Just out of curiosity. Are your children as academically-inclined as you are? How do you recommend raising a kid who is bored with school because they find it too easy and slow?
I ask this because my son is showing signs of being way too advanced for his age. He is 11 and for two years now, he has “hidden” in my husband’s study whenever he has time.
My husband and I both work and I only got to know this through my helper. My husband has an applied math PhD from Michigan. The shelves in his study are filled with his old textbooks from school. After I found out that my son was spending an awfully long amount of time in his study, I ask my husband to check him out to see if he was actually learning anything.
Turns out, according to my husband anyway, he already knows enough to ace college-level linear algebra and differential equations. My husband is now getting him started on number theory.
I should’ve been more attentive to the signs because his teachers have always told me that he was disruptive in class and never pays attention. He doesn’t do homework, he doodles on his notes, he cracks jokes etc. But he has been among top 5-10 in his cohort despite not keeping up with his schoolwork. I’m afraid the lack of challenge will cause behavioral problems if this carries on.
Unfortunately neither my husband nor I make a lot of money.
We don’t know many options apart from hoping that he’d be streamed into a more competitive school at 13. My husband, who went to Hwa Chong, said that he’d be bored there too. I’m at my wit’s end.
Here are what netizens think:
- I was bored to tears most of my school life. But seriously, research has shown that boredom is actually good, so I won’t stress out over that. I got scolded by my teachers often for talking in class and distracting my classmates, but it was ok. If your son is truly gifted, then what’s likely more important is to help him grow up socially well-adjusted.
- Sounds like you guys have a young Sheldon. Get a mentor for your son on the topics that interests him. Send him to GEP or discuss with the school to arrange for more advanced instruction. Let him participate in olympiads and/or research projects. Ask him what he truly wants. The last thing we need is to extinguish a promising talent.
- Studies have shown having academically inclined parents does not affect their next generation genetically. In fact it’s the parent habits that they learn from 80% of the time.