A way with words.

Fintan, eight, is a young boy of much whimsy. I am particularly fond of the way he expresses himself, with words, coming up, as he does, with striking expressions at times.

A couple of days ago, Tiarnan had been off school for three days in a row, sick. Fintan stood appraising his younger brother, then 5, with a somewhat cynical gaze.

“He’s coughing for freedom.”, he remarked, tellingly, on noting yet another seemingly theatrical cough from Tiarnan.

I had to laugh. That little sentence said so many things at once, about his outlook on Tiarnan’s situation. It had an admirable semantic density to it. As you probably note yourself, it spoke of Fintan’s belief that Tiarnan was not really sick and that his coughing was faked for the purpose of getting off school – and thus being “free” from constraint. Hence he is “coughing for freedom”.

It should be said, however, that Tiarnan did genuinely have a cough and a wheezy chest, which had woken him up in the night – so, as parents, we were not entirely mugs to allow him off school. However, Fintan believes otherwise, perhaps because Tiarnan is able to cough apparently on cue, when attention is upon him.

Fintan has made no indication of being interested in becoming a writer. However, as an observer of him, I have noticed that he is able to encapsulate thoughts in a pithy way and that he has his own characteristic style of expression. Furthermore, he likes to play around and joke with words, twisting their meaning to comic form. So, even though he hasn’t said he wants to be a writer, I do think it possible that, one day, he may very well be one – or at least someone who finds a creative use for words in life.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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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.

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The deepest wish for the future.

To have children, is to be a watcher of the future. To look on them, is to wonder what they might become, one day and to feel a duty to guide them or empower them , to be whatever they truly wish.

A couple of days ago, my wife Syahidah looked at me across the dining table.

“I hope our kids grow to be as patient as you.”, she began, her eyes looking deeply across the table and into the future, at the same time.

I was pleased to hear that implicit compliment.

“...and as tidy as me.”, she said, with a meaningful gaze.

I wasn’t so pleased to hear that implicit criticism!

I laughed though. “That is just like something Fintan might say.”

She smiled her agreement.

We see each other, in each other, every day, in ways little and large. Her remark had the comic structure of Fintan’s utterances – and no doubt, his had that structure, because of her. I felt the invisible bonds of like mindedness joining us, in that moment. We are each a part of the other, a partial reflection of each other. This is a fact of all families – but one too often not fully understood I feel. Every one of our children is a part of us, us a part of them. In their minds are thoughts we would recognize as like our own, feelings too, that we know so well.

I like this togetherness. It is what makes a family feel so different from any other random group of people known to each other. We are not just known to each other – we are like each other, fashioned from the very same cognitive and affective substance.

It is interesting to look at our children and see which elements of them come from my wife and which from myself. It is not difficult to see the jigsaw puzzle that they are, as a rearrangement of components within ourselves.

Considering her wish, I would say I have to agree. I hope they have my patience and her tidiness – the other way around just would not do at all!

One day, we will know. I look forward to that day and all the others, in which my children are becoming. It is a story of infinite richness, written before my eyes, daily. It is also a story I cannot, now, imagine, ever having missed.

Here’s to a patient and tidy future!

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(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.)

In search of an identity

It is interesting the ways in which a young child comes upon an identity. A few days ago, an incident opened Fintan’s eyes, to one possible identity for himself.

Fintan, 8, was watching The Pursuit of Happiness, with Will Smith, on TV.

There was a line, on screen, that caught Fintan’s sharpest attention:

“To be a good stockbroker, you have to be good with people and good with numbers.”

Fintan looked startled. “That’s me!”, he exclaimed. Then he looked across at his mother and with profound curiosity asked her: “What’s a stockbroker?” He asked it as if it could be the most important question in the world.

His mother explained to him. Fintan seemed most interested in her answer. He absorbed the understanding and was driven inward to reflect on the concept. He seemed to be weighing it, for worth.

Not for the first time, I am led to wonder if my middle son, Fintan, is going to find a career in the financial world. If so, this day may be the one that switched him onto this particular path.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(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.)

