Friendship between species: a love of animals.

Tiarnan, twenty one months, rather likes animals. He reacts to them as if he is seeing a particularly sweet thing: with a big smile and evident excitement.

A couple of days ago, I was walking Tiarnan in the park when he saw a dog. He took me by the hand and dragged me towards it. He then stood watching it for a while, before reaching out, tentatively, with a single outstretched finger, to touch its white hair. It was a small dog, perhaps a third of his height, with white hair all over, apart from brown on its face. As soon as his finger touched it, he pulled it back, as if unsure of the reaction. His face was all intent, his lip covering his lower teeth, in concentration.

After nothing untoward happened and the dog didn't seem to mind, he reached out again. This time he let his touch linger longer. He pulled away more slowly. Nothing happened. So this time he reached out again and patted the dog. No reaction. So then he placed his hand on the dog and squeezed. Again, no reaction: I thought the dog was most tolerant. Finally he set about touching various parts of the dog to see how they would feel and what would happen. He squeezed the back (again); he grabbed the short white tail; he patted the head; he pulled at the ears - and then his wandered around to the front of the dog's face, near the teeth. I pulled him back at that. Yet, it was good to note how well the dog was taking all of this. It must be used to the ministrations of children.

After some minutes, of this, I thought that the dog and owner had had enough of this, so I dragged him away. He was most reluctant and kept on looking back. "Doggie...doggie..." he kept on moaning. Finally, when we were about 30 metres away, he took a stand, and pulled against my hand, trying to halt me: I did. I let go of him. He ran off to one side where there was a giant, fallen palm branch, about 6 or 7 feet long and he began to drag it behind him. He walked over to the dog and placed the palm before it, such that green leaves rested on the dog.

He looked at the dog's failure to react, then moved forward and shoved the leaves towards its face. It was clear that Tiarnan, in a gesture of concern, for the dog, was trying to feed it. Little did he know that it wasn't a natural vegetarian. "He eats meat, Tiarnan, not plants." I said, to him, but he ignored me, thinking, perhaps, that if only he tried harder to attract the dog's notice with his offering that it would eat. He pushed it towards the dog again. Then he placed a couple of leaves on its face, directly. Nothing happened. The dog treated the plant as if it weren't there.

Finally, Tiarnan understood that the dog didn't want to eat it. He then picked up the branch and dragged it back the fifteen metres or so, to where he had found it, and replaced it.

We said our goodbyes to the dog and Tiarnan walked off happily with me.

I found the whole incident very sweet to behold. Tiarnan was clearly trying to befriend the dog and had made an offering of what he thought would be food for the dog. You see, we don't have a pet and he has never seen a dog eat - so he doesn't know that they are carnivores. He just thought that that giant branch looked appetizing.

It seems, from this evidence, and much else beside that we should really get our children a pet - preferably a furry one, if Tiarnan's reaction to the dog's coat is anything to go by.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eleven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and four months, and Tiarnan, twenty-one 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.)

Tiarnan and the beetle

Yesterday, Tiarnan, nineteen months, found a new play friend: a beetle.

Unlike most children, Tiarnan shows no fear of all that crawls on six or eight legs (or more for that matter). Indeed, he treats them with both intense curiosity and great friendliness.

Yesterday, he found a very strange looking beetle in our house. It was quite long - about two centimetres - and was black with orange spots on its back. It was like a giant distant relative of a ladybird, but showed no evidence of being able to fly. I had never seen its like before. Tiarnan peered at it, once he found it, then stepped closer until he was right above - then he reached down and picked it up in his hands. That was something I, for one, would not have done. Yet, he held it between his thumb and forefingers watching it wriggle. He was quite absorbed in this.

He set it down and watched it crawl away - but he never let it get far, he would just pick it up again and bring it back.

At one point it crawled over the edge of a wall and fell over - and Tiarnan had half a mind to jump over the wall to follow it. Instead, he walked around and bent down to get it. I had, in the meantime, picked it up on some paper and put it back on top of the wall - to Tiarnan's irritation.

This play with the mysterious beetle of unknown name went on for some time. Yet, after a while, Tiarnan seemed to want the beetle to stand still and not crawl away the whole time, finally, perhaps in frustration, he picked it up with a little too much strength in his little hand and crushed it. Though it didn't crawl away again, I don't think this outcome satisfied Tiarnan and he stared at its broken body for some time, before concluding that there was no more fun to be had with this particular friend.

