Excuses for staying up late.

About a week ago, it was time to put my sons to bed - or at least, the younger two.

"Bed, boys!", I said.

Fintan, 7, stirred a little from his seat, but then thought better of it.

Tiarnan moved not at all.

"Bed, boys!", I said, again, a little more loudly and insistently.

Fintan rose slowly to his feet, as if only then discovering that he had the strength to do so.

Tiarnan moved not at all.

"BED, BOYS!", I said, louder still, with that insistence that would not be denied.

Fintan decided it was time to move - and walked slowly off in the direction of his bedroom.

Tiarnan moved not at all.

"Come on Tiarnan, it is time to go to bed."

He stood up, then, before me and looked up at me, an enigmatic thought in his eyes.

"I haven't done my homework.", he said, as if very aware of the seriousness of this omission. There was not a hint of a smile on his face, as he looked up at me, but I rather felt one was appropriate, given the mischief in his words. He looked expectant.

"Well, you don't need to do it, now...you haven't got an exam tomorrow."

This seemingly didn't meet with his expectation.

He looked at me more intently.

"I HAVEN'T DONE MY HOMEWORK!", said, my five year old son, more slowly and emphatically. He clearly thought I was missing the point.

On that particular evening, this one wasn't working on me, though I had to admire him for the cunning of his ruse.

"You don't need to do it tonight...go to bed."

I placed a hand upon his back to urge him in the right direction.

He walked reluctantly towards his bedroom, surprised, perhaps, at the failure of his design.

In his bedroom, he decided to be more direct in his expression, perhaps in case he had been misunderstood.

"I want to do my homework.", he said, carefully, looking at me throughout as if to gauge my understanding.

"Bed.", I said, unmoved.

"I WANT to do my HOMEWORK.", he stressed again.

"Bed, Tiarnan."

Finally, he gauged that it wasn't going to work and he hopped onto his bed.

I settled him down and turned out the lights, laying down beside him, until I was sure he was asleep.

I must say, it amuses me to think that Tiarnan so dislikes going to bed, at a reasonable hour, that he would even propose that he spent extra time awake doing homework! What a marvellous excuse.

Later, I reflected that perhaps I should have let him stay up doing homework. Then, he would have been happier - and would have done something productive to boot. However, I wasn't thinking that way, at the time - I was only thinking that it was too late for the boys to be up.

Next time, I will grant him his wish, if he ever asks for it again: homework it shall be!


(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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

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

Fashion sense in a child.

A couple of weeks ago, Tiarnan, five, was in his parents’ bathroom ,with his mummy, Syahidah. He was being awfully quiet and contemplative.

Standing by the sink, he studied something with his thoughtful, slightly perturbed gaze.

He reached out his little hand and picked up a razor.

Looking up at his mother, he observed, worriedly: “Daddy cuts his face with THIS.” He shook the razor, as he spoke, for emphasis. There was a sense of some horror in his expression.

Syadidah heard his worried tone, and was touched – such concern for Daddy, she thought.

“Don’t worry, Tiarnan. Daddy has been doing it for years – and when you are older, you will do it, too.”

Her soft hands held his face and her soft eyes held his gaze.

“No!”, he countered, forcefully and unexpectedly. “It’s not THAT.”, he paused, for a fraction of a second, to gather his disgust: “It’s PINK!”

Without the smile she no doubt felt, Syahidah agreed: “Yes, that is kind of scary”.

“WHY?”, he asked, with an almost infinite puzzlement. In his young world, such things just should not be.

Syahidah had no words in answer to him. She reached out, took the razor off him, and replaced it by the side of the sink.

I think, Daddy had become a little bit more mysterious and little bit less respectable, in Tiarnan’s young eyes. To him, there must be a reason for why Daddy had a pink razor. It never occurred to him, that I might be using one of Syahidah’s because I had run out of my own. Perhaps, on reflection, I should tell him.

