THE YEAR OF BIG DECISIONS: 3 TO 4 YEARS OLD

So that year, Joey was moved to the older class. Despite dire predictions of psychological trauma, Joey adjusted well, even at first. He still wasn't really interacting with the kids in the class, but he seemed happy in class and didn't come home crying, so I figured that in time, he would feel comfortable and start interacting. Certainly, the material was a little more on par with his level (not really close, but a big improvement). In the meantime, we scheduled his Standford Binet V test, so we would finally know where he stood. To be perfectly honest, I was nervous... what if Joey wasn't as smart as I thought he was?? The preliminary session we had with the psychologist certainly did nothing to reassure me: you know how people will always ask kids that age certain questions, to see if they have the 'basics'? Well, this is the kind of stuff that we hadn't really worked on (at least not until Joey had to take the ASQ and the Dial 3 screening...). Things like 'how old are you'? Well, Joey knew the answers to this type of question, but he didn't like to be asked the same questions again and again, I guess, so when the psychologist who was to test him asked him, he answered "65". Right.... that was on a Friday, and he was to be tested that Monday. I spent that week-end talking to Joey about how important that test was, how he really had to be careful to show what he knew, and give the right answers if he knew them, etc. By the time Monday morning came, I was feeling really guilty for putting him under that kind of pressure. After all, should a three year old be expected to perform??? When he went in with the tester, I took out my computer and proceeded to pretend to do work for the next hour and a half. When Joey emerged from there, he was simply beaming. To my great relief, not only had he not buckled under the pressure, he appeared to have thrived on it. Joey had done well, and he knew it... he had found his zone of concentration, it seemed.. he was like one of these geeky (I mean that as a compliment) students who felt they had just kicked butt on their math test!! 

Joey scored 151 on the SBV. This puts him in the highly gifted range (exceptionally gifted with the previous version of the Standford Binet). Not surprisingly, I felt vindicated. 

The first thing I did was have the results sent to Joey's pre-school and request that the district be contacted to see if there were any resources available for gifted children available through them. Commenting on the SBV results, the school said that they knew 'all along' that Joey was very gifted (hmm, right), that there weren't any services available through the district for gifted children at that age, but that if I wanted to fill out the form for the 'Special District' services, then we could get Joey some help adapting socially. Seriously??? I was livid. I said that there was no way in heck I was filling out that form, and instead, I asked for a referral for a private psychologist, so that Joey could be evaluated (again - this would be his 3rd developmental assessment that year - after passing the first two without any problem) in the group and private setting. So the school did that. They referred us to their favorite private psychologist, who proceeded to observe Joey in class and then in a private session. Her conclusion? That he was actually advanced socially, particularly when it came to pretend play because he had advanced vocabulary that he was using for this purpose. He was just cautious in the group setting, so more an observer than a joiner, something that she attributed to the fact that he was much younger than the other children in the class and perhaps his personality. She said to us that we didn't need to see her again, unless we had other concerns that came up in the future. Fast forward a few months later, Joey started talking in class, including to his classmates. Actually, they started looking to him for answers about academic stuff (and to make Marbulous designs for them), so little by little he was taking a leadership role, even amongst children who were up to a year and a half older. He also became more outspoken and better at standing up for himself. 


Kudos to the teachers for recognizing this and to the school director for coming around in the end. This helped us decide to stay in the same school for pre-K, which Joey will start with the same class... 

The rest of this year (which is our current year) will be covered with posts on special topics

FOCUSING ON MATH: 2 TO 3 YEARS OLD

So by the time Joey was 26 month-old, he could read words and books out loud (children’s books: 2-3 sentences per page) in both languages (but he reads better in English than French); could spell many 3-letter words and a few 4-letter words, including his first name and our nanny’s; could count actual things (up to about 25); understood the concept of addition; understood the concept of whole and half; could do 48-piece puzzles almost completely independently; could do many patternables on his own; could do Lego towers (and other more intricate designs) as tall as he was; change the settings on some electronic items (not toys) correctly; knew the days of the week, names of month etc by rote; was interested in the concept of time (knew which days he was going to school) and started telling the time  (whole hours and sometimes half hours) correctly on the clock. For this purpose, we used 'Telly the Teaching Time Clock' and 'Self-Checking Time Match-Ups' (Lakeshore Learning), as well as the 'Rock 'N Learn:Telling Time' (I hate this video, but it works). One of Joey's favorite games at the time was to use two sticks and arrange them like a on clock (without numbers) to tell you what time he made. Joey also knew all the major countries in Americas, Europe, and some in Africa; and had a well-developed sense of humor for his age.

