The World's Most Exotic Reptile

Fintan, four, is shaping up to be a child with an imagination all of his own. His remarks are so characteristic of him - and of no other - that I long ago started to call them Fintanisms. The same applies to his behaviour.

Two days ago, for reasons known only to himself, Fintan came up behind Tiarnan, twenty months, and gently pushed him to the ground so that he was on all fours, saying: "Run reptile, run!"

Then he paused, momentarily, "Oh no..." I thought, then, in that moment, that he was going to correct his odd description of his younger brother, "crawl."

Hilarious.

(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's hungry tummy

It was a couple of months ago, now. We had just been shopping and were wending our way past various shops, to get to the taxi rank.

Suddenly, Tiarnan, fourteen months, made a detour. We were passing a restaurant that had placed tables and chairs out onto the pathway, when Tiarnan made a silent decision: he climbed up on to a chair, of a table at the restaurant to sit down.

Clearly, Tiarnan was hungry and wanted us to stop to eat there. I thought it was funny and revealing from several points of view. Firstly, was that it was the wrong time of day for most people to eat and so there was NO-ONE outside the restaurant eating. There was no food to be seen and no indication (by direct sight) of the fact that food would be available there. Somehow, he had assessed that this place was a restaurant, though he could see no food - and he had further judged that, by sitting down there, he would be served food and would solve his hunger problem. (It should be noted that we rarely eat out - perfectly good food being readily available at home (!) - and so Tiarnan does not have any real direct experience of restaurants.)

We had other ideas and picked him up from the chair and carried him away, where we would feed him in our own way.

It was interesting to see that instead of asking us about his hunger, that he decided to do something about it himself. It was amusing to see his little form sat upon the tall chair, of the restaurant, his head not much above the level of the table, waiting to be served.

There is so much to be understood about the contents of a young child's mind, simply by watching what they do and examining what those actions mean - and much of it turns out to be funny.

It is also interesting to note how much a little child understands about how the world works, from their own observations. They often understand much more than one would suppose.

(If you would like to read more of Tiarnan, now sixteen months, or his gifted brothers, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and six months, or Fintan, three, 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.)

Fintan sings his own songs

Today, I heard Fintan singing a song. At first, I just listened to the overall effect of what he was doing and didn't notice the words. The song was clearly his own: it was a rhyming song, with words that spoke of his love for his family - his mother, his father and his brothers.

What I was struck by was how he managed to make his song both rhythmic and rhyming, even as he improvised it as he went along. It was quite clear that he was inventing the song as he sang: it had that feeling of immediacy and spontaneity as he reacted to his own words and their requirements to rhyme, by simply conjuring the rhyme out of mid-air.

It was touching to note both the subject of his song and the way he composed it. It had a tune, it had rhyme and and it had rhythm. Not bad at all for a musically untrained three year old, expressing himself, as he felt best.

(If you would like to read more of Fintan, three, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and six months, or Tiarnan, sixteen 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.)