How gifted kids just seem to 'get it'

Sometimes, I am just so utterly amazed by Gabe.  I don't understand how he just gets math.  We had realized, a month or so ago, that he was having trouble with borrowing in subtraction - he wasn't really into it and was a bit confounded by it.  So we showed him a couple times and then left it.  Literally...we haven't done anything for weeks (though by "done anything", what I really mean is "done anything formal".  Gabe is constantly working through equations - on his magna doodle, on the iPad, in the car, etc etc.)  So this morning, he pulls out his magnet numbers and just starts tearing through 3 and 4 digit addition and subtraction problems (with regrouping and borrowing).  It's like it just...clicked.  I said to Gray..."When did he figure that out?"  and Gray just looked at me and said, "I don't know...but are you really surprised?"  This is typical Gabe-style learning.  On the rare occasions that he doesn't get something/isn't interested enough in a subject to learn it right now...after a while of not touching it, he will end up coming back to it and bam, he knows it.

Of course, then there are the creepy times where he knows stuff that we literally never taught him.  (Now, a lot of the things we have 'taught' consist of a 5 minute conversation, showing him how to do the thing, and then him just having at it...and after like 3 problems, it's cake.)  But I remember when he was 2...and we figured out he could skip-count.  by pretty much anything.  First it was 2's, 5's, 10's...then 100's, then 11's??  then all the rest.  He can easily skip count better than I can...and has for a long while.  And just yesterday, we discovered he could convert an improper fraction to a proper one...and I can't for the life of me remember teaching him that.  Maybe we showed him once?

Anyway, for the sake of not sounding incredibly braggy (too late?), I'm going to stop with the showing off all the cool stuff Gabe can do and get to the meat of this:  gifted kids brains are just...wired differently.  And that's important to take into account.  They don't often need the repetition that other kids do to really get a concept.  They seem to generalize better.  (If you can do 2 digit addition, why not 4 or 6?  What's the difference?  If you can add regular integers, why not decimals? ...with the added caveat of making sure you always line up the decimal point, and add in zero placeholders if the remainders aren't the same length, of course).  But I don't think that that is always the case with NT kids.  The leaps and connections that the gifted mind makes really speaks to their learning (or aquiring knowledge) process.

So why do we try and make them learn like everyone else?  Public education has these arbitrary denominations based on age, there is lots of repetition and having to write out essays about how you arrived at your answer...and for some kids, I'm sure that that can be helpful.  But when the process is so obvious to you, so intuitive, why do you have to go through that kind of drudgery?  It doesn't make sense to me.  You wouldn't make a child with a learning disability or a motor coordination issue do certain things that NT kids do...so why do that with gifted children?

With all of this being said, we are quietly assuming that public school won't work for us (though we haven't ruled it out entirely).  We are looking to put him in a different school next year, because, while the montessori preschool he is in right now has been good about meeting his cognitive needs (for the most part), they are an administrative nightmare, and ridiculously expensive to boot.  So we are looking for a place with integrated learning, a multi-age environment, and emphasis on learning through play and experience.  Also, a school that goes beyond K would be ideal, as the schools that stop at K won't have curriculum (esp in math) that far ahead of K.  And at this point, I'm not convinced there is much of anything math-wise, that even 2nd grade could teach Gabe.  Which is scary...but that's beside the point. :P  Anyway, we have a few options that we are in the process of checking out, so hopefully something will work out, even part-time - because again, I am not averse to the idea of homeschooling...to a point.  I just think that Gabe would really miss being around kids, and frankly, sometimes I need a break - for work, and for relaxing.  So we will see - I'll keep you posted.

In other news, Jules has learned to put things on his head when we say 'hat'.  It's kind of ridiculously cute.  He'll be holding a block or something, and we say, "Jules...hat!"  and he holds it up to his head.  Silly kid.  He's also officially taking like 3-5 steps with some regularity, so I guess I would say that he has started walking, but it's not quite at the point of using it as his main means of transport.  He's getting more brazen about it every day though, the little goober.

What else...?  Oh, Gabe's birthday is right around the corner...I can't believe my little baby is going to be 4.  And then Jules's first birthday is only 2 months after that...we are thinking very strongly about doing an 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' theme, because he is all but obsessed with that song.  Not that he would really care, but I think it could be quite adorable, and I already have some ideas - thanks for sucking me into your black hole of amazingness, Pinterest.

Until next time,
Marnie