Hi, I'm Michelle and I have a very gifted 5 y.o. son who is in kindy right now. We adopted him at birth and have a very open adoption with his bmom. My son also had ADHD and it is challenging dealing with his activity level. We started meds last year due to his extreme hyperactivity and while he is 90% better, we stil have a ways to go with that. It is difficult sometimes to parent a gifted child, I don't consider myself a very smart person, although I'm an RN, my husband is a semi driver trainer OTR and is only home 2 weekends a month. Currently, I'm a SAHM and love it, but also feel somewhat like a single parent. I also have a bio son who is almost 16 who is also very bright (GPA 3.97).
When Josh (my 5 y.o.) was a baby, I knew he was unique right away because he slept little and was very alert and in tune with his surroundings. I read to him as young as 3 months old, I talked to him and interacted with him constantly, sometimes it was exhausting as he would fuss until I did talk or do something with him, occasionally I would pop in a Baby Einstein video to get housework done, but he liked to be interacted with the most. My dad helped us out some when Josh was tiny and sang to him and talked to him too, my dad speaks fluent French, taught English and French and would often speak in French to him or made sure to use grown up language, we never talked baby talk to him.
He did everything early, his first 3 word sentence he spoke at 9 months, motor skills wise he was a tad early, mostly on time, but could do things very well. We had Parents As Teachers coming in from birth to age 3 and they were always very impressed with his vocabulary and comprehension. At one year, he could point to and name all his body parts, say his ABC's, count to 10 in English, Spanish, and French. He could make his animal sounds too. He walked a bit after a year old. Motor skills were on time, like I said, the early stuff was speech, grammar, vocabulary, comprehension. He was always very curious. At age 3 he started taking things apart, using a screwdriver and taking his toys apart. He was obsessed with phones, cell phones, computers, battery powered toys, Ipods/mp3 players, and the like. We put him in preschool and he was bored to tears. He started reading at age 4, now he reads chapter books.
What is so interesting to me, though, is that his bmom while intelligent, probably average IQ, also ADD, but learning disabled and scattered. All we know about his bdad is that he is bipolar has other kids, and is often in jail for substance abuse. Bmom did get ahold of bdad's grandma who told bmom that bdad's oldest daughter was in a gifted program and is currently in college on a full ride scholarship, or something like that.
Our challenge these days has been integrating him into kindergarten where he is also very bored. We have had behavioral issues, we have had therapists and school counselors asking about spectrum disorders and ODD because Josh has a problem following rules. He will interrupt the teacher, question her teaching and teaching methods, refuse to stay in his seat, sometimes refuses to do his seatwork. He has been sent to the buddy room several times (kindy's go to first grade rooms) and actually enjoys being in the older classroom. My son is a young kindy, bday in July. I would almost sugest moving him up a grade, but his maturity level is that of kindy. He says seatwork is boring, he gets impatient with the other kids because he thinks they should know the answers immediately and becomes condescending to the ones that require a little more time to process things.
So there is our bio, sorry so long, I look forward to chatting with you all here and hopefully gaining some advice, tips, and input.
Blessings, Michelle