Parenting a Gifted Child...

Sometimes I forgot that Reese is only 6. He finds so much pleasure in watching Mickey Mouse Club House cartoon or reading simple picture books and laughing his head off! Hearing such beautiful laughter always brings joy to me and yet, I felt bad sometimes because I treat him like an older child. It is so easy to just forget how young Reese is. One of my biggest issue with him is the way he behaves publicly especially during group activities. He just cannot sit still and take instructions from others. He wants to do things his way. I find it really hard to control him and most of the time I have to threaten him in order to get him to cooperate. It never last though. He is not naughty, he just cannot sit still and is always eager to get first hand experience with whatever that is on display. *sigh*

It is sometimes hard to juggle the older Reese and the younger Reese. One moment he talks about the composition of a Carbon -14 or a Nitrogen - 14 and the next, he whines and cries at the most unreasonable request..... It is tough dealing with a kid like him. He is very sensitive and cries easily. It breaks my heart seeing him sad and the guilt sets in. The real killer is when he expresses his sadness or disappointment to me verbally (Speaks like an adult) with big fat tears rolling down his cheeks.

Parenting is really guess work isn't it? No one child is the same. At the end of the day we have to do trial and error to parent our child to the best of our abilities! Parenting a highly gifted child is very challenging. I have to constantly think of ways to make sure he is given the appropriate intellectual stimulation so that he doesn't get bored and at the same time I do not want to over do it. A balance in everything he does is important. We want him to be happy and be as normal as possible. We want him to fit in well with his peers and lead a normal life.

I thank God that I am still able to help him in his intellectual development but I think in two or three years I will seriously need to find him mentors! It is actually quite exhausting trying to catch up with him intellectually. I do not have the luxury of time and a sharp mind with superb memory and thus learning new things becomes a chore for me. I was never an A star student. Sometimes I think God is punishing me now for not studying hard in school! Ha!

Do you know it is expensive raising a highly gifted child? The exposure, the books and resources we give him... we rarely think twice when spending money on Reese! It is totally worth it when you see him smile from all the pleasure he gets when reading/playing or simply learning.

Reese's version of Sagrada Familia, Spain