Exotic diets for children.

A few days ago, I overheard my younger two sons, engaging in a curious conversation.

Fintan and Tiarnan stood in the kitchen holding bowls of soup.

Tiarnan,five, took a sip. He appraised the flavour intently.

"My soup has rabbit, in it.", he declared, with a definite certainty.

As if challenged, Fintan, seven took a sip of his own soup.

"My soup," he began, raising his voice, "has lion - white lion - in it."

"Well my rabbit is really nice.", Tiarnan countered, taking further eager sips.

"But mine is LION!", said Fintan, emphatically.

I had to smile. After all, what they were actually eating was nothing more exotic than mushroom soup. Perhaps they didn't know what the mushrooms were and so were using their imaginations to fill the gap!

Anyway, it was clear that both enjoyed their "exotic" soups, since they finished them all up.

Sometimes, I think a child's world is eminently more interesting than any adult's: just look at what they eat, for a start. Perhaps I should join them, and try reimagining my own food.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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.)

Tiarnan gets to know his mummy.

Creative activity is usually pursued in solitude. As such our children don’t really get to see us when we are working, most of the time. Thus, it was a revelation for Tiarnan to see his mummy at work, recently.

Tiarnan came into the room, as Syahidah drew.

Curiously, he sidled up to her and gazed on the work, with great, absorbed interest.

He asked to do it, too. Syahidah offered him a pen and he started drawing.

After a while, he looked up, with a definite insight in his eyes.

“Mummy, you are kind of like an artist.”

She was so happy to hear that from him – for he said the word “artist” with such emphasis and relish. Clearly, for him, an artist is a very big thing indeed.

Syahidah carried on her work, with a lingering smile.

Tiarnan did so too.

I watched them, from across the room: two little artists, busily at work: the Master (or Mistress) and the Apprentice. It was warming to see, for I like nothing better than to see people being creative.

What is interesting to me, is just where he got this concept of “artist” from. He is only five years old. My mind is cast back to the episode of Doctor Who concerning Vincent Van Gogh. It could be that he learnt what artists are, from a time traveller. You never know what children learn from TV.

In time, the other two sons came in to watch too. In the end, all of them ended up drawing. It seems that mummy has inspired quite a little burst of creativity, in the household. It is heartening to see.

Happy drawing boys!

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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.)

Source Code: Tiarnan's review.

Yesterday, we took the kids to see Source Code, the film by Duncan Jones, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. It was very interesting to watch the boys’ reactions to this somewhat unconventional film. In particular it was Tiarnan’s response that intrigued me most.

Those who haven’t seen the film should note that it has a cyclic, repetitive structure for much of it. I won’t give away any details by telling you why...just note that this is so.

Tiarnan, five, was silent at first watching the film, but gradually a degree of puzzlement grew in him. He started to behave oddly. At one point, he even seemed to go to sleep, but then, after some minutes, opened his eyes, too quickly and too alertly, to have really been asleep at all.

He turned to his mother, leaning into her ear.

“Mummy, what is it with this film? When I go to sleep, then wake up, it is the same!”
She smiled to hear his words, but had no explanation – and it was not the place to give it. She urged him back to the screen.

He continued to watch the film, but his mind seemed to be contemplating more than just the plot. He seemed to be thinking very deeply indeed. He reached out to his popcorn and carefully ate it all up, bit by bit. He studied the popcorn carefully, as if satisfying himself that it was genuinely eaten. Then he looked up at the screen again...and looked somewhat exasperated.

He leaned into his mummy again.

“Mummy: when I finish my popcorn, the movie is STILL the same!”

She gave him a hug. Explanations could wait until she was out of the cinema.

At the end, she asked him: “Did you enjoy the film?”

She did not expect a positive answer, given his comments.

“Yes.” He nodded, seriously, for such a small boy. “I did, by the end.”

Now, to my understanding, Tiarnan’s response to the film was very interesting and very complex, indeed. When he saw that the film was repeating, Tiarnan, who had never seen a film do this before, was led to question his own understanding of reality. He was unsure whether the film was genuinely repeating, or whether there was something wrong with his own experience of reality. His question seemed to be: was the film repeating, or was Tiarnan’s world repeating?

Tiarnan, however, had a solution to this dilemma of whether it was himself or the film, at fault. He tried to create parallel changes in his world, of which he could be certain, and then tested them against the film, to see if it also exhibited changes. Thus, he pretended to sleep, knowing he had “slept” and knowing, therefore, that time had passed, in a different way, leading to the expectation that the film would change. Yet, it hadn’t. This only increased his puzzlement more. Thus, he conceived of another reality test – a more tangible one. He decided to eat all his popcorn and make an irreversible tangible change in the world of which he could be sure. Sure enough, all the popcorn vanished – but still the film was basically the same. This, however, reassured him that the film was at fault and not his own experience of reality.

Tiarnan’s thinking, to my mind, was very complex in this situation. He genuinely seemed to be considering the two alternatives: that it was the film, or his lived reality that were at fault. Then he devised tests to distinguish which pertained. It was a very subtle piece of thinking for a five year old. It was also one that showed a certain open-mindedness and maturity: open-minded, to consider that he might be at fault, mature to invent incontrovertible tests to distinguish the possibilities.
For me, Tiarnan’s reaction to the film was the best part about it. I did enjoy the film, but I got far more out of seeing what he made of it. Just watching my children explore and understand the world gives me rewards I could not have imagined existed, before I became a father.

Thank you, Tiarnan, for showing me what you thought of the world, yesterday, and of what was possible for it.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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.)