Having fun and being proud....

Well that's most of the nitty gritty stuff jotted down finally. Now for the great stuff!

Every child has a talent in something. If you allow them plenty of opportunities to go searching for that talent, chances are - you will uncover it. With a gifted child - at least one of those talents springs up early and is easily spotted. That in itself is pretty damn cool! You get the little buzz that a parent gets watching their child on stage on a regular basis. And the majority of gifted kids seem to be a bit of a dichotomy, which helps to keep your feet on the ground. While Sophia's reading and comprehension are years ahead of her age group, she is still very very four and there's something delightful about that. This is a child that is trying to use words we're already having to look up and can tell you how many sides to an octagon but she still refused to use the toilet until she was nearly three - until I made it pretty and not so-scary. And we are still saying when she gets upset - Sophia use your words...you need to tell us what's wrong.

Her father is openly proud too - naturally. When people ask if she knows her ABCs yet, he takes great delight in blowing them out of their seats. It's neat to watch (although it used to make me squirm a little - showing off always makes me uncomfortable) and sometimes she would look at him and flatly refuse. At which point I would laugh and say, "Dadda - I am not a performing seal!". These days she looks at him and says...."You read it!" and walks off. We had this word game which came about because when she saw us typing on the computer, she would want to get up and type too - so we'd push the text up to really big and make it red and when we used it to try and figure out how many words she could actually read, it evolved into a game - almost a party trick really. Ed would open MSword on a persons computer and tell people to spell out a word - he'd type it in and Sophia would proceed to blow their socks off.

And then there's her sense of humor. Quirky and slightly warped with a distinct sense of mischief. She could barely form a sentence when we first started to notice it. She and I had quite the regular debates about how good bogeys were (or not!) - all conducted with this naughty little grin twisting across her face – that must have been at about 18 months. She came up with her first joke about a month ago. We were working on our computers when she leaned over and said, “I have a joke!” I had the impression that she'd seen somebody else tell it before. It was a knock, knock joke…… knock, knock, who's there? Boo! Boo who? Awww no need to cry Mamma! She got all the right lines in the right place and she knew it - which clearly made her very pleased! She has games on word usage and pronunciation with her father and some of them are timed by where we are. For example going past the hospital, he'll say look its the horspatal at which point she'll correct him. If he doesn't start the game at the right time - she'll prompt him. She doesn’t have a hope of getting too crazy about correct pronunciation either because her father deliberately jumbles and adjusts words like supermarket becoming stooperdarket. Once upon a time she used to get quite concerned but now she delights in the game and again, she will start it off herself.

Proving things to her is sooo much easier too. If she’s got something not quite correct, you get her to read the label or the information. She will easily accept things if you can prove it. Once she asked me to make her hot cocoa (like curious George). When I got the cocoa out of the cupboard…at which point she got quite adamant that that was for hot chocolate. I said – it’s the same thing sweetie which she hotly contested. When she was shown the name on the box – end of discussion – all was good and we made hot cocoa.

Museums and galleries are great with a gifted child - even at an early age. Sophia likes bones, bugs and birds in particular. When we go - it's a whole morning. There's no 'popping in for a quick squiz' in these sorts of places...you go to spend real time, enjoy yourself and expand your own mind while you're encouraging her to expand hers.

And much to my delight, our lounge is frequently strewn with creative paraphenalia. Sparkles, seeds, glitter, bits of fabric, pretty stones, shells, foil bits and hand art. I delight in it because I was always being told off for it when I was a kid and I understand. Painting with various different implements, drawing, collaging and other creative projects are so important for any kid and Sophia seems to need it. It's good stuff for women who become too much of an adult and frequently forget to play!