It is funny to see how much significance Tiarnan is attaching to colour choice. No doubt this is part of his fashion sense – but it is also something more. Though but five years old, he has lived long enough to have learnt and come to believe in, the conventions of colour choice that should be made, by true boys and true girls. I was, in his view, breaking the rules of fashion and proper behaviour, in a most unappealing way. It is funny, though, that he should feel so strongly about it. He has very much made this gender based sense of fashion, part of what he thinks the world should be – and, like most things with Tiarnan, he is quite passionate about it.

Syahidah had a solution. She took the pink razor, some time later and threw it away: problem solved.

(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

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

Daddy and the King

Today, I asked Fintan to consider a matter of status.

“Who is more important: Daddy, or the King?”, I asked Fintan, as we sat talking together, during lunch.

His eyes considered mine, suddenly curious.

“Which Daddy? Which King?”, he enquired, quickly and pointedly.

“This Daddy.”, I said, gesturing towards myself – “and that King.”, I clarified, pointing in the direction of a palace, that I knew Fintan would know was that way.

Certitude condensed in his eyes. “Daddy.”, he said, as if my name had all the weight in the world, “Because you are MY Daddy!”

His words to me were as the warmest hug. I felt the love he has for me, in his expressiveness – and it was good to feel.

He had no doubt at all, as to whom was the more important. For Fintan, it was clear: no-one, not even the King, could be more important than his own Daddy.

I find this interesting for what it says about Fintan. He is clearly categorizing the importance of elements of the world, in terms of its personal significance. His reference markers are internal, not external. I am important to Fintan in a way no impersonal, unknown King could ever be, no matter how much social and political status he might truly have in the world.

Yet, there was another voice in the background, that had piped up, when I had asked the question of Fintan, seven. Tiarnan, my four year old son, had also answered the question. His answer, however, was not so reassuring: “The King!”, he had said.

So, Tiarnan, is Fintan’s opposite. For Tiarnan the external social value of a person is what matters. In those terms, I cannot match the significance of a King, because society values a King, more than it does me (even if, in truth, I am a more intellectually valuable person, than any King is likely to be). Tiarnan is taking his cues from the external world, not from the personal one. Yes, I am Tiarnan’s Daddy, but Tiarnan is measuring my importance, not by my value to him, personally, but by my value to the world, or, more precisely, how much the world values me.

Fintan’s view is more touching but, perhaps, Tiarnan’s view is more truthful to the society, as it is. At this time, in this era, the particular King in question, is valued more than I am. Tiarnan sees this and says it, without pausing to reflect that I might not wish to hear such a sentiment. Yet, Tiarnan is being honest and open in so doing, so I have to respect that. He is also making it clear how he comes to value judgements: he is thinking more like a scientist, in that he is trying to be objective. Fintan is thinking more like an artist, in that his view is subjective and tied inextricably to the personal.

Who is right? Fintan, or Tiarnan? Am I more or less important than a King? Well, the world, now, would say that the King is more important…but posterity is likely to take a different view. In time, the importance of a particular King, passes and fades. When a King dies, so does their power and influence. All that they did and were, becomes history…and, after a time, it comes to be seen to be less and less important. However, I am a creative person. I am engaged in creating various types of intellectual product. The value of these products will outlast me. They will not fade so much, nor will they be superseded, so much, since they will still have value as part of the history of ideas, or creativity, in the domain created. Thus, it is that the “importance” of a creative person, may be maintained, as I see it, in a way that the importance of a King is not. Indeed, a creative person may grow in importance, over time, even long after they have died – as has happened with many historical figures, who were creative.

Then again, time is not needed to determine the relative importance of King and creator, or King and Daddy. The true, absolute relative importance, should be clear. Anyone who creates, even in a little way, is more important and more valuable to Mankind, than any King, who does not create. This is an eternal truth: the creator outshines the King, in history, for the creator makes history in a way that the King never can. A creator changes the world, by opening up new possibilities and understandings, Kings usually do nothing of the kind. Their domain is that of power and influence, social status and prestige – but, generally, what they do does not change the world in a fundamental way. Kings are replaceable and interchangeable in a way that creators are not. It is possible that the role of a King might be performed, were it allowed, by any moderately adequate person – but the role of a creator, may be so demanding, depending on discipline, that no other person is truly suited to creating those particular works, in that particular domain. Creativity is unique, Kingship is not.