Throughout, what impressed me was his lack of squeamishness and his absence of fear. To him it was a little playmate - nothing scarier than that. To many adults, it would be something to be avoided. I hope he doesn't learn that fear - for he certainly hasn't started life with it.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen 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, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Construction of the Grand Snail Hotel

Childhood doesn't seem so far away, when one has children to observe, at play.

At the weekend, Fintan, 4, and Ainan, 7, decided to make their snails more at home. (See the post Children and Pet Animals, for background). They decided to build the Grand Snail Hotel.

The Hotel was quite large, if you were a snail. It was built on the landing of the stairwell outside our flat, between our flat and the neighbour. The construction materials were of the lasting kind: polystyrene and a range of plastics (selected, I believe, by Ainan, because the snails would be unable to eat their residence, it being made of inedible plastic. This is always a good consideration, when one's hotel guests are hungry and unable to distinguish between food and furniture.)

The Grand Snail Hotel had all the attributes of a great and thoughtful hotel. Some polystyrene with a dip in it about a foot and a half long, provided what was, to scale, an Olympic sized swimming pool. Another section with a ramp leading up to it (for snails, like disabled people, are not good with stairs, and need ramps to reach elevated areas), provided a kind of dormitory where snails could sleep en masse. There was a snail restaurant providing the best of leaves - the staple being lettuce from my fridge - and even a supermarket, where there was a large store of unused vegetable leaves, for later purchase by any self-catering snail. The entire complex was self-enclosed in its own wall, protecting the nibbling snails from the difficult environment they might find in the world outside. All in all, it was a masterpiece of Snail Architecture. Credit for the Architecture goes to the creative team of Fintan Nadym Cawley and Ainan Celeste Cawley, who were the sole designers of this innovative construction initiative in the nascent hotel field known as Gastropod Tourism.

Anyway, all this actually happened and was carefully explained to me by the earnest architects: Ainan and Fintan. My wife and I were most impressed at the miniature compound they had created for their adopted snail pets.

As we left to go shopping, my wife called back at Ainan and Fintan: "We will take a photograph of it when we get back!"

We were both happy to see the two aspects of character embodied in that work: creativity in designing it in the first place - and the care for animals that they should think to do so in the first place. Besides, it was hilarious to see what they had done to the stairwell: it had become a Gastropod Hotel. There are not many stairwells in the world like that one.

(If you would like to read more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eight months, or his gifted brothers, including Fintan, aged four years and one month, or Tiarnan, eighteen 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, genetics, left-handedness, College, University, Chemistry, Science, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Children and pet animals

When I was a boy - oh so long ago - we had a pet cat. Just one. Yet, being resourceful, this pet cat one day turned into a pregnant female. Then we had many cats. Though that was several cat generations ago, there are still cats to this day, descended from our very smart sole kitten, of my childhood days, at my parents home.

Now, there is a dog, too - a large Sicilian Corso: dramatic, powerful, watchful. A good dog to have around if you like giving intruders a nasty surprise.

Yet, here, in Singapore, where we now live, we have no pet animals. We live on the top floor of an apartment block (the "penthouse") and thought it cruel to have a conventional pet, in such restrictive surroundings. It would not be fair to the poor animal to be cooped up in a small space all day. In my mind, I compare the spacious surroundings of my childhood, with apartment living and just can't see a pet as part of it.

However, my children love animals. They seem to have an affinity for them which just won't go away. They engage with animals much as frustrated mothers-who-can't-be engage with other people's little children: with love, affection and just a little sadness. It should not be this way - but I just cannot see the run-of-the-mill animals living in a top-floor apartment with comfort. So, we have a pet-free apartment.

Yesterday, Fintan, who is the prime animal lover in our household, came up with his own solution. I came home to find a large collection of very small (for the most part) snails, in front of my apartment door. At least one had come upon a fatal accident (perhaps a mis-step by someone entering the house) - but the others were lively enough, moving around in what, no doubt was a panicked run, for a snail, as they sought more familiar territory than the stone tiling outside my house.

Fintan, Ainan and Tiarnan were all captivated, in their various ways, by the snails. Fintan, simply had a fascination for them; Ainan saw them as a scientific phenomenon to be observed and learnt from - and Tiarnan thought they were yukky: "Eek!" he said, when he saw them, his face wrinkled up with disgust.

