Museum

We visited a museum a few days ago. One of the displays featured a video presentation. We weren't watching it, but could hear it, and J said, "Hey mom, isn't that the music from Nova?"

Nova and Nature are, quite possibly, J and Z's favorite tv shows.

"G" whiz!

Gee whiz, my 4 1/2 year old is a "G" whiz!  Ha ha, I'm so punny.

But no, really. He is trying to distract me from the fact that he's very disobediently still in just his underwear at 1 pm. And part of his method is spouting off some genius, because he knows I'm always pleased by displays of academic achievement. Before you go thinking I'm one of "those moms," think about it. Almost any parent (aside from Matilda's) is pleased when their child shows smarts.  Anyway, I digress.  Here's what Z said:

"Does 'scavenger hunt' have a G in it, but it's soft?"
"Um..." I thought about it for a second. "Uh, yeah, it does! Very good!"
"And 'go' has a G in it, but it's hard. And 'get going' has two hard G's!"

That's where his plan failed, because it reminded me that I'd told him to "get going" on the deplorable process of putting on clothes.

Disappointing

On the way to school this morning, J and I realized that he has only been to his gifted pull-out class three times since being accepted 2 1/2 months ago! It should be weekly. The holidays didn't help, and neither did all three kids coming down with Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. Combine that with the gifted teacher taking a long vacation and a few times when J and his classmates were inexplicably not sent to Challenge, and J's gifted enrichment has left a lot to be desired! Hopefully he will get to go to Challenge today.

My consolation is that every day in second grade, he is getting far more of a challenge than he would have had in first grade.

What was I like?

Once I asked this on my personal blog:

What do you do when your 4-year old tells you that "plankton are microscopic plants and animals that live in the sea" and your 6-year old expounds, "yeah, the animal ones are called zooplankton, and the plant ones are called phytoplankton?"

My mother replied:

"Just remember what it was like when you were a little girl!"

The thing is, I was a child, and didn't have the perspective of a parent. I didn't know that I was unusual. Just like Z doesn't know that it's unusual for a 4 year old to know, or even care what plankton are or even what "microscopic" means.

I asked my mom to share some stories about me as a child, but as of yet, she hasn't obliged. I would also be very interested in seeing my own test scores. My mom might want to protect me from getting a big head, but I think that I can handle it. My boys give be a big dose of humility every day. It's a daunting task to be their mother!