Teaching a hamster to read.
There has been a new addition to our household, recently: a hamster. Well, there were two, but now there is one - but that is another story.
Tiarnan, two, is particularly taken by his new furry friend. He likes to reach into the cage and stroke the little one (who is busily trying to run away, of course). Nevertheless, Tiarnan usually persists until he can "sayang" the hamster. (That is: "show affection").
On the 10th July 2008, he did something particularly sweet. He had been playing with the hamster, when a thought occurred to him. He ran into his brothers' bedroom and came out with a book - on hamster rearing. He flipped through the pages until he had found a photo of a hamster the same colour as ours. Then he turned the book around and showed the photo to the scampering hamster.
"Look," he said, to the hamster, softly, "The same."
The hamster duly looked and he was satisfied. Of course, what the hamster thought of the giant photo of a hamster just like herself, we will never know. Tiarnan, however, was happy to have related his understanding to his little friend. She couldn't talk, he had observed, but surely she could see a photo?
Communication is difficult at the best of times - but interspecies communication is more difficult still. However, that hasn't stopped Tiarnan from having a go. He is doing his best to communicate to the very small furry animal that likes to run about alot and eats health food. At least, that is the way it looks to Tiarnan.
I will have to write more of the effect of the little pet on our household, we have had her for about a week and a half. It is good for the children - especially Tiarnan and Fintan - for the first thing they do in the morning is rush to have a look at what the little one is up to. Tiarnan calls her "baby". It is all very sweet. We should have got a pet long ago, looking now at how they respond.
(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.
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Labels: Fintan, hamster, In the eyes of a child, pet rearing, Reading, Tiarnan