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The boy who knew too much: a child prodigy

This is the true story of scientific child prodigy, and former baby genius, Ainan Celeste Cawley, written by his father. It is the true story, too, of his gifted brothers and of all the Cawley family. I write also of child prodigy and genius in general: what it is, and how it is so often neglected in the modern world. As a society, we so often fail those we should most hope to see succeed: our gifted children and the gifted adults they become. Site Copyright: Valentine Cawley, 2006 +

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Fintan's favourite colours.

We were walking to a local shop, a few days ago, near our house, when I thought to ask, my seven year old son:

“What is your favourite colour, Fintan?”

He looked down at the grey slabs of tiles at his feet and declared: “Grey”.

That wasn’t the answer I had expected. It seemed so unenticing a colour, for a child to choose.

“Grey? I thought it was orange.”

He kept his eyes down at the tiles, as if studying their formation. His thoughts, however, were cast inward and backward.

“Before orange, it was purple.”, he remarked.

“Purple?”

“Yes. After orange, it was blue, then black, then grey.”

He had laid his life out in a series of colours. Suddenly, in a way, he seemed very old, for he had given depth to the moment. Fintan seemed, then, to be a multilayered boy, a pile of colours stretching off into time.

“Why do you keep changing your favourite colour, Fintan?”

Tiarnan doesn’t.” he remarked, not by way of explanation at all, “Tiarnan’s is always blue.”

“Why does yours change, Fintan?”

He was silent, as if reflecting on himself. He didn’t answer, but just walked, head down, studying the stones.

I decided to ask the question in a different way.

“Why did you like purple, Fintan?”

I knew that was a long time ago, but I had to ask. Fintan may have only been about two at the time.

“Because of that tv show…with the purple animal…”, he trailed off, seeking remembrance.

“Barney?”, I suggested.

He gave a sharp nod of recognition.

“Barney the dinosaur?”, I continued, “You liked purple because of Barney?”

He seemed to be all agreement, without giving any overt sign.

“Why did you like orange?”

“Because of a fruit.”, he said, simply.

“Which fruit?”

“Orange.”, his eyes glanced up at me and it was quite clear what thought was in them: how could you miss something so obvious?

“What about blue?”

“The sea is blue.”, he said, recalling beaches, it seemed, and waves splashing ashore.

“How about black?”

“Black is a wall.” His hands waved in front of him, as if he faced that very wall, in his imagination, even now.

“Which wall?”. That was interesting. I couldn’t think of any wall that Fintan might have known, that was black.

“Any wall is black, Daddy, you just have to paint it.” He spoke as if he was teaching me to see the obvious.

I fell in love with that remark the moment he said it. It seemed to so express how he saw the world. For him the world was not what is, but what could be. Any wall was black – you just had to paint it. That single remark made the walk to the shops worth it, despite the fact that it meant a long walk back uphill afterwards.

“How about grey? Why do you like that?”

“Grey is the shading of a pencil. I like shading.”

Again, he seemed to be drawing in his mind’s eye, as he spoke.

We walked on, then, to the shops, as I reflected on Fintan’s words. I understood, then, that, for him, a favourite colour was not an arbitrary choice, at all, as it seemed with so many children. For Fintan, it was not just a favourite colour that he chose – but a favourite thing, activity or experience, that happened to be coloured. His favourite colours were an autobiography of his development – they showed what was his favourite experience at each and every stage of his young life. His choices spoke of who he was, at any given stage of his life. He had begun as a watcher of tv shows, and had evolved into a young artist, changing his colour at each step of the way.

I realized that, for Fintan, the world was a rich network of association. A colour was not just a colour, it was, for him, some special thing.

As ever with Fintan, his disarming personal quality – which presented him as rather like a living teddy bear – hid complexities, that were just waiting below the surface. He was both endearing and unexpected at the same time. I know, though, that most would miss what was really going on with him – because they would never think to ask the right questions. So, they would go away knowing only of his teddy bearishness – and not of the multilayered tales within.

I am glad I had that chat with Fintan. The question may have been ordinary, but the answers were not. They led me to understand that Fintan was filled with attached meanings – by which I mean, he attaches meanings to many things, in his life, that would, for others, have no meaning at all.