Below is a video of Joey reading in class. As you can see, his diction had improved a bit in 3 months. 

In English:



And in French: 

Since we were cruising with reading, we decided to be more strategic with math. We continued with Syngapore Math, Learning Palette, (we started 1st grade material when Joey was about two and a half). We also added Meet the Common Core Math Standards Learning Center - Grade 1' and some big charts to start teaching the concept of fractions (Lakeshore Learning). A huge thing that had to happen that year for Joey to be able to progress beyond grasping the concepts of addition and subtraction was that he had to be able to actually count on his fingers, and then visualize counting on his fingers to solve simple additions. This visualization is really key, in my opinion. So we focused a lot on that. We got the 'addition and subtraction machines' and the 'Beat the Clock! Addition/Subtraction Facts to 18 Practice Board' (both from Lakeshore Learning). This latter meant that he started being able to write out addition and subtractions (but without carry over at this point). At the same time, Joey attended (1 hour a week) a math learning center because I felt that we needed a third party to work and report on his skills: over there, he worked with fraction manipulatives,  basic money skills (we were not really focusing on that yet because real money is so germy), patterning (but we had done a lot of that already), recognition of math symbols (include > and <), the concept of zero (which he knew very well already), rulers, balances, skip counting, among others. His attendance at this center was a really positive experience for us because it was the first time that I was getting true outside validation of Joey's giftedness. The lady was from Eastern Europe and she was just 'getting' Joey and what we were doing. She also provided a very nice reference letter. Getting references is SO important when you have a gifted child who is very young, as they are not reliable in displaying these skills in public until they feel comfortable in their new setting, so don't count on pre-school teachers oohing and ahhing after a couple of classes with your child at the beginning of the year... it is more likely that they will think you are delusional. 

Other skills Joey was learning was more Geography, thanks to the wonderful 'Geopuzzles'. Drawing with 'ART START Animals: How to Draw with Simple Shapes', and more writing/spelling with kids crossword puzzles (and having him write his own birthday cards). We also got him a 'Melissa & Doug Deluxe Magnetic Calendar' to continue reinforcing calendaring skills (the previous one we had was a hanging fabric calendar). Finally, we got him a Snap Circuits game, just to teach him to follow written directions (the concepts were still beyond him). 

In the meantime, Joey was making quite a bit of progress learning tunes on his little piano and swimming. See all videos below. 

Pre-school: pre-school is not, in most cases, a very good environment for gifted children. When Joey was placed with his age peers, they proceeded to study colors, shapes, and the occasional letters. Unfortunately, he had mastered these concepts about a year and half prior, and he was not interested at all in what was going on in class, so he was playing in his corner and occupying himself in ways that were not particularly responsive to what the teachers wanted from him. But this was more than just the curriculum. Joey was simply not interested in interacting with his peers. Don't get me wrong, he was extremely social one on one (with adults and children, any age), but there was something about the classroom dynamics and environment, which was noisy and had a million thing going on, that did not suit Joey well. We had a meeting with the teachers and director, and this was not a very good meeting. They implied that Joey may have developmental issues (and maybe autism ?, since he wasn't interacting much with the other children and often completely ignored directions), that he wasn't pronouncing some words correctly, etc, etc. But we stood our ground: 
1. We refused the dial 3 screening offered by the director, who was going to do it herself (something we perceived as a conflict of interest, since it seemed to us that she already had her mind made up about what was going on). Instead, I offered to have Joey screened independently, which we did. Joey passed this test (ASQ) without any problem.
2. We insisted that Joey had none of the issues they were hinting about. By that time, I had read extensively on gifted children and their behavior, and it was plain as day that Joey was exhibiting behaviors which were typical of gifted children who are not being adequately challenged. The teachers and director had no special training or knowledge about gifted children, so this was a difficult conversation.... of course there were other factors: Joey, as many boys, was neither socially advanced or naturally verbal like many little girls were in his class at the time; being bilingual, his total number of words was right on target, but his English vocabulary was about half that, which is perfectly normal; he was one of the youngest children in his class, which put him at a disadvantage developmentally; Joey is an introvert, at least outside of the house, and this is a personality trait that both I and my husband share; gifted kids are quirky and asynchronous in their development, so they might be able to master certain advanced concepts very quickly, yet be behind their peers in life skills... the fact that Joey is an only child and lives with three adults who care for his every need certainly does not help his practical skills.