The question, of course, was not whether a creator was more important than a King…but whether Daddy was. It just so happened, that this particular Daddy creates, so I have had to extend the question, to answer it fully.

In practical terms, however, Fintan is right, of course. To any child, their Daddy is more important than a distant King. The King does not love the child, does not nurture them or cherish them. The King does not sustain the child, teach the child, or raise them. The King is a distant figure, of social meaning, but no personal meaning, to a child. Only a child like Tiarnan, who is looking out into the world, and ascertaining what society thinks and values, could ever say that their Daddy was less important than a King.

I am not a King. Nor am I ever likely to be a King (unless the world changes significantly in how it operates!). I do not have a Palace, nor kingly wealth. However, I have much that the King may not. I have three sons, who are very special to me, and special in themselves. I have a wife, who is most definitely unusual in her own way, and agelessly beautiful. Then again, I have my own personal gifts – the ability to write, to think and to create. The King has none of these things. I know whom I would much rather be. I would not be a King, if it meant giving up what I have and what I am now. I would much rather just be Daddy, to my three sons and Hubby to my wife. That, to me, seems like a good fate to have. If only the King knew, he would be jealous of the “riches” that I have. As for him: I am not jealous at all, for he has nothing of substance, that I would want…or that anyone who actually thought about the situation, meaningfully, could ever want either.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 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.

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 coins a neologism

Yesterday, Tiarnan faced me, whilst in my arms. He was, therefore, quite close to me. I spoke, though, as I usually did.

He looked at me with an appraising focus.

"Daddy, today you are very soundy."

Soundy, he had said - a word I had never heard before, but the meaning of which was instantly clear: LOUD. I was speaking too loudly for one so close.

"I am too loud.", I said, giving the words another might use. However, I must say, I much prefer his own word: it is new, fresh and altogether meaningful.

Hearing him invent this word, reminded me of how creative some young children are. Here, Tiarnan solved the problem of communicating exactly what he meant, by inventing the word that perfectly expressed it. An older child, or an adult, most probably would not do that: they would use a combination of words known to all. Thus, in a way, growing up could be seen as becoming less creative, in communication, at least - and more likely to go with conventional ways of expressing oneself. I rather hope, though, that Tiarnan retains his creative ways, and makes a habit of inventing his own words, just when he needs them. It is both sweet and endearing, and altogether more interesting than just using the same tired old words everyone else uses.

So, Tiarnan, carry on neologizing. As for you, my boy, you are pretty soundy, yourself, much of the time. (cue screeching kid.)

Here's a thought, though: if the word "soundy" catches on, it would be strange to realize that it had been coined by a four year old, to describe the effect of his dad speaking whilst being too close for comfort. How funny!

(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.

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.)

Straits Times.com Videocast on Ainan

The Straits Times online site, straitstimes.com has a video cast, presently on its front page about Ainan. It concerns his admission to Singapore Polytechnic to do lab based Chemistry modules across the spectrum of Chemistry, in years one, two and three simultaneously.

It is to be found at:

http://www.straitstimes.com/Video+News/Singapore/STIVodcast_4159.html?playid=4159&type=Singapore

The link will probably only work for a couple of weeks since the site doesn't permanently archive vodcasts.

The video does not mention that Ainan is doing modules from year three, year two and year one. As a year three student at a tertiary institution he is most probably the youngest in the world to work at that level, at that age. Certainly, no-one has ever graduated from a tertiary institution young enough to have been in the final year at the age of 8.

Thank you.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven 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, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The incredible disappearing Daddy.

A couple of days ago, perhaps in remembrance of my days as an actor, I changed my voice, for Tiarnan and spoke to him, in character.

