Something to be proud of..

I was thrilled to receive an email from the Talented and Gifted Children's Association of South Australia to learn that Lil Tinkerbell has been granted provisional membership. They will assess her further through Saturday workshops and from there inform us on their decision to convert the membership to full.

I found it very flattering at first when her kindy director pointed out that she has been reading and the fact that she is the only child who can read in kindy astonishes them. Not only can she read but her conversational skills are exceptional as well as she has a tendency to sound very adult'ish'.

For instance, we were crossing the road one day and i told her to cross carefully as a car was approaching us. She immediately ran to the other side as the car swerved our way and told me.."that was a close one mummy!"

Lil Tinkerbell also loves doing substractions and additions at home using the abacus and her favourite cartoon is The Simpsons! She can actually laugh at some of the jokes but we have to sit in and guide her that some languages are not appropriate to be used.

One thing i realised too is that when we go to the Zoo, she is not only just looking at the animals but she runs to the board and reads what animals they are too. Same thing will happen in a shopping mall when she sees a directory board, she will run to it and find out where we are located in the mall.

The question is I don't know whether she really is gifted or not because I tend to question, is giftedness acquired or innate? I am tempted to have her tested but at the same time, from what i gather from websites, it is still too early to have her tested until later so I guess we probably will wait. The only test I have ever done on her and what I could find was a reading test online which would determine her reading age based on the number of words she can read out and based on that, her reading age is of a 7.5 years old child. (she is only 4 years old)

A summary and quick reflection of her milestones achieved:
(This may or may not sound like a normal child motor skills but I am just writing them out from what I have observed in her)

Started walking by 1 years old.
Started reading by 2.5 years old.
Started sleeping in her own room and stopped wearing nappies at night by 3+
Knows how to switch on and off the computer to play her computer games at 3.
Assembing 15 pieces, 25 pieces, 30 pieces jigsaw puzzles in 15 minutes.
Assembled 48 pieces jigsaw puzzle within 30 minutes and now we are giving her a 60 piece and 100 piece to work on.

Hmm..would be interesting to see how she progresses later in life. It could just be a growth spurt for all you know..i wonder..