So... after that conversation, Joey was moved to a smaller group of the same age, so he could get more attention, and the teachers started to bring him books he was interested in. That's how I learned that he could read at the 3rd grade level at two and a half. And in that modified environment, he started doing a lot better, warming up the class and his classmates. 

Then came the time to implement his acceleration (move him up to the next class), something I had insisted on when we signed up with the school. Again, this was a hard sale with the director, particularly in view of the issues he had encountered with his chronological peers at the beginning of the school year. Again, we did not back down, and pointed out that Joey would be more interested in the material in the older class, that he would be amongst children who were more mature and therefore in a calmer environment. We wanted to try it and did not take no for an answer. At that point, the director said she would not agree to it, unless he got the dial 3 screen. We said ok, but it had to be done by someone from outside of the school. This was done and again, Joey passed without any problem. He was moved the the older class... 

This saga will be continued in the next post: 3 to 4 years old. But I do want to add that despite our difficulties with the school, the teachers, and the school director, there is a happy ending in this regard. We were dealing with people who, while uninformed about gifted children, truly cared about Joey and doing the right thing, and were also intelligent. It took work, but in the end, they did 'get' Joey and were supportive. So the morale is to advocate, advocate, advocate: bring articles, documentation, letters from tutors, an outside advocate if necessary. Whatever it takes, but do not get discouraged or beaten into submission. While it is always possible that a child has a problem that requires extra-help, if in all honesty, as the parent, you do not see this problem in different settings (at home, or in social occasions), the problem is the environment, or the child's immaturity in adapting to this environment (not the same thing as a developmental delay), not the child. I think it is really unfortunate that nowadays, there is no tolerance for differences in personality or minor differences in maturity levels between children in the same class. The kids ALL have to be bubbly and excited about typical pre-school activities. Well, not all kids are, and that doesn't mean anything is wrong with them. Not all kids learn to put on their jacket on their own at the same age, etc... focusing on this kind of skill, which is so dependent on that child's circumstances (many siblings or only child; whether the parents care about teaching this sort of stuff) is plain misguided. 

WHEN JOEY REALLY TOOK OFF: 1 TO 2 YEARS OLD

By the time Joey turned one, he could recognize many, many words in English and French. I think they call that the 'whole word method'. 

At that point, we started working with the fridge letters for letter recognition and pronunciation. After a short while (2 months or so??), it became evident that Joey knew all his letters, upper and lower case. 

See this video we took at the time:

By the time I got 'Hooked On Phonics', it was obvious that Joey had already mastered phonics on his own because not only could he recognize any words, both in English and French, but he could even start spelling words with the fridge letters!! At that point, I felt like we could really start cruising... so instead of using fridge letters, I got a 'Franklin KID-1240 Children's Talking Dictionary and Spell Corrector' and I printed out a 3-letter word scrabble list. For each word, we asked Joey if he knew the meaning and if he could guess how to spell it. When he was done with the 3 letter list, we moved on to the 4 letter list, etc. Just 5 words a day. Of course we kept reading Joey all kinds of books as well, and I started getting the wonderful Marthstart series, which explains a math concept in the form of a well illustrated, engaging story. Also, since we are Jewish, we started receiving the incredible free books from the PJ library, and we also bought other books related to Jewish holidays, as well as simple wood puzzles, including an Aleph Bet Puzzle. Just teaching him to recognize 4 or 5 letters a week, it only took a few weeks for Joey to have memorized the Hebrew alphabet and recognize all the letters..!