This quite perturbed him. He looked up at me and slapped my legs with his hands, not hard, but complainingly. "I want Daddy!", he demanded.

I thought this very revealing. For him, once my voice changed, I was no longer his Daddy, I was someone else.

I did it again - and got the same reaction and the same demand: "I want Daddy!"

I stopped doing it, lest I disturb him too much and became, in voice and manner, as I had always been for him, his familiar Daddy.

He seemed to go along with the intention of my change of voice, that it should be accepted as another person. I wonder, then, if he understands, perhaps without being conscious of it, what an actor does? After all, he perceived my change of voice, as being that of another person. It is an interesting speculation, at the least.

It is not the first time he has reacted to a change of manner or appearance in this way. When he was five months old, he responded in a very similar way to his mother when she put on a green face mask: "I want my mummy" he had said, crawling afterwards, in somewhat of a panic.

So, for him, a change of voice, or a change of appearance, denotes a change of personhood, in some way.

Funny enough, he himself, has been known to act - but more of that another time.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, 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, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Welcome to Singapore Dad.

My father is in town for a week...so I am going to be showing him around. It is good to see him again after too long.

Already, he has remarked on the ever present heat...hehe.

More on this visit over the next week, as appropriate.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, 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, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The youngest actor in the world

At what age can a child be an actor? Well, if you watch children carefully, you may find a surprising answer. At least, in the case of some children.

On Christmas Day, Tiarnan, 23 months, gave me a present. It wasn't the kind of present you wrap carefully in gaudy paper - it was the kind of present that arrives unexpectedly, a spontaneous gift made of nothing more than the child's ways, themselves.

Tiarnan was in the TV area of the house, the "lounge" where people sit, talk and watch films. He spotted a notebook on the coffee table, and picked it up. What he did then was startling. He began to walk around the room with a pacing, stride and manner that could only be described as "Daddy-like". He adopted an earnest, abstracted expression as if deep in thought and leafed through the notebook, as if searching for something. Meanwhile, his face was not idle: he puffed out his cheeks, to give them a fuller look, a, let's be frank, fatter, middle-aged look.

He seemed to be no-one other than his father. He had captured my "essence" with astonishing accuracy. There, before us, was a little Daddy toddler version.

Tiarnan had made an unconscious imitation and interpration of his Daddy, when he picked up that notebook. The notebook was mine and I think he was rendering an impression of how I am when I have an idea.

We asked him to do it again, but he wouldn't. He just turned away in shyness and self-consciousness. This is clearly the kind of thing he will do when he doesn't realize that he is being observed.

The incident left me sure of one thing, though. Tiarnan has it in him to be an actor, if he so wishes. He managed to capture the expressed personality of another person such that that person was recognizable in his chosen behaviour. To do that at just 23 months old is quite something. He did it instinctively, too - and I believe all the best actors are instinctive (as are all the best artists, of any kind).

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two 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, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

How to measure the world

Fintan, four, has a certain view of his Daddy. Today, a little bit of that view became clear.

We were in Takashimaya shopping centre one floor up from the ground, looking at a Christmas tree that stood in front of us, above us, and below us. Our floor meant we were level with its mid-section.

Fintan looked at the tree, looked upwards and downwards and remarked:

"The tree is bigger than Daddy!" His voice was filled with wonder that there should be anything in the world bigger than Daddy.

I was touched. For him, I must seem to be a giant indeed - and for him, I am the basic unit of "bigness" against which all other big things are measured. An object is only truly big, if it is bigger than the biggest person he knows: his own Daddy.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and no months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and five months, and Tiarnan, twenty-two 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, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Daddy is on a roll

Yesterday we went for one of our habitual walks. This time it was to a strange new park, that Syahidah had christened "Stoney Mountain". It was like something out of the Hobbit. Alongside the path that wended its way through the wooded area, were large boulders that had obviously been placed there, in imitation of what might be a natural formation in some parts of the world. The effect, although artificial, was quite charming: one almost expected elves to pop out from the woods at any minute, or for a friendly hobbit to enquire after second breakfast.

