a different child can have a different outcome.
When Cole was under two he already had an amazing vocabulary and knew his shapes and colors. While we didn't always know what milestones were when, we knew he was ahead here. Past that, he didn't excel until kindergarten. He had no problems learning how to read and we rarely had to watch over him while he read because of it.
The two middles, Chase and Kaelin have always struggled a little more, so we had to sit with them and listen a lot longer. Kaelin's in 1st grade and I still sit and listen to her. She can read on her own, but we don't let her count it on her log unless we hear her because she changes the words around too much and we want to be sure she's getting it.
And now we have Chelsi. She's even more ahead than Cole ever was, but we know it could slow down at any time. I highly doubt she'll get to a point where she doesn't care as Cole so boyishly did. It didn't take long for him at all. He's super smart and has an crazy great memory, but he doesn't really like to put much effort out there. Even without any effort at all his grades aren't bad. He takes after his uncle (my brother), the 'brain' as they used to call him in school. This man, now, had a photographic memory and never paid for a dime of his school. They all paid him and he ended up with his PhD and teaches at Cornell.
Chelsi has been talking for as long as I can remember. This 30 week premie began talking than most 40 week babies. She's extremely articulate and uses near perfect grammar. You hear the words coming out of this tiny little mouse of a body and think 'wow, did I just hear her say that?' She has been reading since age 3. And now that she's 4, she's sharing her 1st grade sister's Junie B Jones books. We had to move her to chapter books. She was getting bored with the same old Dick and Jane type words in the other readers. Although, she was a little shocked when she learned big girl books don't have pictures. She has even started math at grandmas. She soaks it all in and just loves to learn. She cries if we don't have time to listen to her read or read long enough (according to her) some nights. She reminds us again and again that she intends to be a pediatrician one day and she needs to be smart. She has apparently taken this all to heart.
So now my husband is afraid she's going to be so bored when she goes to school in 1 1/2 years. Yeps, she doesn't go until right before she turns 6 and she's not allowed any earlier. Luckily, she cares about her behavior, so I don't think she'll act out like Cole did when he was bored in school. I think, at this point, she's also ahead enough that she may go into the gifted program and that will help appease her hunger.
Am I crazy for not worrying about it too much right now? I think she could still slow down? And if she doesn't, we'll deal with it and we'll do what necessary to keep her little sponge of a brain happy. Heck, one of these days she may be able to help the older ones with their homework. She already tells Kaelin what some of the words are, if she has trouble.
Our little chwi.
Lisa
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