Exceptional children

Well, since this IS my blog and I can post whatever I want, I decided to get on my soap box and brag on my kids a little bit :) I'm not the type to normally do this because I think their actions speak for themselves, and I don't want to make other people feel bad or like I think my kids are better than theirs. But I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge publicly how special and talented my kids really are, and how very proud I am of them and glad to be their mom.

I've known from early on that my girls were on the gifted side. At around the age of 2 or so, when they were supposed to have about a 10 word vocabulary, theirs was somewhere around 100 (I know for a fact because I used to keep track of every word they could say once I realized they knew so much). They were never really interested in television. Their minds were too active and they were busy playing make believe ALL DAY. Now of course, at a young age none of that may mean anything.

Now at the age of 5 they have advanced and progressed far past what I thought they would have. Their vocabularies are HUGE. Not only do they know "adult" words but they use them in context. For example, after giving one of my girls a cadbury egg, she held it in her hand a minute before opening. When she did open it, she looked at it quizzically, looked at me and said, "Apparently, my egg is melted." The other day my other daughter saw my husbands new juicer sitting on the counter and said to me "Mama, that juicer looks suspicious." It's a daily occurrance with them. They are constantly pulling out words I had no clue they knew. Today, my older daughter was drawing and talking aloud to herself about her picture. She said "This person is magnificent." I couldn't help but burst out in laughter.

I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I myself was tested in the 2nd grade and found to be several grades ahead of my peers. As a result I was put in gifted classes all the way through junior high, where I quit because I was tired of being "different." I always had a way with words...verbose, I would say :)

So back to my twins...their comprehension of things is far beyond what a child their age should be. At the age of 4, I was describing complex subjects to them, (the water cycle, various biological processes, how objects are made or created, space, emotions, parts of language and grammar) which they would most of the time remember and bring back up at random times, astounding me at both their grasp of the topic and at their memory. Their insatiable curiosity makes them eager to learn and I am more than happy to share my knowledge. I love just sitting and talking to them, and answering all the how, why, where and when's that they ask. Even though they are young, I talk to them like they are little adults, because their ability to understand complex processes is sometimes on par with adults that I know, which is a little bit scary!

Their attention to detail is another thing that astounds me. We read books every night and in the pictures they will immediately notice a tiny bird in the background or some other such thing and point it out. They notice actual planes in the sky when they are so far away they are literally a dot that I never would have even thought to see. Once while driving on a straight road, there was a tall office building with about 30 windows. When we were far enough away that the windows were only about an inch tall, she said "Mama, that room has a fan blowing in the window." Sure enough, there was, so small, again I never would have seen it. She noticed FROM THE BACK SEAT. Another time we were in line at the store, and there was a soda display with Coca-cola written on the side and bubbles all around it. I was killing time, staring at the bubbles. She looked at it a split second and said "Oh a soda can." Sure enough when I looked closer, the bubbles were in an actual shape (a clever advertising ploy which worked better on my 5 year old than me!) Sharp would be an understatement when it comes to their attention to detail.

They are creative to the hundredth degree as well. Around the time they turned 4 I was a little concerned because they weren't very interested in drawing. They began to make the typical round head person with stick arms coming out. Then all of a sudden within a couple of months they went from drawing nothing to drawing the most complex things you ever saw out of a 4 or 5 year old. They spend HOURS drawing. Not only do they draw but they are detailed drawings. Clothing, eyebrows, speech bubbles, various expressions, motion. They draw anything and everything you could think of. They will spend a good 5 minutes or more explaining every nuance in the picture to you - where the person/animal is going, what they're doing/wearing, why they're doing it, what they're thinking/feeling - an entire back story which they will keep adding and adding to until there is no room left. People who see their art always comment on how remarkable it is, and I agree. The drawings alone show what a complicated inner world that exists inside of them.

Going along with that, they play "pretend" for hours. Sometimes, ALL DAY and I mean that literally. Some days I hardly see them because they are so busy playing in their room or outside and they can't be bothered to stop. They will play with toys of course but they will use anything at their disposal and make something out of it. Their ability to entertain themselves without the use of artificial means like computers or TV is incredible. In fact they never use a computer and very rarely watch TV. I use TV mainly as a tool to help them sit down and calm themselves when their minds are racing and I can tell they need a break to vegetate. At night, they stay up into the wee hours because they are so busy thinking that sometimes they cannot sleep.

Today we registered them for kindergarten and they had an assessment. There were colored blocks setting out for the kids to play with while we did paperwork. They spent the entire time that they weren't talking to the teacher (which totaled about an hour) making complex patterns out of the blocks. The aide was amazing and noted how intricate the patterns were. Then my younger daughter began to build patterns upward from the table (they were non-connecting blocks) in 3D, in double helix style. The aide was extremely surprised and said she didn't think she had seen any other kids do that. To my daughters, it was all in a days play.

So there we go. I had to say just how special my girls are, amazing people in every way, nothing short of exceptional. They are excited for school to get underway, and I look forward to what the school year will bring!