My children, however, not having read such books, had no such references. Nevertheless they enjoyed it.

After we had climbed to the top of "Stoney Mountain", we began to make our way down to another path we saw cutting across the landscape far below - a shortcut, if you like. Ainan, Fintan and Syahidah ran down, hand in hand, but I, feeling a mass that once had not been mine, declined to do the same.

After they had reached the path, Fintan, four, looked back up at me and seemed to be ambushed by an idea. He ran back up the hill to meet me on the way down, shouting: "Roll, Daddy, roll!". He then got down on to the ground and began rolling down the hill, to show me what to do.

Clearly, he had conceived that Daddy, being rounder than the average boy, might do better as a ball, than as a walking man. In the distance, I could hear Syahidah and Ainan laughing at Fintan's suggestion. As for me, I looked at Fintan's rolling and the long hill down, and thought better of it. Yet, at his age, I had done the same, when confronted with a hill.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty 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, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Tiarnan of the smile

Tiarnan has a wonderful smile - all angelic and endearing - but that is not the true wonder. The true wonder is that he finds so many reasons to smile.

This morning for instance. I woke to find him awake and sitting between us, looking at me. He gave me his big, funny smile - but said nothing. He was happy to share this waking moment with me. His smile has its own character: it is a broad smile, showing his teeth and his nose wrinkles when he does it. It makes him look very cute - and handsome. He just looked up at me, unmoving, then looked at his mother, still asleep. He began to watch her sleep. Then, as if on cue, her eyes opened and the first thing she saw was Tiarnan, looking down on her. He gave her his biggest of smiles and bounced excitedly on the bed, at having caught her awaken. He then looked from one of us to the other very content simply to share the early morning moment, of his parents waking.

I don't know what he was thinking - but he seemed so happy - and that happiness made us happy too.

Sometimes I don't know how I was ever content before I became a Daddy.

Thank you Tiarnan.

The power of the unconscious

It was four months ago, now, when Tiarnan was but ten months old, and I haven't found a moment to tell the tale, until now.

We had become accustomed by that time, to see Tiarnan go comfortably down the stairs on his own. After all, he had first tackled the stairs successfully at five months and so we had come to see little reason to fear his meanderings up and down stairs: he had clearly mastered the skill.

That morning however, as I was talking to my wife, Tiarnan approached the stairs, a few metres away, in the background. Some uncanny feeling alerted me that all was not as it should be. There was something about his gait, about his angle and speed of approach that concerned me. Just as he stepped out into the air, it became clear that he had misjudged it - he was falling down the stairs, headfirst.

I don't know what happened in that moment. Some old part of me awoke. A more youthful part. A very much faster part of me that I had thought lost long ago, in my teens, aroused itself. I leapt forward with a speed I did not know I still possessed, crossed those few metres and reached out with my left hand and closed my fist tight about his shirt, as he fell down the stairs. To my astonishment, that of my wife - and no doubt that of Tiarnan himself - I found myself clutching my ten month old baby with his face suspended above the steps, inches from contact. He had not struck the stairs at all. All that movement of body and arm and snaring of baby had happened in a time too short to consciously observe - and yet there he was, floating in space above the steps, held by my reflexively tight fist.

It has been many years since I had moved like that - many years since I thought I still could. Grateful to whatever within me had saved him, I set Tiarnan down on the ground above the steps. He was completely unharmed.

Had he fallen down the steps headfirst, he might be another Tiarnan today - one very much lessened by the incident.

I am thankful that it did not happen.

(If you would like to read more about Tiarnan, or his gifted brothers, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and four months, and Fintan, three, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Fintan draws mummy and daddy

Yesterday, we gave Fintan, three, a piece of charcoal and a piece of paper to see what he would do. He decided to draw his parents.

