Early on, I knew my child was a genius. It was evident as soon as she made her great escape and joined the rest of us On The Outside (also known as childbirth. There’s no poetry for it, really) (And if you think I’ve forgotten how painful that was, think again.)
But as I was saying. Genius. My daughter…oh yeah. She memorizes like, everything. She can identify a few different species of birds (her father’s influence, naturally). She can have meaningful conversations on the phone with her grandparents. So at her two-year well-baby (fine, well child) visit, I thought I would ask her doctor: “How do you know if your child is a genius?”
I refrained just in time. It’s such a cliche, I-think-my-child-is-a-genius. And why is it a cliche? Because we all think that about our kids! With good reason, too. I don’t know what the statistics are on just how many words they learn every single day, but it’s more than I’m learning, I assure you. [Mental note: add word-a-day calendar to Christmas wish-list.]
So, I shared some of the reasons my Z is a genius. Tell me about your kids (or your niece, nephew, or tiny friends). This is your golden ticket for Genius-Child Bragfest 2010! Share! Mom, feel free to share extra! (Just make sure it’s about me.)
Beth Hull 
Dylan is a genius. He can name off practically every species of dinosaur. I don’t even know some of them, and I know a lot of dinosaurs. He’s also very good with ocean biology.
Brandon doesn’t seem to be genius levels yet, unless you count wanting everything that Dylan has in his hand and screaming about it a genius. I don’t think so. Brandon may be a star athlete though in the future.
Justin is… Justin. He’s going through a nail polish phase right now.
Evan drools and smiles a lot.
Nail polish in itself is genius, especially if it is going on his toenails. Also, I’m sure Evan’s drooling can be linked to some cryptic hieroglyphs that the rest of us mortals are too dumb to figure out. 🙂
He doesn’t want his toenails painted (yet), but he noticed that Mom’s was always red, so he decided that must be boring and picked her out a blue glittery teal instead. So now Mom has to wear blue glittery nail polish.
Jill told him if he didn’t cry when he went to preschool (he just started going by himself), he would get to pick out nail polish for her. I think he picked out the same shade.
So he’s giving out fashion advice with the nail polish? What does he think of French pedicures?
W is definitely a genius. He’s always had an affinity for anything to do with Maths. By the time he turned 3 he could already count to 30, now at 31/2 he can count to 100. And it’s not just reciting counting from memory, he can recognise the individual numbers if he sees them on a sign/t-shirt/label and if you give him a heap of items (like a handful of sultanas) he can count them and tell you how many are there.
He is also extremely good at doing jigsaw puzzles. Anytime he gets a new puzzle he just has to study it a second and within a minute he’s done it. He’s been like that since he was S’s age. I recently got him a 40 piece world map puzzle to challenge him. It was barely a challenge at all.
Then there’s his affinity for geography. He can currently point out and name about 14 countries on a world map (including a couple I struggle to accurately point out).
As for S, she’s starting to show the same signs of Mathematic affinity as her brother. At 18 months she’s just started counting to three, but also imitates the rhythm of counting to ten (which is exactly how her brother started out) she’ll also point to numbers if she sees them somewhere and start ‘counting’. She’s also just started becoming interested in puzzles. She’s much more precocious with language than W (not surprising being a girl), she can say nearly 50 words (her brother could only say half as many at the same age) and she already tends to put words in sentences (I’m not sure if this is genius or just a girl thing, of course all girls are geniuses, that goes without saying).
I think that’s enough bragging. Thanks for the opportunity, I don’t often get the chance because I don’t want all my friends to get sick of me going on about what geniuses my kids are 🙂
Jo, thanks for sharing! Your kids are definitely geniuses! The geography thing of W’s is especially amazing.
LOL, that’s how I was with Alex. Maybe still am. I feel like I have to warn his teachers that he is going to act like a brat if they make things too easy for him. And therein lies the balance: Alex is very advanced for his age academically but he is really immature, so it probably cancels it out. On the flipside, Elliott is probably behind other kids in talking but he ridiculously makes up for it in motor skills. He could probably complete a marathon right now.
So the real test is for you to have Baby Number Two and then compare them to each other (which apparently we’re not supposed to do) and then drive yourself crazy with that!
I’m thinking…I’m thinking!!