Around that time, Joey also started learning to write: one letter a week (upper case, lower case) and one number a week. We used letter and number guides for this purpose to get him going, and we included cursive letters too, although we did not keep up with the latter. As a complement to that, we got him a doodle board, which is still uses to this day, and we also have a travel one (whoever invented this should get the Nobel Prize...!). 

But let's come back to math... Apart from 'Little Math' from Brillkids, which basically uses the Doman method, I started wondering where we could go from there. So we started getting a lot of puzzles (12 and 24 piece Melissa and Doug wood puzzles), but for math, a lot of these wonderful eeboo puzzles, which teach to count (one to one correspondence) and even the concepts of adding and subtracting (for this purpose, we also got 'Addition Match-Ups' from Lakeshore Leaning). Eeboo also has puzzles that also reinforce spelling skills. Joey has always been very precocious with his puzzles skills, so this was perfect for us. Otherwise, we got a lot of toys that reinforced his knowledge of shapes, and by 18 months, he knew all his shapes (supplemented with the video 'Meet the Shapes ') and colors ('Meet the Colors'), which he could all identify correctly in real life situations. For colors, we also used sorting games, such as 'Know Your Colors Sorting Baskets' (Lakeshore Learning). A puzzle is also what helped him identify body parts (and not just the basic ones). We also got him one of these talking maps, which was great to get him started on geography. Joey just sucked up all this information. By 19 months, he could easily count to 100 in English and French, and he understood the concepts of addition and subtraction. To reinforce his math skills, we started using the 'Numbers & Counting Folder Game Library - Pre-K-Gr. 1'; ' Patterning & Sorting Folder Game Library - Pre-K-Gr. 1'; 'Beginning Operations Folder Game Library - Pre-K-Gr. 1' (Lakeshore learning). The great thing about these folders is that they are very colorful and are very much manipulative oriented, so perfect for very young children. Another wonderful manipulative, which we still use are the Learning Palettes for Math. By that time, we were completely done with Little Math (Brillkids), so we also got him started on Syngapore Math (Kindergarten Program), which is now used by many private schools. What I like about this method (apart from the fact that it is very successful), is the fact that it has more depth and less breadth, so it introduces a concept with manipulatives (for young children), then through pictorial representations, then text. And it requires a lot of practice on one topic before moving on the next, something I happen to believe in. I learned some Russian in college (I forgot it), but a Russian saying I still remember because it rang so true is that 'repetition is the mother of learning'. Of course for gifted kids, you have to be careful not to go over things too many times, lest them become bored and resist your efforts. Sometimes, as I found out, it means moving on a bit before the topic is 100% mastered, even if it means coming back to it. 

To develop Joey's patterning and deduction skills, we used the 'Building Thinking Skills' books from The Critical Thinking Co, starting with the KD book. We still use this series to this day, at the current grade level Joey is working on for other things. 

Around that time, we also got him a little toddler piano, and started teaching him a tune or two. Nothing too intense at that point. 

One pattern that started to emerge in our educational strategy (if you can call it that - it was definitely on the subconscious level at that point) is that we never taught Joey anything just 'one' way, or with 'one' set of material. We never just relied on one video or one toy. Another thing that started to emerge was Joey's unbelievable, out of this world, memory. 

