

Peter was gorgeous but you just wanted to reach in and give him some mates!

Though Oxford boy (writer and cook) did come across as a bit precocious but I thought his mother seemed quite sensible - she'd kept him on at school in the right year, she'd not wanted to push him through his education. At least as a family, they'd taken it in their stride iyswim.

And as for the 4 kids...dear oh dear. I just fear for those children as they hit the real world.

I must have missed the cctv thing - what happened?

the family with 4 kids had their house kitted out like some MI5 stronghold

CCTV cameras on the outside - big signs in the window warning of the CCTV

they said they feared other parents

They called their kid Dante! FFS!

They had ben targeted though I think. I can't remember if it was things stuffed through the letter box or windows smashed maybe.

I missed the cctv thing too, what was that about??

ah, too late I see

Altough Micheal the novelist was eccentric, he had a charm to him and i thought his realtionship with his Mum was lovley. She is obviuosly very intellectual and so her son is naturally clever. She seemed quite grounded in that he is at a normal school, with friends, but she is able to stimulate his innate creativity. They genuinely seemed to enjoy each others company. Also Peter and his Da had a lovley relationship, it was so funny when his Dad had to ask son for the answers to teh Maths questions. Really good TV.