Challenge with my Fast Learner Child

Having a child who is a fast learner is a challenge for me. While some consider it an advantage, as a parent there is a part that I struggle. I can still recall the times when my son was a baby. At age four months, he called me “mama”. He learns very quick with numbers and words. As early as 18 months, he is already counting to 20, memorize the alphabet, colors , shapes, most nursery rhymes, and can easily sing and memorize different songs.

He progress more when we enrolled him in nursery. He is just three and a half years old. We decided to enroll him early because at that age, he is showing an interest already with books and in going to school. But with my second child, I think we are going to enroll him at age four or five. I think it will be better if we are going to let our kids enjoy more playtime for them to freely express their childhood before taking step to enter school.

With good study habits, teaching my son is easy. Since he is a fast learner, I do not have a problem when we review his lessons.

Links for effective Ways I did with my Kid’s Study Habits and learning in school

• Fun Study Habits at Home for little children
• Make Study Habits more interesting in younger students
• Study tips for effective learning
• Multiple Intelligence Provides Children with the real edge
• 3 Ways to Boost Multiple Intelligence in kids
• Multiple Intelligence promotes pro-active and alertness
• Practical tips to boost your child’s mental math

Challenge with my Fast Learner Child

He is doing well in academics but I am now facing a bigger challenge with my fast learner son. Since majority of the big schools here in the Philippines is traditional, he gets easily bored when he already knew the lesson and tries to do something else. Although it does not happen to all the subjects, according to teachers there are times that he becomes disruptive. Not only that, because he is a fast learner, he easily learns everything from environment including the bad influences. He is only seven years old. This is the formative years where our child needs more of our guidance.

At the big school, my son was overwhelmed by the different culture and behavior of the students. He has a sharp memory to all the things that he experience from the shuttle going to school up to the influences of his classmates and school mates. My son is just a small kid and most of his classmates find him cute. There are times that they would tickle him that makes him laugh at first then makes him cry because he is already hurt.  Being a grade 2 student, I can see a big potential in him on how he progress in academics and his learning patterns is really broad. It is only the behavioral that changed a lot. I admit that my son is fidgety, playful, and sometimes misbehave but this time he becomes aggressive. That sometimes he can hurt somebody. He always have a reason.

At first, I don’t understand why he hurts a fellow child. Until I fully talked to him about the incidents that happened. Surprisingly, I discovered that he experience something bad from the shuttle service and from the school. The disadvantage of being a fast learner on him is that he can quickly adapt the influences around him whether it is good or bad. This is a tough challenge that we are working on.

I’ve been preoccupied to give way for our home improvement. The biggest part of my time was spent for my son. We are trying to figure out what’s wrong. I even talked to several school administrators until I reached the principal who clarifies the concerns with my son’s standing in school.

According to the teachers, my son is a gifted learner. I told them that I can only say that he is a fast learner because we haven’t brought him to the specialist for gifted learners. We wanted to help my son to get rid of the bad behavior that he manifested from the bad experiences. We will be seeking a professional help from Applied Behavior Analyst referred by a fellow mommy blogger – Mommy Levy. I am thankful for having friends willing to share and help like them. I will be updating this soon.

Regarding to the school’s environment, I already extended my concern to the right person. My biggest concern is the usage of the young students who are watching youtube and other videos online. The videos and social media with bad pranks, violent movies, scenes with foul language, and other related things that are not suitable to young learners can affect their way of thinking and behavior. Based on my observation, hearing from my fast learner son, he told me all the stories he heard from his classmates who are watching youtube videos. Some are good but most are disturbing affecting the behavior of the young learners. This is why I suggest them to help educate the parents or guardians of the students on how to limit or apply parental controls in their kids’ gadgets. Although we are strict at home with the use of youtube and access of my son online, it will be fair enough if the parents or guardians are also doing the same parental controls. Let us encourage our young students/ children to just search or use gadgets for educational purposes only. When we do this, I think the topics of these young learners in school when they talk to each other will be a healthy educational topic. I will do my research with parental controls in using iPad and other gadgets.

Next is on how we can determine if a child is a bright learner or a gifted learner. I am doing research to better understand my son who is a fast learner. There is really something different with the way he understand, learns,  and react to certain things. He had a sharp memory. We have a Casio Keyboard at home but we haven’t teach my son yet. One day, husband and I were amazed when he played the piano by just using his instincts with the short composed song of his dad. We have a lot to do this summer vacation. I am not as a  super quick-witted as my son so I need to prepare for the bigger things that may come. All I can do is to be a “Super Mommy” for my children.