The most important cargo in the world.

Yesterday, Fintan, five, came to me with a newspaper. His right forefinger jabbed at a photo that had caught his attention.

"Why are these men standing on boxes?"

"They are cargo boxes."

"There is a car inside?" He said, his eyes opening wide at this revelation.

"No. They are used to take things into the country. There can be anything inside: food, or clothes..."

"Or toys?", he added, hopefully, contemplating these pictured boxes with new found respect.

"Yes, or toys."

He was content at last. They were boxes of toys, carrying the most important cargo in the world.

I found myself smiling at his words. His world view is so appealing, in its priorities. It is relaxing, in a way, just to listen to his thoughts unfold. They follow a path called "childhood" and speak of things from a perspective I have long forgotten. To speak to him, is to take myself back to a time when toys were the most important thing in all the world.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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Tale of a cowboy hat

A couple of days ago, my wife, Syahidah, placed a cowboy hat on Fintan's head and left him to his own devices.

Some time later, she saw him running around the house from one room to another.

"Fintan, why are you running around?"

"I am trying to catch my horse...it has run away." he explained.

He continued to run.

Some time later, he was standing still in his room, looking at something that wasn't there.

"What happened?" Syahidah asked him.

"Oh, I shot my horse.", he confided. "First I tied him up, then I shot him."

He was quite satisfied to have solved the problem of the horse that just wouldn't sit still.

It is the imagination of a child that I think is most precious - for in the mind of an imaginative child, anything can be considered and all is possible. Yet, is such imagination common to all children? From observation, I would say not. Some children don't seem to have much of an imagination. Is that the reason most adults lack imagination? Is it because they start out with none...or is it because they lose it as they grow up?

I rather hope Fintan doesn't lose his imagination, but finds a creative application for it, that satisfies him and brings him fulfilment. Right now, it is both fun and fascinating to watch his imagination at work. Long may it be part of him.

(If you would like to learn more of Fintan, three, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and six months, and Tiarnan, sixteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.hmtl 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.)

A dinosaur in Singapore

Two days ago, Fintan, three, was at the pool with us. He had been in the water for some time, and had come out to talk to us - and ready himself for departure.

Suddenly he looked down at the floor and saw some smudged watermarks. He peered closely then looked up, sure of his find: "Dinosaur footprints!" he declaimed, of the marks on the ground, no doubt imagining the critter having just run around the corner. He looked again, and noting their small size said: "Baby dinosaurs!"

Fintan's world is an imaginative one - and one that I like, thereby. He doesn't just live in Singapore - he lives near the "jungle" - where anything can happen, and many a thing does live. His world is more alive than the real world, more filled with possibility - and it is wonderful to see it. I hope that it is ever that way and that he doesn't become like most adults who exclude the possibility of the fantastic from their minds with dull automaticity. I would like to see him continue on this imaginative path and become a creative adult one day, like many of his relatives. It would, I think, suit him.

I didn't cast doubt, therefore, on his assessment that a baby dinosaur had left those watery footprints, for his view was a better, more interesting one than the truth. His view was one that entertained a possibility that others might not. His view was one that allowed him to imagine a world that was not, but which would be more interesting than the one in which we live.

Of course, there was another reason why he might think of those somewhat rounded half dried footprints as dinosaurian - for long ago, as I have explained in a previous post, he saw a "baby dinosaur" one day - actually a large lizard. This peopled his world with the possibility that dinosaurs might be just around the corner. He is not at fault for this view - for I introduced the lizard to him as a "baby dinosaur" - for it made perfect a "dinosaur hunt" one day.

Many children believe in fairies and ghosts and the like. I have a son who believes in dinosaurs. Well, at least there are lizards, today - which look awfully like them - and at least they did actually live - one day.

Fintan spots a dinosaur

Fintan, three, has long wanted to see a dinosaur. I think this is an extension of his interest in animals. He has carefully surveyed his world but sees no overt signs of them. About six months ago, however, something very strange happened.

It was a Sunday. My wife had gone out with the other kids, leaving me with Fintan. To keep him interested I promised to take him to see where the dinosaurs were. This quite appealed to him and he soon readied himself for some dinosaur watching.

He sat in his pram, legs dangling over the side, for it would be far too far to walk at that age - or at least I had thought so.

We were to go to a wooded area near us: a kind of preserve, into which I intended to push the pram, if I could find the elusive entrance. All along the journey from our home to our destination, there were trees and vegetation at the roadside.

To keep up his interest, I asked him to look out for the dinosaurs in the woods - and he peered with great care into their midst. This stance went on for some minutes as we approached our goal.

Suddenly, in a moment of pure childhood magic, a giant green lizard came rushing out of the vegetation in front of us. It was quite the biggest lizard I had seen in Singapore. I couldn't identify its breed - but it really was at least a couple of feet long and quite bulky. I don't think it was a "Komodo Dragon" - for I have seen those in Malaysia - but it was impressive. It was green, tough looking - and dinosaurian.

Fintan's eyes were agog. Before him was a "dinosaur"...

"Look Fintan! It is a baby dinosaur!"

He was speechless. The "dinosaur" ran ahead of us for about ten metres then ducked back into the vegetation, having decided that it didn't want to be on the road.

Fintan craned to see where it had gone and only relaxed when it was clear that it was no longer to be seen.

The trip was a great success. In the most unlikely of ways, Fintan had come to see the "dinosaur" that Daddy had promised him. Never had I expected to fulfil the requirements of the day...but I had.

That evening, Fintan enthused about the "baby dinosaur" he had seen, to his mother, telling how big it had been - and how it had suddenly jumped out in front of him.

What a magical day.

(If you would like to read more about Fintan, three, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and four months, or Tiarnan, aged fourteen months, then 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 children and gifted adults in general. Thanks.)