The mysterious traveller.

A couple of days ago, Tiarnan came running into the room in which his mother stood.

“I need more biscuits!”, he announced, with a hungry voice.

“Is that because you have been running?”, she enquired, logically.

“No. It is because I have been time travelling!”, he answered, quite matter of factly.

She looked at her five year old son with a new appreciation and duly went and got him some biscuits.

He ate them, ruminatively, perhaps contemplating his “time travelling” adventures. When all were gone, he whizzed off again, no doubt in pursuit of other worlds, other times.

Syahidah, my wife, thought this most funny – and typical of Tiarnan, the great little adventurer in the imagination. She told me this story with a little smile on her face, throughout. However, what she did not know, and I had already come to learn, is that our three sons have actually built a “time machine”, to play in. That, however, is a story for another day.

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.).

A superhero, on his off-day.

A few weeks ago, Tiarnan, five and Fintan, seven, were having a play acted "fight".

Now, as long term readers will know, Tiarnan is one of the world's youngest "superheroes". He has a liking for imagining himself as some kind of super powered hero and can quite often be found, in his own world, happily playing out some imaginary scenario. Such is his imagination, that he is quite capable of playing out such a scene, alone, accompanied only by his own imaginary adversaries.

On this particular day, he was having a battle with Fintan. To judge the situation, there is something you should know about Fintan: he is very strong for his age, and quite big, too. He is also dextrous, fast, and athletic to the point of being gymnastic. In other words, "fighting" him, is not a good prospect, if you are also a kid.

Tiarnan did his best. He engaged Fintan with absolute passion, focus, intensity and determination. Each "blow" was delivered with vigour and a certain style. Not only had Tiarnan's effort needed to be maximal, but each movement had to have a certain elegance and panache about it. With Tiarnan, the result had to be beautiful to watch, too.

Fintan defended himself, with relative ease. He also counter attacked in a less deliberately stylish manner, which managed to impress nevertheless. There was something masterful about his movements - and Tiarnan was simply unable to best him.

Tiarnan continued to strive his best to win this battle of the mini-Titans. However, he seemed to be becoming aware of the mismatch. This was inconvenient for his superhero self-image, since it was quite impossible for superhero Tiarnan to be beaten by a mere mortal older brother.

He had an explanation and solution, however.

"My powers," he began to announce, most intently, "only work, when I use them."

This declaration was meant, not only for Fintan, who didn't trouble himself to respond - but for his mother who was watching.

Fintan went on to win the encounter, pretty conclusively - but Tiarnan was not disheartened. He had, after all, and rather gentlemanly, elected not to use his powers - so the defeat was actually a demonstration of magnanimous nature.

The play fight came to an end happily. Neither was hurt physically, or psychologically - and both egos remained intact: Fintan's because he had won, Tiarnan's because, of course, he had only let him win!

There is something appealing in Tiarnan's rationalization of his physical power in relation to Fintan. It is actually quite beautiful to see him conceive this excuse and understanding - and to hold on to it, to the extent of seeming to believe in it, at least emotionally. His is the perfect way of seeing the world if you are a small boy - as he is - who wants to feel powerful - as he does.

In Tiarnan's world, he is powerful - and, in a way, he is: for his imagination is such that he is quite able to convince himself that he is such.

I, for one, watching him play, am quite prepared to accept him on his own terms - for he is so intent about it, that to do so, is the only reasonable and fair response.

So, Tiarnan is the superhero of the house, who is so considerate of his brothers that he refrains from using his powers against them. They, in turn, refrain from pointing out that he doesn't have any. It is the ideal arrangement.

(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.htmland 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.)

How to sleep soundly.

Most people, I imagine, go to sleep in much the same way. Tiarnan, however, does not. Our little five year old has a way all of his own to approach the world of sleep.

A few nights ago, for instance, his mother went into his bedroom to tuck him into bed and found him laying there dressed in a rather peculiar fashion. He had swimming goggles on and was carrying a water pistol.

Tiarnan noted her curious gaze and observed, cryptically. “I have to protect myself.”

Tiarnan, was clearly, on one of his imaginary adventures. He was preparing himself to enter one of his personal worlds, fully equipped for what he would face.

At first, Syahidah was moved to take off his goggles, but she restrained herself. This was Tiarnan’s adventure, so she had to let him be.

Instead she lay beside him, until he fell asleep. When he was soundly asleep, she carefully took off his swimming goggles and set them to one side. His water pistol still lay beside him. She left it there and crept silently from the room.

Tiarnan had, once again, fallen asleep in his idiosyncratic way. Many a night, he dresses differently for sleep. This, however, is the only occasion he chose goggles and a gun.

It must be said, that of all the children I have had the chance to observe in my life, Tiarnan is the most likely to be an actor, that I have ever seen. Every day he constructs imaginary people and becomes them; imaginary worlds and enters them. I would say his most likely career choices are actor and writer, for they would best embody his character. In a way, I hope he does become an actor, for I fear he might be unhappy were this proclivity to imagine, not expressed, in some deep way.

Sleep on, my adventurous Tiarnan!

(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, 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.)