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The Grayson School's avatar

This is a fabulous summary of the gifted preschooler at various ages. We know at Grayson that gifted PreK children are tremendously hungry to learn, and that research shows that 3- and 4-year-old gifted children get tremendous social-emotional and intellectual benefits from learning together from trained teachers. This is why we include preschoolers in our programming — yet we are one of only a few institutions in the country that do so.

We often jokingly remark that perhaps the best place to find gifted preschoolers is the grocery store — they are the ones reading all the signs, or talking about prices and money, or asking why the strawberries come from Colombia (and where is Colombia, anyway? and how do they get here? and do they have to go to the airport like we do? and does that mean that the strawberries speak Spanish? etc.).

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Alison's avatar

I already was labeled long ago as being about like Tolan's Jason, and I was already pretty sure my daughter's about like RJ, but it hurts to read this and see that it describes my daughter and describes me even more.

(It's especially frustrating that MY OWN PARENTS complain she's spoiled and I'm pushing her when they got the same complaints, ye gods. She's not even as advanced as I was so how can they claim I'm pushing her? I go with her flow and occasionally even underestimate her, though I clocked her as "like RJ" over a year ago so I can't honestly say I'm "running to keep up" like most parents of level 4s stereotypically do.)

I don't find her intense or difficult whatsoever (guess I must be even more intense). And I understand her thought processes. My husband (typical original-CTYer) does find her intense. It bugs me to see my parents get upset at her emotional outbursts, makes me wonder how they reacted to mine. (I either comfort her or just ignore them, seems to work well. I feel like I lucked out and got an "easy child"!)

My mom did say that these days watching her makes her miss her own toddler girl. :)

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