Of course, this leaves me to wonder: what else don’t I know about Fintan, simply because I have never thought of the right question to ask, to elicit just those inner thoughts he never voices? He had never spoken of why he likes particular colours before – but that was because I had never thought to ask, before. What else, do I not know? I hope to have the wisdom to ask the questions that I should. Who knows what other surprises lay within his curly head?

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

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Friday, November 12, 2010

Unexpected meals.

My wife and I came home the other night, with some Mexican food. Ainan was still up and he expressed great interest in this strange cuisine. He duly tucked in.

I looked over at him, as he enjoyed this new offering of flavours, for he was eating as if he had not eaten at all, that night and asked:

"Is that your second dinner, tonight?" (For we had left dinner for him, before we went out).

He looked over at me, in silence and took another enthusiastic bite. Then he shook his head slowly and held up three fingers of his right hand, in silence. He was holding the fajita wrap in his left hand.

"Your THIRD dinner?!", I found myself, exclaiming, rather surprised at the capacious appetite of my slender son.

He smiled a little, as is his way: with him the littlest expressions are used to speak loudly of his inner thoughts - and gave me a little nod.

"Yes.", said my wife, Syahidah, in support, "They had pizza, after dinner, as well."

This was all rather a surprise to me. I can't remember ever having three dinners, in my own childhood. Or even wanting to have three dinners!

I remembered then, an incident, over six months ago, on a Saturday morning, when Fintan, six at the time, came into my room.

"I want my second breakfast!", he requested, with some urgency. He was hungry. He behaved as if he hadn't eaten at all, though it was probably no more than an hour since he last had. Anyway, I duly got him his second breakfast. I thought, then, what I think now: that this behaviour so reminded me of Tolkien's hobbits, whom he stated were prone to second breakfasts. It seems to me that Tolkien may have been observing his own children's behaviour when he wrote such. My kids have second breakfasts, and now, third dinners. I think this is a sign of much growing to come. Perhaps Ainan will not seem so young, for long...perhaps, given his evident appetite these days, he is soon to be growing rather fast. In a way, that thought is a sad one - for he seems to be growing up so quickly. It will only be a handful of years, now, before my "young son" as he was, will soon be a young man.

The funny thing about this is that all my sons are so slim (though Fintan is well-built AND slim). Yet, the way they eat, you'd expect them to be overflowing with excess flesh. I certainly couldn't eat like they do: I wouldn't even be able to muster the ability to chew on my THIRD dinner, never mind swallow it.

I had become accustomed to thinking of Fintan as the one who was always hungry, or seeming to be, no matter how much he ate - but now, Ainan, too, is taking on this characteristic. I think it is a portent. Soon, I shall be surrounded by towering young men, who once had been my little sons - and it all begins with those unassuming words: "second" and "third", placed before the names of meals.

I hope only this: that they stop having second breakfasts and third dinners, once they finish growing. Otherwise, I really will have BIG sons - in the worst possible way. For now, however, the food seems to disappear without trace: it goes in, but seems to have no effect. They are not fat nor getting so. They are not big in other ways, either. It seems that they are growing, day by day, without me being able to discern it, except, in retrospect, by the marks upon a wall. The food changes them, without me being able to see the change in action.

Happy eating, boys. When you are all grown up, you just won't be able to believe how much you ate as kids. This post shall let you know.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 11:37 PM  2 comments

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The mystery of the blog haters.

There are people who love my blog and there are people who hate it. The mystery of this is that BOTH the ones who love it and the ones who hate it, persist in reading it. I would have thought that only the blog lovers would remain - but no, in some ways, some haters are among my more dedicated readers. It is quite bizarre.

There are people who make it clear, elsewhere on the Internet, that they hate what I write...yet they go on to refer to several particular posts, spaced across the span of years. Clearly, these blog haters are, in fact, readers of my blog. I puzzle that this is so: if they dislike what I write - why do they continue to read? It seems that they only do so, because they love to hate: to them, it is a delight to have something to hate. So, they read, to fuel their own hate and give themselves something to complain about on Internet forums.