First, he drew mummy. He gave her eyes which looked like eyes and a mouth which looked like a mouth. The eyes had lashes and the mouth had teeth. He did not draw a stick figure stereotyped face as most children draw - but actually sought to render what he saw before him. It might have been better if we had given him another medium rather than charcoal for he tended to smudge what he had drawn - but the results were very interesting. He actually produced a recognizably human face.

Daddy's face was less complimentary - but again he followed the "draw what I see" mode and came up with something in a style of his own.

What was particularly interesting was the manner in which he tackled the task. When it came to me, he held the charcoal in his hand and looked at me for a long pause, as he took in what was before him, before he began to draw. He was very much performing as the little artist deciding how to approach his subject. He drew with earnest but with speed and clearly enjoyed what he was doing. Perhaps he will be an artist like his mummy, one day. It would be nice to think so.

We didn't direct him in how to draw, but let him draw as he pleased: that way we had a chance to see how he saw the world - and not how we wanted him to see it. It is better that way, I think. It is more true to the child.

On the genetic inheritance of gift

My father was an enormously strong man, in his youth. His strength would have been legendary, had he lived in earlier days, that lauded such things. As it was, however, he found daily uses for his strength, in the way he went about tasks. He was a man who could lift furniture upstairs, on his own. He had no need of the help of another. He could move objects that would be unmovable, at all, to a typical man, with casual ease. Many a time, as a child, I would wonder at the strength he applied to his daily tasks, in the garden or about the house. Unseen by me, he would apply his strength too, in his business – but for privacy’s sake, I am not going to say what that business was. That his strength was an asset to him, even in modern life, is clear, and in some ways, had he not been strong, he would not have been the success he became (for reasons I will leave undescribed, for they would tell too much about his life – and that wouldn’t be fair).

Now he was an enormously strong man – and I inherited some of that from him, for I have always been a strong man – stronger than most men – yet, not as strong as him, I think. The strength has been handed down to me, somewhat diluted.

I look at my sons, now, in particular, Ainan, and no longer see the strength there, at all. You would never guess, looking at Ainan, that his grandfather was of great physical strength. Ainan does not possess the build that promises a large musculature to come: his is the slightness of the eternal academic, not the strength of a fearsome warrior of old, as, no doubt, our forebears in the old celtic world, were.

So, why do I discuss this? Well, looking at Ainan today, in relation to me, I felt our disparity in strength, and remembered my father’s greater strength before me. Is this, then, the destiny of all genetic gift? Is it to be lost little by little, generation by generation, until all is diluted to nothing? Looking at the decline in strength from grandfather, to father, to son, it might seem so, but all, as usual, is not what it seems.

If we look wider than a single line, we see a different story. I have three brothers, two of whom are stronger than me. I am the shortest male in my family, (though six foot tall) but not the lightest, though the two I estimate to be stronger than me, are both heavier and taller than I am.

My father’s genes have spread wide and each of his children carry half of them. He bore gifts of the mind and gifts of the body – for his mind is good, very good – and his body, in terms of strength, in particular, was most well equipped.

Looking at my brothers, I can see that my father’s qualities of mind appear in them in various admixtures – and so too his strength, in various proportions. I don’t know how many genes are involved in the gifts of the mind and the body – but we each have half of them. It seems, from observation, that there must, for strength, be more than one gene involved – for one can see a gradation across the sons: from quite strong, to strong to very strong to ferociously strong.

My father’s gift of strength lives on – and it is possible that one of his sons is stronger than him, in one way – for one son is six inches taller than his father, allowing him an advantage of scale, even if, for his size, he is weaker.

So, too, is it with my children. Ainan missed out on the gift of strength, it seems – but his brother Fintan did not. Fintan is thickset, well-muscled and, like all Cawleys, stronger than you would estimate. So my own gift of strength has not been lost – it is just not evenly distributed amongst my sons.

I do not know whether Fintan will be as strong as me, or whether, like one of my father’s sons, stronger than his father – but that he has inherited greater than common strength is clear. So, the gift goes on.