The value of persistence.

One of the qualities I admire in Fintan, 5, is his persistence. This quality shows through in everything that he does.

A couple of days ago, he was given a wooden helicopter kit. It was, as you might imagine, a box filled with fiddly little pieces and not so little pieces. As is customary with such things, it came with an unhelpful bit of paper that might as well have been written in a dead language for all the sense it made. So, the instructions weren't much help. However, Fintan didn't seem to need them, for he had a secret weapon, two in fact: patience and persistence.

He set about his task with a quiet focus. He picked up the pieces, one by one, examining their shape and imagining their eventual position in the structure. Then he started putting pieces together, like some great 3-d puzzle (which, of course, it was).

When he liked the look of a particular arrangement the pieces were duly glued together, initially using transparent tape, for fear of him harming himself with the superglue that would eventually do so.

It wasn't an easy thing to build. It was a complicated machine of many pieces. Yet, there he sat, at the table, quietly building it, piece by piece. It was getting on in the evening and it really was time for bed...but still he laboured on.

Finally, he put the rotors, which he had first assembled on the top. It was done: Fintan had built the helicopter.

It was time to go to bed, so his mother took him by the arm and lead him away, the moment he had finished.

Ainan, who had been waiting, proceeded to take the rotors off, again, so as to begin the task of super gluing everything together firmly. Fintan struggled in his mother's arms: he misunderstood and thought that Ainan was disassembling his lovely helicopter. He only relented and went to bed, mollified, once he understood that Ainan was just doing what he should not: using the superglue.

I felt a peculiar happiness to see Fintan do all this. He had persevered, in a difficult task, until the end and without the benefit of instructions. He had actually built the helicopter from an unpromising pile of wooden bits and pieces. What made me even more happy was seeing his reaction to Ainan interfering with his work: there was a sense of investment in his work, in Fintan, a sense of pride, achievement and ownership. These are all the basic attitudes of someone who will do meaningful things, in life - for things done have meaning for them.

I think I have caught a glimpse of the adult Fintan will become: one who perseveres until the job is done, who doesn't give up until all obstacles have been overcome and who feels pride in his achievements. Now, that is a young man I would like to meet one day.

Well done Fintan.

(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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This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)

Equanimity in the face of adversity.

How do young children take what are, to them, hard knocks? When you are small, little disasters can seem like a big deal.

A couple of days ago, Fintan, four, asked me to buy him some M and Ms at the local shop. I duly did so.

As he walked with me, away from the shop, he decided to open the sweet packet, rather than wait until he got home. He tugged hard at it, pinching it between the fingers of both hands. Suddenly, it gave way catastrophically, scattering the chocolate sweets within, all over the ground.

It was what he didn't do that impressed me. He didn't shout out. He didn't cry. He didn't complain. He looked calmly at the multi-coloured array of sweets scattered all around him and said, quietly: "Never mind. I will buy some another day."

He then reached into the torn packet and ate the three remaining sweets, all without any fuss. When he had done so, he started to play a little game with the fallen chocolates - stamping on them, one by one, as he left for home.

I thought his calm response to sudden disappointment most telling of his character. Fintan is not one easily perturbed - he just carries on, doing what he intended to do, no matter what the difficulties that arise. If disappointed, he seems neither to show it nor to feel it. He just tells himself that all will be well, another time.

I felt so proud, in that moment, to see his mature response to an unexpected disappointment. I feel it promises much for his ability to cope with whatever life throws at him, in later years.

The next time I get him chocolates, however, I will open them for him. At least, then, he will get to enjoy them.

(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.)

Conquering insurmountable difficulties

I learn much from simply being with my children. I learn about people, about life, and character. I learn about what makes people what they are. All these lessons are there to be had, if one would only open one's eyes to them.

Two weeks ago, on the 12th November, I was in a playground with Tiarnan. He had climbed onto a horse, on a carousel and pointed towards another horse, beside which I stood, indicating that I should mount my one. My horse was taller than his. It was also not meant for adults. So, I was reluctant to try its strength with my inordinate weight. Therefore, I pretended to an inability to reach this taller horse. I lifted my right leg, in an effort to climb onto it, and strained to reach it, failing, to do so.