What I thought most telling of my children's attitude to other life-forms, was seeing Fintan, walking around later in the day with the biggest of the snails perched on his hand. He had brought into the house to play with and was not at all squeamish about its slimey form. He was very careful not to hurt it and invariably moved it about by picking it up with its shell. At one point, he wanted to show its form, pointing out the various parts to me and showing what happened when he prodded it in various places - gently of course. "Don't hurt it!" I said. "I am not." he reassured calmly, placing it down again.

They spent quite some time playing with their "pet" snails. They even tried to put out some food for them: I noted delicately sliced banana laid down in the midst of the snail colony. That evening they put the snails on a stairwell. Ainan asked me to buy lettuce - which I duly did. And he placed what he considered a generous sized leaf out for them to have something to eat in the barren landscape of the stairwell.

Seeing all this made me a little sad that they did not have a household pet to play with. Clearly, the urge to "mother" an animal, to nurture a pet, to play with one and learn from one, was strong in them: so strong that they even made snails from the garden into pets.

Perhaps a reader of this post, will have some suggestions as to child-friendly pets that live comfortably in top-floor apartments, without being messy or smelly to have around (we have got three kids, so that is messy enough already!).

If anyone has a really good suggestion, based on actual experience of what that particular pet is like to have around, we might just get a pet to satisfy those pet-rearing instincts of my children.

(If you would like to read of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eight months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and one month, or Tiarnan, eighteen 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, genetics, left-handedness, College, University, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Tiarnan and the natural world.

Tiarnan is seventeen months old. For him, many things are new - and it is in watching him witness them for the first time, that I, in turn, come to a new appreciation of all that is around me. That is part of the joy of being a father.

Today, we took Tiarnan for a walk in a green area nearby. Many of my readers are from America and will not, perhaps, be familiar with the kind of things one can find here, so I will explain, in due course.

We showed him a plant with a special property, today and encouraged him to touch it. Once he did so, the leaves of this dark, low-lying plant folded up at once and hid away, retracting away from his finger. He was quite taken by this, since it is the first plant he has ever seen which MOVES, when touched.

He did it again and again, touching plant after plant and watched them duly hide away.

We indicated that we were to go - and Tiarnan then acknowledged the plants' strange new status by waving goodbye to them. The little green ones had impressed him in a way that no other plant ever had - and so he accorded them personhood. After all: if a plant can MOVE - it must be alive, in an animal-like way - I assume, he thought.

It was very sweet to watch him react this way to the plant. In all his seventeen months, he had never seen a plant react to touch by moving away - and now one had. It was beautiful to see the surprise dance in his eyes. More beautiful still was it to see him wave goodbye to them, as if to a new found friend.

The plant is the Mimosa, found in Singapore, which is low lying and has dark, delicate leaves that behave in a peculiar way. When the plant is touched, the leaves retract, at once, and fold themselves up, in hiding.

There were other things, too, that impressed Tiarnan - but it was the Mimosa, I suspect, which he will always remember.

(If you would like to read more of Tiarnan, seventeen months, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and seven months, or Fintan, four years and no 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 and the "animals"

Tiarnan is eleven months old but, in that short time, he seems to have picked up quite a bit of general knowledge.

Yesterday, Syahidah, his mother, drew on his elder brother's face, with make up: it was an animal face.

On seeing Fintan's made up face, Tiarnan said: "Tiger". Spot on.

Later in the day, as Fintan wore a different set of make up, Tiarnan said: "Dog", on seeing him. Again, he got it right.

I found it interesting that he could see the representation of the animal face in a few lines of make up - and understand what was meant by those lines. That is the beginnings of understanding of art.

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

Fintan and the "Crocodile"

Fintan, three, is a very visual child. Sometimes this leads to surprising moments.

He was watching television with his mother, Syahidah, the other day and she began flicking through the channels, in rapid succession. She came to one channel and said, on seeing the image on the screen: "Oh look Fintan, this will be good, it is about a crocodile."

Fintan said, at once: "No mummy, that is not a crocodile, that is an alligator."

Syahidah stopped her channel hopping to let the channel play. Sure enough, a moment later the commentator referred to the creature as "an alligator".

How on Earth did he know and see the difference between them? Most adults I know wouldn't be able to distinguish them, at all. In fact, I don't think I could.

(If you would like to read more about Fintan or his brothers, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, seven, then 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.)

