Monday, June 14, 2010

Beaver or Tadpole?

Something about having a first child that is gifted sort of distorts your view of children. It's not that you don't realize that they might be different, but people in general are different. Not until you have another child do some of the differences come and smack you upside your head. When we had a second child I did not think that they would be exact but I definitely did not consider that they would learn and perceive so dramatically different. Here's a little story:

B started taking chess class that is an hour long. During this hour I decided to take his brother T to the park. We walked along the sidewalk that also follows along a river. At some point I see a beaver in the water.

I said to T "Hey, look at the beaver in the water." and pointed at it.

He stopped looked at it and then said "Wow, look at that tadpole."

"No honey, it's a beaver"

"That tadpole is huge."

"T, it's a beaver, can you say beaver?"

"Tadpole is splashing his tail."

"T, it's a beaver, come on."

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If this was B at this age it would have been more like this:

"Mommy, do you see the beaver in the water?"

"Yes, I do"

"Do you think it's looking for wood to build a house?"

"Maybe"

"It's looking for just the right wood to use."

"Could be"

"I think beavers eat plants too so maybe it's hungry."

"Are you sure it eats plants?"

"Yes, I'm pretty sure, also beavers are good swimmers and use their tails for steering."

"Oh, that's interesting."
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So you can see that by having the first child being gifted did not prepare me for the seconds way of thinking. It's almost impossible to not look back at what B was doing at this age and NOW I think "Are you kidding me?" When you are IN the situation it's eye opening, but not mind blowing.


On our way back from the park T stopped where the river was close again and then said "Look at the flamingos."

"Flamingos? T those are geese"

We continue walking and then he asked "Where's the raccoon?"

"Racoon?! Do you mean Beaver?"

"Yeah."

6 comments:

  1. I love this! And it's so true. My kids are like night and day when it comes to how they perceive and interpret the world around them. But that just makes things more interesting. :)

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  2. Update: We had chess again and T said

    "Look at those swans"

    They were ducks.

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  3. Sounds like T and I have a lot in common.

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  4. Haha, welcome to my world. Sometimes I think my kids do it just to annoy me. :)

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  5. imagine having 30 teenagers in a class with these two differing learning stages and everything below, in between, and above. I struggle against saying, "are you kidding me?" daily. DAILY.

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  6. Love this post! My boys are 7 & 4 and the 7 year old was reading at 4 and blowing minds his whole life. I've started working intently with the 4 yr old on reading and WOW is it different. Two geniuses in one family was too much to ask for.

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