Gifted.

It's a loaded term, I know.

Most people don't really care that my kids are bright. I get a little bit of flack from others, suggesting that it's because I push my kids that they excel in academics. So I'd like to put it on the record why I encourage early literacy in my children and why I don't feel pushy doing so.

I teach my kids to read at a young age, it's true. Sometime in Anna's fourth year, I discovered that bedtime would go much more smoothly if she could settle herself down with a bunch of books instead of scouring the room for all forms of mischief (up to, and including spreading Vaseline over various room surfaces and her own body).

She already had a natural aptitude for learning letters and their sounds so I just pieced it together for her. And she took off. My other kids have done similarly - in fact, they have learned to read even earlier because they have an older sister(s) to model it for them and spark their desire for literacy. So you see, teaching my children to read has always been a matter of practicality for me. I pretty much teach them the basics and they (and I really believe it's because of an inherent gift of learning) run with it. I barely even touched math until they entered school. But that hasn't stopped them from grasping concepts at a rate unknown to man (only slightly exaggerating, here).

Anyway, my point is, some kids are just smart. It's a gift - much like music, or athletics, or dance, or a sense of humor is. It makes sense that I should do my darnedest to allow them to achieve the full measure of their potential in that area. Some believe that all kids even out by the third grade and that challenging my children means I'm not allowing them to be kids. To the contrary, I believe that one of the many reasons my children are so stinkin' smart is that I DO allow them to be kids, to create, to explore, to imagine without the restraints of over-the-top lesson schedules, or limitless media time.

Let me also mention that I don't even send my kids to an accelerated preschool program (or even a traditional preschool). I run a mother's co-op called Joy School. They don't even touch academics until the second year - and it's very basic, at that. I had a teacher once ask me if I'd sent my daughter to a Montessori preschool, as if that were the only way she could possibly be such an accelerated reader. She about laughed out loud when I informed her that I and a few other moms had taught her in our own homes. About values, no less.

I don't care one way or the other if my kid is the next Albert Einstein. In fact, there are more days than not I wish I could just dumb them down a little! Not to mention the fact that there's basically no correlation between a high intellect and success in life (some studies actually suggest the opposite).

But, observing their desire to learn, knowing the research on gifted kids who are not challenged, and wanting them to find joy in developing their God-given talents, I feel it my duty to provide those opportunities. I haven't reached any definite conclusions about how I'm supposed to do that. But their education remains a constant source of concern for me and if I think it's to their detriment to relax their standards, I will do what it takes to ensure that they are challenged. Even though people are going to think that I'm "pushing" them. So be it.