Bilangual Child and Gifted?

[femke]

Hi everyone,

 

I have a question concerning my eldest. I have just found the RUF list in a different thread, very interesting. I've been in denial about my son maybe being gifted, as I didn't see it that clearly as IMO he was developing normally on the language area...until I realized that he is bilingual..how can I forget :lol:

Giftedness runs in the family (up to 150+) so changes are that he is. My question: My son is bilingual and started to speak both languages fairly soon, but when I read lists like the Ruf one, I find it hard to 'place' my son. I'm not sure how 'normal' bilingual children develop compared to 'gifted' bilingual children, of course in the language area. Anyone experience? Should I just look at the other 'criteria'? I know it's not important to know exactly on which level it is, but it would help me to understand him better.

 

If of any help: he started to really speak his first language at 14 months, the second around 2 years. His first 7 months he has been raised and talked to in Dutch and after that in English, and he only heard us talk in Dutch to each other (not to him). He's now 38 months and reading.

 

Another question: Preschool is absolutely boring for him, but I'm not sure if putting him in Grade 1 material would be to early. What do you do with your 3 year old? I know a lot of people that talk about 'better late than early' and this makes me a bit scared, I don't want to push him in any way. I can use some curriculum advice, as I was going for R&S all subjects, but that would probably not be such a good idea :glare:

 

Thanks!

Edited October 18, 2010 by femke

[Rosie_0801]

Better late than early doesn't apply to people who are going to drag you forward whether you like it or not.

 

:)

Rosie

[regentrude]

I have two bilingual gifted children with extremely different language acquirement speeds. One was an extremely early talker - one talked very late. Their IQs are almost identical. There is no "normal".

 

In my opinion, a formal preschool curriculum is not necessary at all - neither for normal nor gifted children. Even a gifted child has a lot of non-academic things to learn at age three. When my kids were this age, we spent lots of time outside, at the playground, hiking, climbing, reading, looking at books, playing, making music, drawing, coloring... and talking and answering questions. They are learning all the time, it does not require a curriculum.

[2smartones]

Better late than early doesn't apply to people who are going to drag you forward whether you like it or not.

 

:)

Rosie

 

Couldn't have said it better!

[Ester Maria]

At age 3, I don't think any child needs a formal learning curriculum. This has nothing to do with the number of languages and dialects the child is acquiring or even with suspected giftedness, but with the fact that little children need concrete and tangible reality around them and plenty of non-book learning, motor skills, artsy nonsense that most children enjoy, informal learning through talks and stories and generally healthy emotional development.

 

In my opinion, the paragraph above also fully applies to nearly all 4 year old children, as well as a huge number - possibly a majority? - of 5 year old children. Bilingualism has perfectly nothing to do with it whatsoever.

[femke]

Hi all,

 

Thank you so much for replying. I know what your saying about not needing a curriculum, but not doing 'our schoolwork' would drive him crazy. He would get absolutely bored. He loves to sit and work for hours. He doesn't like hands-on learning at all (and yup...that's what I did, bought him lots of rods and blocks :001_huh:)he just loves to see it on paper. So I could do with some advice. He's now reading quite well, and I guess we'll have to start some kind of language program with him soon, as I don't really know where to start beyond phonics. I just don't want to make mistakes, buying the wrong curriculum, things that are to simple. So which curricula are the most advanced? (I'm christian, so would like to use something that is at least christian-friendly :tongue_smilie:)

I guess living math won't be an option here either, he just wants paper to write on. I would love it though! Maybe my little one will be a hands-on learner :D

[MissKNG]

Eh, I used curriculum when my big girl was 3 because she loves seatwork and workbooks too.

 

I like Singapore Math and Horizons Math for advanced math curriculum. That's what we are using now but at 3, I used the 3/4 year old Mathematical Reasoning book from Critical Thinking Company - that lasted about 2 months. It's out of print now because they divided it into 2 books. Then we moved onto a whole slew of different things like Horizons K, Reader Rabbit K/1st grade math, CTC Math Reasoning Level A. (This was when I was afraid to just let her "go"). I'm still hesitant but loosing up a bit. We are going to start Singapore 1b on November 1st. Right now, we are puddering through Horizons 1 and MEP 1.

 

I started Sonlight Science K before she turned 4 and she loves and is thriving with it.

 

Another thing I do is look for people with blogs near my girls' ages and see what they are using. Often people post pictures so you can "see" the curriculum in action.

 

As for phonics, starfall.com is free. I let my big girl do what she wants on that. We also started Explode the Code.

 

Magic School Bus books are the "hit" right now too - picture books, chapter books, readers, all of it!

[Rosie_0801]

Jigsaw puzzles are a good thing to try and encourage. If he doesn't like doing beginners puzzles, he might like bigger, prettier puzzles for you to work on together. Art activities are necessary to build hand muscles.

 

Are you working on phonics now? Is he responding happily to it? What does he want to do? If you follow his lead, you can't really go too far wrong. Try looking at "totschool" blogs for ideas. He might respond better than you think to activities if you can tell him why you are suggesting it.

 

Rosie

[MissKNG]

Jigsaw puzzles are a good thing to try and encourage.

 

Rosie

 

 

MightyMind puzzles are fun!

[femke]

I'm so glad to find other people with the same problem! :D

 

Actually, I've been thinking of Sonlight K! He loves reading and writing, and that's what it is, isn't it?

 

Totschool, I don't even have to try! It's not in a workbook...he won't touch it.

 

He does like painting and cutting, and that's all I get him to do. He doesn't want to do any other crafty things. He doesn't want to do theme-based things like: playing with leaves, leave stamping, autumn coloring pages etc etc.

 

Puzzles, Yes! That has been a hit, but there seems to big a huge gap between +/-30 piece jigsaw and 100+ pieces :glare: And once he's done a puzzle 2-3 times, he won't touch it anymore, or just starts throwing with the pieces.

 

We're indeed doing phonics now, still going strong, but I need to start thinking of the next step. He loves writing, and he does it very neatly. So something with a lot of writing would be great.

 

I'll have a look at MightyMind!

 

Thank you for all the help, really appreciate that

[MissKNG]

Actually, I've been thinking of Sonlight K! He loves reading and writing, and that's what it is, isn't it?

 

 

 

Sonlight Core K is a literature based curriculum. This Core introduces kiddos to World Cultures.

 

Sonlight Science K is a multi-media approach to science with books, activity sheets, DVDs and experiments. It touches on a whole slew of topics throughout the year expecting exposure not mastery.

 

Sonlight does have a LA program but I don't know anything about it.

 

I would go to the website and order the catalog.

 

And yes, there are a lot of us that have the same "problem"! :lol:

[MissKNG]

PS...they also have P3/4 and P4/5.

 

P4/5 has a science portion included. P3/4 is basically a bunch of books and a checklist with some activity ideas tossed in.

[Rosie_0801]

Join a toy library if you can. It's saving me a kajillion dollars on jigsaw puzzles!

 

Rosie

[stripe]

Hey, I've got an idea for you. This was just on Freely Educate:

Head of the Class: Preschool.

 

The range of ideas might help you. They've got a lot of basic physical skills listed (walk on tip toes, ride a tricycle). There are almost no academic skills listed per se, but I think having a list of activities might help you. Hey, it's free so you can just check it out. You can either download the e-book or go to the list of activities, where each one is listed separately. You can also check out the other grades. I personally think the list of motor skills is useful, maybe because I seem to have neglected some of them.