Tiarnan looked at me, silently, evaluating the situation.

I tried to mount the horse, again - and failed, again, my leg unable to go over the high horse.

Tiarnan took in this scene and made a decision. He climbed off his horse, taking his leg around and off its back and dropped down onto the floor in a fairly fluid motion. He then hurried over to my horse and reached up to it, with his arm, his hand grasping the "saddle". He began to pull himself up with one hand. Then he flung his leg upwards and hooked it over the top of the horse and using the force of hand and hooked leg combined, he levered himself up onto the horse - one built for a much older child than him, for it was essentially unreachable to a toddler - at least, one would have supposed so. After some effort, he managed to pull himself into the saddle.

He looked me straight in the eye, then and, there being no need for words, he pointed back over his shoulder at the shorter horse he had vacated.

His message was clear. "I am small," his eyes said, "and you are large. I was able to climb into that smaller horse, so you can, too. By the way, I climbed into this one, too."

I suppose, if I had really been unable to climb onto the horse, I might have felt a little shame. As it was, my bluff had been called. I could hardly now pretend to be unable to climb the horse he had so easily climbed, himself.

I said nothing. I moved to the smaller horse, threw my leg over it, and pretended to settle my weight upon it.

He was satisfied. Daddy had joined him on the carousel.

I wonder what he thought, however, that Daddy could not mount the horse, but he could? Did he think less of me, or more of himself? There was no indication that he had thought any such thought, at all - his actions were those of a pragmatist. "I can do it, so I shall do it.", he said, by his actions...now you do the other one.

All of this leads to a thought, however. I had proven, to him, that a man my size couldn't mount the larger horse. What made him think that he could do it, where I could not?

There is a confidence, in him, I feel, at his physical abilities. Either that, or he has a good understanding of his own capabilities and knew that the taller horse was within his ability.

On show, I think, is an interesting character: one not afraid of challenges and one determined to overcome them. It should stand him in good stead for the life to come. An appetite for challenge comes in handy in all walks of life - whichever he chooses for his own, in time to come.

(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.)

Is sweetness of character innate?

In this modern world, in which selfishness is the creed of almost all, few think of others. Fintan, three, however, is an exception.

Today, I took Fintan to the pool, while his brother Ainan was still at school. He played quite contentedly, even though the pool was largely empty. When it came time to go we went to the shop and bought a few things: including a drink for him and some chocolate sweets.

Curiously, as we were about to leave the shop, he said: "Can I hold the sweets?"

Those words struck me as odd: not, "Can I eat the sweets?" but "Can I hold the sweets?"

I thought at first he was being euphemistic, and that he meant to eat them, but, as we walked back home he held them in his hands, making no attempt to open them.

After a few minutes of this, I took them off him and said: "Would you like me to open them?"

He shook his head. "No. Because later my brother cry." He wouldn't, of course, but in Fintan's world that was something to be avoided. I was touched by his words. Here was a three year old who was very fond of his sweets, who wouldn't open a pack of chocolates because his older brother, Ainan, wasn't present to share in them.

"You are a nice boy, Fintan." I remarked, warmly.

He shook his head, at once, rather sharply, actually: "No, not nice: smart!" he corrected me. "Smart or good." he further elucidated.

It seems that he has already learnt to value smartness or goodness above niceness - which is a pity, in a way, since he is, in fact, of a very sweet character - so "nice" is a fair description.

So I walked all the way home with my smart, good and nice three year old son.

Once there, I offered to open the drink for him: "No." He shook his head, "Wait until my brother comes."

I smiled at that. Smartness and goodness he might prize - but he just can't stop being nice - even towards someone who wasn't there and who would never know that Fintan had made a sacrifice in his favour, in his absence - unless I told him so.

What a sweetie.

(If you would like to read more of Fintan, three, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and five months, or Tiarnan, fifteen 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 children and gifted adults in general. Thanks.)