Up until 20 months or so, one area Joey was not advanced in was talking. The fact that he is a boy and bilingual certainly had something to do with it, but by 18 months, he only had a few words. The pediatrician said not to worry, but I was worried anyway, and started reading up on this. I read the Einstein Syndrome, a book about very bright children who are late speaking (like Einstein was).. this made me feel better, but we still got the Baby Babble videos... we even made one appointment with a speech pathologist, just in case... and honestly, this was a bad experience for Joey and me: imagine a complete stranger talking in high speech tone in your face and expecting you to respond. My bottom line opinion (from this experience and what I read) is that speech pathologists should not be trying to diagnose speech delays.. once a developmental pediatrician does, this is another story, but until then... Anyway, I don't know if it was the videos or the timing, but by 20 months, Joey vocabulary started building up dramatically and now I just wish he were quiet once in a while and stop asking so many questions, ha, ha!

At 18 months, we started putting Joey in pre-school a couple of mornings a week, and this was my first experience as a mother of a gifted child in school. Prior to enrollment, I made an appointment with the school director to appraise her of Joey's 'special needs' in terms of stimulation and access to advanced material. Not only she didn't believe me, but I could tell she was figuratively rolling her eyes..: 'imagine that, another Jewish mother who thinks her son is a genius..!'. Right... This was really difficult because from the get-go, Joey did not really enjoy the typical pre-school classroom, which is loud and completely over-stimulating. I actually have videos of him reading a book in a corner while the other children were jumping up and down at the tune of a preschool song. No doubt Joey stood out, but not necessarily in a good way. I also remember one instance of a classroom party, which was a complete zoo. Joey was reading words on the walls (including the 'exit' sign, LOL), but who could hear him? By the second year, things started to improve, and to the great credit of Joey's teachers, they started seeing his abilities and giving him books to read (but this is for the next post), etc. 

That year, Joey did another successful round of Infant Swimming Resource. 


By 22 months, Joey could correctly identify any number when presented with two choices (up to 1 million but we haven’t tried to show him anything above).

By the time Joey was 23 months old, he read his first book aloud. His diction was not that understandable to the casual observer, but he read it! Out loud. A big change from just identifying words by pointing to them. It was 'Jen the Hen'. 

IN THE BEGINNING - 0 TO 12 MONTHS

Growing up in Europe, I had learned to read before school (my mother taught me), so when my son was born, I naturally assumed I would do the same for him. So I bought a lot of the classics (in English and French because we are a bilingual family) and started to populate our toddler library for the future little prince. This included 'The Cat in the Hat', and other Dr. Seuss Classics, as well as Le Roi Babar (French Edition) and others, which I ordered directly from Amazon France. But, not to put the cart before the horse, we also got a lot of what I felt were good baby toys.... the kind that encouraged open ended play, no electronics, and taught basic concepts: the 'Earlyears Curiosity Cube', Baby Einstein Bendy Ball', the 'B. Toulouse Lap-Trec Magnetic Sketcher', 'Educo Mazes', the 'Imaginarium 5-Way Giant Bead Maze', the 'Woodpecker Baby Walker from Plan Toys', the 'Wonderworld Musical Tree', the 'Wonderworld Rolling Rainbow Activity Toy', 'Learning Resources Jumbo Magnetic Numbers/Operations', 'Learning Resources Jumbo Lowercase Magnetic Letters', 'Jumbo Uppercase Magnetic Letters', etc. 

But the most valuable item I got was the 'Your Baby Can Read Program'. This is the review I originally published on it:

'It seems that few subjects related to child upbringing stirs people's passions like early childhood education, except maybe the Ferber versus attachment parenting discussion, and the breastfeeding versus formula discussion. I am not a child development expert, but I am a foreign-born scientist who got her doctorate in this country, therefore in a language that was not my native tongue, and which I learned during my early teens. My mother taught me to read before school, using her own method, which as I vaguely recall was a combination of phonics, constant exposure to books, and no TV. Is this why I was able to pursue advanced studies in a foreign country? I don't know, but I do recall getting straight As pretty much through school. I am accomplished, but I know many people who are a lot more accomplished than I am, economically and otherwise.