However, I have noticed something about these haters. They tend to MAKE THINGS UP. They write extremely inflammatory comments on forums, filled with lies. They say, that I have said something I never, in fact, said. They say that my children have done or said things, they never in fact, said or did. They refer to incidents, that are supposed to have happened, as if they were present, when, in fact, no such incidents ever occurred. It seems very clear what is going on here. It is not enough for these haters to hate: they have to try to make others hate, too. So, given that reality does not supply them with good material to engender such hate, they stoop to inventing things, that sound hateful and that are likely, if believed, to create dislike or a negative image. It is all rather distasteful.

Sometimes, these haters link to my blog, after commenting on it, as if expecting the whole world to agree with them. Well, the funny thing is, if people actually read the blog they will find that the haters' hate, is not really justified by the contents of the blog. This blog is no more than a simple account of what we have lived through these past four years. It is nothing more than that. There is and cannot be, anything to hate in the truth - and that is all that I tell, here. If someone has a problem with truth, then, in some way, they are a liar, in their hearts ...or a hater, who needs lies to justify their hate.

This blog is, for some people a beautiful thing. I get people writing to tell me so. They see in it what is less common these days that it should be: a father who is actively involved with his children, trying his best to help them be their best. Too many fathers, these days, are too preoccupied with themselves to give due attention to their children. Some people like that, about this blog...others, however, seem to hate it.

I am trying to bring up my children as best as I can. I am trying to create opportunities for them to become fulfilled. If that is something "hateful" then I really, really worry about the sanity of those who hate what I write. Perhaps that, in fact, is the answer: perhaps my haters are simply mad.

There is, however, something the haters should be aware of: those who love my blog seem to far outnumber those who hate it. There are, therefore, in my estimation, more sane people than insane ones. That is good. There are also more people who appreciate a father trying to do his best for his children - than those who see something wrong in it.

There is one notable type of hater, that I would like to address: this is the type who seems to be personally offended by Ainan's gifts. They seem to wish to bring him down or diminish him, or convince themselves and others that he is less than he is - simply, it seems, because he exceeds their own children in some way. Why, I wonder, do they do this? What Ainan does and is, does not change their own children in any way: so why does it irk them? Their children are their children and mine are mine...it shouldn't really bother them either way - certainly not enough for them to trail across the world's Internet forums posting hate mail. I really worry about their mental stability and perspective on the world.

So, I have a final message for the haters of this world. If you hate my blog, please don't read it. It will only annoy you - and that does no-one any good, except, perhaps, your doctor, who will be able to make money off of your subsequent illnesses. So, if you hate my blog and the way I write it...please just go away and hate someone else. I am sure they will love you for it.

As for the 98% of other people who are not haters, and who enjoy my blog for what it is...I shall resume my normal posting topics, tomorrow.

Thank you for reading, to those who should be reading.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html
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Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 6:36 PM  3 comments

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Ainan's teasing sense of humour.

Today, after dinner, I was talking with my sons.

Fintan, seven, confessed, unexpectedly: "I like even numbers." He spoke to me, as if expecting a response from me, but cast a glance across at Ainan.

Ainan's eyes grew mischievous across from me, as if his mind had leapt upon something unsaid.

Fintan's left index finger then pointed across at Ainan, with a short stabbing motion.

"He said: "Even numbers are for girls!"". Fintan was quite put out by this thought of his favourite category of numbers, being corralled for girls' use only.

Now, I knew why Ainan's eyes had seemed so mischievous: they seemed even more so now. A little grin grew on him.

I had to defend poor Fintan's view of the mathematical world, lest he be quite put off it.

"No, that is not true, Fintan: even numbers are for both girls and boys."

Fintan, who had grown stiff beside me, as he had explained Ainan's claim about even numbers, relaxed then, and sat back in his chair.

The conversation then moved on to a discussion of the properties of the numbers themselves, before venturing off into prime numbers.

Fintan was much happier - but now I had had a glimpse into how Ainan, ten, talked to Fintan when I wasn't around. It seems he brought a certain mischievous humour to some of these conversations.

I am glad Fintan mentioned it to me. Now I shall be ready to "untease" him, in future, should it prove necessary.

It is good though, to observe, that Fintan (and Ainan, of course) actually care enough about numbers to make them the subject of after dinner chatter. It should be noted that I didn't introduce the subject: Fintan did. It is funny to note what they think is worth thinking about. Never would I have imagined that numbers could be allocated along gender lines!

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

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posted by Valentine Cawley @ 7:24 PM  9 comments

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