BLAST FROM THE PAST
In high school, a few times I babysat a 2 year old (I don't know if he was close to three or what) named Adam who was a genius. He knew the whole alphabet, and his favorite tv show was Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego (remember that?) and he knew all the states. He had placemats with a map of the US and he could name them.
He shocked me the first time I watched him. He turned on his dad's computer, loaded Word, and typed "go" and "stop." Later, I was making him lunch while he watched Carmen Sandiego. He started saying, "California! California!" then added, "Wyoming, Wyoming!" I thought he was excited about the show, but he insisted I come look. He had spelled California and Wyoming on the floor with fridge magnets.
I baby sat the two boys next door regularly, and I had to comfort their mom, who was feeling neglectful that she hadn't even started teaching her 2 year old his letters. I don't think she'd started teaching her 4 year old, either. I told her that I'd never seen a kid like Adam, so don't feel bad.
So this morning, Zach got on Ryan's computer and opened Firefox so he could get online to play "Lightening McQueen." Then I opened Notepad for him, which I have set up to type as large as it can. He immediately typed his name, then a bunch of nonsense, then he typed "why." That's one of his favorite words because of SuperWhy. And last night, he was on my computer and loaded up TuxPaint (it's like regular Paint, but for kids. And it's a free download, so check it out!) all by himself and was playing on it before we noticed.
He may not be quite like that boy I babysat (because he doesn't know his states, Zach does know all the planets), but the past few days have pulled up my memories of that little boy, Adam.
I wonder what happened to him?