Fast Food - Faster Baby Tiarnan

Babies are famous for eating anything they get a chance to put in their mouths. Some babies are more adventurous in this regard than most. Tiarnan is one of them.

Singapore is not only populated by people, but by lizards - millions of them. They seem to get everywhere - even high up in apartment blocks, where we are, lizards are to be found. They are small, fast-moving creatures, that chatter excitedly in a tongue I do not know. It seems unlikely, looking at the speed with which they move, that a baby would have much interaction with them. Yet, Tiarnan is a well-coordinated baby, who moves very fast.

Two days ago, on the 7th December 2006, Tiarnan Hasyl Cawley, aged ten months, saw a lizard on a wall in our apartment. He hurried over to it - and reached out with his left hand to grab it. The lizard was caught completely by surprise at the speed of his attack: Tiarnan had caught a lizard. Now what do you think he did with his wriggling prize? He moved it towards his mouth, and it was only the intervention of a nearby adult, that stopped Tiarnan swallowing his live lizard whole.

It is funny to note this, because it almost seems a family tradition with our babies. Fintan, three, did the same when he was a toddler - though, he succeeded in killing his find.

It surprises me that a baby of ten months can, in fact, hunt. It seems that our early instincts are not far from the surface, if a little baby, can move fast enough and coordinated enough to catch such a fast-moving animal as a lizard.

So, consider this: what is your baby trying to eat for lunch?

(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, then 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.)

Fintan Cawley, Child Hero

How young can a hero be? What is heroism? Where does it come from?

From watching my child, Fintan Nadym Cawley, 3, I would say that a toddler or a baby can be a hero. If the child is able to understand the idea of danger and is able to make a decision to face that danger in order to help another, at personal risk to themselves, then that child is a hero.

Fintan Nadym Cawley is a hero. He is only three years old, but he has the characteristics that make up a hero. I have often noted his courage in his daily play, in the situations he gets into, and the way he reacts to them. He is not afraid. He is not tearful. Indeed, in some situations in which other children would be crying, he is laughing, as if thrilled to be facing the challenge and enjoying doing so.

Today I will give one sweet example. His elder brother, Ainan Celeste Cawley, six, had been walking down the road near his grandmother's house, when, suddenly, and without any forewarning, a dog leapt forward from a house with an open gate - and started barking aggressively at him. Ainan was startled and frightened, for the dog was large, the bark was loud and ferocious - and the gate was open. He ran away as fast as he could, bursting into tears at the shock as he did so. The dog did not make chase beyond the territory of his house grounds, however - though how was Ainan to know that he wouldn't? He thought he was about to be savaged by a dog let free.

Ainan Celeste Cawley's reaction is understandable. Any child faced with sudden personal danger and fright of that kind, from an animal larger than themselves, would cry. Fintan Nadym Cawley's reaction however, was of a very different kind.

"What happened Abang?" he asked concernedly. Abang means "older brother".

Ainan explained about the dog's sudden seeming attack.

Fintan was at once emboldened - and outraged. "Where? Where is it?", he demanded, his head turning and already looking around for something that he wanted. "I will kill it with my stroller!", he vowed, his stocky body filled with resolution and certainty of will.

"No Fintan!" we cried as one and moved forward to restrain him. For Fintan Nadym Cawley, three, would, undoubtedly, have taken his stroller and proceeded along the road to challenge the dog - and punish it for what it had done to his beloved Abang, Ainan Celeste Cawley.

We were touched, by this display of brotherly love - and bravery.

Where was Fintan's fear? Why was he unafraid to challenge a dog that was many times his weight and bulk, all teeth and bark? In Fintan the affront he felt that his beloved brother should be so upset, so endangered, denied the possibility of fear: it simply did not well up in him, as it would in others. All he was concerned about was the need to protect his brother - and right this wrong.

Ainan Celeste Cawley, 6, is a scientific child prodigy - but his younger brother Fintan Nadym Cawley is a hero - and I don't think either is more special than the other. Both characteristics define them as special, in differing, but equally important ways. One is a gift of the mind, the other a gift of character. Depending on the demands of a situation one becomes more important than another, but, in absolute terms, neither is supreme: both are valuable qualities in a man, for one day, both will be men: one a genius, the other a hero. I am happy with that.

For more on Fintan Nadym Cawley, as a natural leader see:

http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/09/leader-of-pack_25.html