When I had my baby (a boy, now 10 month old), it was a no-brainer (no pun intended) for me to teach him to read early, i.e. before school. After all, isn't reading the key to learning anything down the line? And maybe some children can just pick it up by osmosis, but for most, you have to teach them. Your Baby Can Read was just a tool, which was more convenient than making my own word cards, such as described in the Doman method (Teach your baby to read), which was first published in the 70s, I believe. There are many other great methods out there (Brillkids, Monkee See, etc, ), and all of them will work if you actually put in the effort, which needs to be substantial and consistent, but the rate of success will also depend on your child's natural abilities (that's right, not everyone is an Einstein), your child's gender (studies shows that girls are more verbal, and that by 16 months they know about 50 words, versus 30 for boys), whether your child lives in a bilingual household and has to learn more than one language, and the general quality of the environment your child is in. None of these methods involve plopping the child in front of the video as a baby sitter but requires you to interact with your child during the video and to reinforce the video's content with print material, and by other frequent exposures to words, letters, etc. The debate about children memorizing the words versus learning phonics is absurd in my opinion: Of course children are memorizing the words at first, like they might memorize letters, numbers, colors, and everything else that make up the basic fabric of life. You have to start somewhere and studies have shown that very young children (babies) learn through whole word recognition (right brain) and older toddlers start learning by phonics (left brain), but one doesn't preclude the other. All I know is that by constant exposure to something, you learn it and you start discerning the patterns (a famous Russian proverb states that "Repetition is the mother of learning"). I also know that children (younger than 4) in bilingual households learn both languages as their native language, and that they lose this ability as they get older, so without pandering to Dr. Titzer, it is pretty obvious that young children are particularly good at acquiring language skills in ways that is unparalleled in later years.'

and I recently published this update:

'If used as instructed, it works. We started with my son as an infant. He started recognizing sight words at 7 months. By 13 months, he could recognize many, many words (in two languages). We were done with this program, so we got Hooked on Phonics next, but he had already figured phonics out, due in part to this intensive exposure to the written language early on. Now he is 3 years old and reads at a 3rd grade level (in two languages). I cannot even begin to imagine what the FTC suit is about. Of course, a baby will not sound out words (will not read out loud), but a baby will recognize and correctly identify written words. THEN as expressive language develops, a toddler will read words out loud (my son read his first book out loud when he was 23 months old), and will be years ahead of other children at that point. The great thing about reading early is that reading is how you learn about other things. It is not just the reading that is accelerated, but the comprehension as well.

Would you like proof? You can watch this video of intermediate results at  




After my son finished this program, we also used Little Readers (Brillkids) and Little Math from the same company. Most of all, we really enjoyed the Brillkids forum, which was full of parents from all over the world who believed in early education. 

That year, Joey also participated in the Infant Swimming Resource Program, and he did really well with that. 

We also introduced him to hiking that year. He was such a good lil' hiker!


Joey was successful in this first year, but nothing will compare to what happened shortly after my son turned one!

To be continued...

ACADEMIC ACCELERATION: NOT JUST FOR GIFTED CHILDREN

Hello!

This blog is about: academic acceleration, including for non-gifted children; homeschooling (part-time and maybe full-time someday); and raising and educating a highly gifted child, including advocacy with schools. I will show you how we have been doing it, from birth, what resources we used, what is working (or not) for us.

My husband convinced me to start this blog.... We have a highly gifted little boy (he scored 151 on the Standford Binet V) who is also academically accelerated and one of the youngest Mensa members currently (and the youngest in our region). At three and a half years old, he is doing 2nd grade math and can read at a 3rd grade level (his comprehension is probably only at 1st grade level though). And that's just for starts, as you will see. He is also accelerated in school: after A LOT of advocacy on our part, he was moved to the next class, so he will be in pre-K this year. However, I firmly believe that even bright and not necessarily gifted children can achieve the same things.. after all, the U.S. is unfortunately behind many countries in terms of education (particularly in the STEM areas), which shows that a lot more can be expected from children than we do here in the U.S. Why does it matter? Because in our increasingly global economy, our children will have to compete for jobs with these other children. However, more than this, doesn't everyone want their child to reach their full potential and to make the best use of their time. And does my son have time to play: yes, oodles of time, as a matter of fact, but we will come back to that.