October 20, 2012

• Message, The Gecko...

  Across from me on a faded blue green armchair, a very realistic toy gecko by the name of Message waits for The Girl's return. Left here by mistake in her eagerness to pack up and go see Daddy, she will squeal with joy when she spots him sitting patiently in the chair. Off they'll go for a bath in the bathroom sink and she'll bathe him several times on Monday, not because he's dirty, but because she's learned to turn the water on and (mostly) off and can reach the sink all by herself when she uses her step stool. She drags the step stool around as well using it to stand on while she points and names things on her science charts.

  I think the gecko is named Message because of a misunderstanding about how the brain sends messages to parts of the body through the nervous system. She can identify the major parts of the nervous system, but now that I'm thinking about, I'm not sure she actually understands what a "message" is. She knows people leave messages on her Momma's cellphone. She knows the brain uses them. This is the problem with having a kid who absorbs everything faster than you can look it up. You end up with a blanket called DNA, a gecko named Message, and a kid who thinks that everyone should know their elements. The element chart is one of her favorites and she points at each of her favorite elements calling out their atomic number and asking what happens if you mix two random elements together (and since I didn't study chemistry- ever- and never learned my elements, I scramble for answers and check out elements books from the Library after Wednesday Story Time).

  There's something unique about this child- something almost scary at how others react to her. It's very rare that people who come in contact with her don't leave happier and more at peace with themselves. They go out of their way to talk to her or give her something. There's no way we can teach her not to talk to strangers because since she was tiny strangers have approached her. This summer when we were at the shore, we (seven adults) took her to the amusement park. While she was carrying two stuffed toys, a man leaped from his booth and ran to give her a teddy bear. The rest of the workers applauded his actions while we (the seven adults with the one kid) were totally puzzled. The child wasn't sad, neglected, or being ignored. She was happily walking with adults who know and love her when this random act of kindness happened. This kind of thing happens ALL the TIME when you are with The Girl! The end result of this kind of behavior can be crippling. We could end up with a child who expects people to give her things for no logical reason or who thinks that she's special and wants to be treated that way. Most of the time, she's just a happy kid who is thrilled to talk to you and loves whatever you hand her. Once in a while, she is a cranky brat but that usually means nap time is coming up quickly.

  The child is brilliant. She has a memory for people, places, events, and things that go back farther than a two- almost three year old should remember. She can tell you who gave her what when and why (if there is a why). She loves science currently. It's replaced her love of Spiderman and Batman. She's not into dolls, though lately, the Purple Guy (a small cotton purple guy) has been part of the things she wants with her at all times. She loves tiny things- things so small no child that young should be allowed to have- but she doesn't put them in her mouth. She can count to five in English, Chinese, Spanish, and Japanese. Her Chinese tones impress native Chinese speakers. I'm not sure how many signs she knows since she only uses them with people who use sign language. She knows all the major Impressionistic painters and their works and can identify them when she sees them on the wall at the doctor's office. I think she can read, but I can't prove it. She thinks that books are for information and while she enjoys a good story, she'll spend hours pouring over some non-fiction book way too old for her. She can retell a story and explain why a character did something. She knows all her letter sounds and has known her shapes (including the hard ones) for a year or longer. She loves big words. Her current favorite is "paleontologist".

  But she struggles with pedaling her tricycle and with doing simple puzzles. Learning to string beads was difficult. We work on fine motor skills every day and spend as much time as possible outside running around.

  We have this on-going debate- is she a prodigy or does she simple work at learning things she loves and has people in her life who will indulge her every curious thought? I'm not sure there's an easy answer. The child has a serious work ethic that she was born with. When we work in the yard, she won't stop until the job is complete so I've learned to pick small tasks that can be accomplished. When she was learning to speak, she wanted to sit on your lap and have you name things in a book over and over until you were sick of the page. She tends not to answer or attempt something new until she masters it to her own satisfaction. People try to coax her through a task, but she resists, wanting to hear/see it repeatedly first. The first place she goes for knowledge is video- do you have a video of a kid singing in Chinese, NiNi? Where's the video of the kid singing Chinese? Can we watch the video of the kid singing Chinese... and then... she's singing in Chinese- tone for tone. My son says that because she doesn't just "know" stuff, she's not a prodigy. But how does anyone "know" stuff? Are prodigies born "knowing" stuff? I wonder... in the meantime, we all work at raising a "normal, happy child who just happens to love learning stuff"... and that's not as easy as it sounds. You end up with things like geckos named Message watching you write- even if he startles you once in a while!

  • 4:18 pm
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