I would think it is like this with all genetic gifts. Looking both wide and deep, one will see that the gifts pass into one branch of the family, but miss others – and then further branch again, passing into some lines and not others and so on, forever. Nothing will be truly lost as long as one rule is adhered to: have several children – so that each may bear half the genes and so at least half of each gift, onwards.

I ponder this question because Ainan has certain mental gifts which were evident in my childhood and, no doubt, were anyone around to watch, in my father’s before him: how many more generations can this continue?

The answer is, I think, forever – as long as each generation has enough children so that some – well, at least one, - expresses the gift in question and may pass it on.

As it is in our family, so it is in yours. Whatever gifts you have in you, may be passed down – you just need to have a kid or three. Don’t worry that some have it and some don’t – (or some have more and others have less) because all bear some of it, onwards.

Now all I have to hope for is that I become a grandfather, one day – and watch the story begin to unfold again. There would be satisfaction in seeing that genetic continuity at work. I only hope my children want to have children when they grow up. We will see.

(I should add that even my father is not the strongest man in family legend – there were much larger and stronger men, still, in our background. Looked at physically, therefore, there is evidence of decline in strength over many generations, I would say. (In the direct line, there is decline…but the genes spread wide and are around somewhere). Once, it seems, my forebears had a use for such strength – otherwise they would not have evolved to be so strong, I would think. Looking at the history of the area and of the family, I would say a lot of that would have something to do with the war-torn history of the Land of Ireland, in times, before the gun, when strength was a man’s greatest defence – and offence, too, I might add.)

(If you would like to read about Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and three months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, three and Tiarnan, thirteen 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, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Tiarnan recognizes his "Daddy".

About two months ago, when Tiarnan was eleven months old, he caught sight of his brother Fintan's new present.

The present was something intended to comfort Fintan: a pillow in red and blue, with a picture of Superman on it, as the rugged jawed demigod that we all know and love.

Tiarnan looked at the image on the pillow and, at once, said: "Daddy!"

I wasn't there to witness the moment - but it is still one that I will never forget. People talk about the younger siblings of a prodigy having a lot to live up to...well, what about the father having to live up to expectations like Tiarnan's?!

Now, where did I put my costume...

Tiarnan knows his Daddy

Twenty years ago, I was a much younger and a much slimmer man. I was a boy, really. I looked much different to what I do now: sharply defined features, noticeable cheekbones, a very fresh look. I was at Cambridge. I was of a rather different build as well - about 35 kg lighter. That is quite a difference.

Tiarnan saw this photograph a few days ago, and immediately uttered a nickname he has for me. The gulf of years, the ever more youthful appearance in the photograph, couldn't fool him. Tiarnan knew his Daddy - though looking at the photos I would barely know myself.

I suppose I should be touched that, at eleven months, he was able to identify me in such old photos - yet not having had the experience to know, from having lived it, that people DO change that much - and yet are the same person. Somehow, he could just see it in the photograph.

I wonder if he would recognize me as a child of his age? I don't have any such photos in my present country - but I would like to try one day. It could be funny to see his reaction to his Daddy as a baby.

(If you would like to read more of Tiarnan or his gifted brothers, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and one month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted children and gifted adults in general. Thanks. Note that I am presently unable to update the guide, owing to some problem with my blogger interface - so the posts of the past few days are not referred to. You will have to go to the main page and look to the list on the left, to find them. I am trying to resolve the issue.)

Tiarnan tells daddy what to do

On the 5th of December 2006, I roared at Tiarnan, like a lion. He has been known to roar back. This time he did something different. He looked at me, and, in his little high voice said: "Don't do that!"

It was funny to hear him assert himself, so clearly. It is marvellous to see his personality solidify and grow stronger. He is becoming a little man on little feet, with his own opinion on matters - and willing to express it when he can.

For those who are not familiar with babies, they usually do not use three word sentences until the age of 23 months (this is the average point). So, Tiarnan's use of them, these past few months, is rather unusual. Tiarnan Hasyl Cawley is now ten months old.

(If you would like to read about Tiarnan's gifted brothers, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and two weeks, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)