[email protected]

In a message dated 11/29/2003 3:38:06 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:
He's (her son 17 months) a pretty exceptional little boy. Since
you're so into home schooling I'm sure you have lots of resources.
Would you mind taking a few minutes and helping me find some. I know
every mother says this but I swear Noah's IQ must be huge. I taught
him how to count to ten already, and now we're working on the
alphabet (after just a few sessions he's already showing some
memorization). He's also recognizing most of his colors and all of
his body parts even the hard ones. I just feel like he's learning
everything so quickly that I don't want to slow down. He's really
enjoying it so where can I go from here. Are there books that I can
read to help me deal with an exceptional child? My mother says I'm
pushing him too hard but I feel like he's pushing me to learn new
things. John agrees with me that Luke has a true love of learning.
What do you think can you push a kid too hard when they are the
instigator? If you can just point me in the direction of some
literature I'll be sure to read it.
Thanks a million,
Shauna
Hey are you still home schooling? I was just curious to know if this
was a permanent situation or what. Obviously if you are it's working
well for you but let me know because I'm curious how it works with
two kids of different ages
*********************

I had a couple of reactions to this. First, that this woman is totally,
head-over-heels, in love with her child. She looks at him with awe and love. How
cool is that?!

At 17 months old, playing these games with him are games to him. Maybe
they'll pan out in that he'll read early or something. Maybe not. Seems the goal is
to help her stay awesomely in love with her kid.

Tell her that if she wants him to keep love learning that she should read to
him and play as many games with him as they like to do together, but that she
has to be careful about pushing him beyond that. Tell her that if it stops
being fun for him, he'll stop being so hungry for learning.

Tell her that one of the things that seems to squelch children's love of
learning is to be yelled at, shamed, punished. Suggest she try to be as positive
and supportive as possible. That she also needs not to worry so much about
academics as to help him nurture ALL his interests and talents, because he
probably will have lots.

In addition, tell her that with such an exceptional child, she should
definitely homeschool, preferably unschool. Then suggest a copy of Holt (Oh, you
already did that!) or some other unschooling book. I also like Please Touch, by
Susan Striker (who also did the Anti-Coloring Books).

It's okay (even sweet) that she feels that her son is exceptional. You can
help her keep feeling that way even if he's actually a bit dim >eg<

Kathryn


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[email protected]

Kathryn's suggestions were sweet and wonderful.

I think it might help to remind her that learning happens in a small part of
a second. A spark of recognition or realization and it's LEARNED. Real brain
connections. So tell her not to think a teensy session is less valuable than
a long session. Lots of little ones are probably better than long focussed
sessions anyway. And he'll need time to process and play with what he's
learned.

Remind her that when a child has had an intellectually or emotionally
stimulating day he'll probably sleep extral long and extra hard, and that too is
processing time. It's as much a part of the learning as the questioning and
"OOOH! I get it!" moments are.

Sandra