Judgement Day

Lincoln is a genius. No, really, he is!

Or *is* he?

I observe a lot of intelligence and good behaviour in my classes week to week and I have become to feel proud of their achievements even though I'm not their parent.

I see a lot of achievements on my Twitter feed straight out the mouths of the lovely mummies I follow.

I know, being a teacher, that the first 4 or so years of a child's life is so important in training their brain to "learn effectively" (and giving them as much as possible to absorb with their brains being like sponges and all), and that by knowing this, I have consciously "taught" Lincoln, sometimes without even realising I am "teaching" him, every single waking hour of every day.

Cruel mummy? or Clever mummy? you decide. But his achievements speak for themselves. Or do they?

I realised that actually we are all incredibly proud of our little one's achievements no matter how big or small, but what we don't do is truly know at what exact age/stage they should be doing what we are congratulating them for.

Lincoln is my first child (of hopefully many). So what or who in fact would I have to compare him to?

Google?

Good god, if we believed Google even 80% of the time, we would all be waiting to die slowly in the corner with our Googled illnesses or believe our child to be

a) a genius fit only for Mensa or NASA or something!

or

b) completely under-average, non descript, and should never leave the house with a brain that simple and a brain that, by the way, mummy gave you!

So, I am going to be brave. I have no idea how Lincoln fairs in the "your child is a genius" vs "your child is inevitably going to be a wooden top" judgement system that we all have.

There is no set one.

Please comment and tell me your little one's achievements too. If they achieved what's written below at a younger age than Lincoln then please tell me! I will need to save and prepare to bribe future headteachers and exams officers ;o)

..... well, a Mummy's job doesn't stop at teaching!


Lincoln is 19 months and can......

1. Count to 6 (it took a while for this one)
   
2. Identify and say the following Colours - Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Purple, Pink, Black, White
3. Knows the difference between High/Low, Fast/Slow, In/Out, In front/Behind, Hot/Cold, Hard/Soft, Noisy/Quiet, Wrong/Right (even if he doesn't choose to change or acknowledge he is doing the wrong thing)
   
4. Understands the emotions Happy, Sad, Angry, Tired, Scared, Shy, Jealous, Proud and Brave. (sure there are more but can't think on the spot)
   
5. Sing at pitch. This one I love.
6. Identify Shapes - Circle, Square, Rectangle, Triangle, Star, Oval
7. Name Body Parts - too many to name. All nearly including elbow, hair etc
8. Identify over 50 animals. I'm not that sad (for those of you who think I may have sat there and counted), we have a 50 animals book and he knows them all.
9. His vocabulary is (if I do say so myself) absolutely bloody massive. can not count the amount of words he says. I guess constantly giving things a name or label pays off in the end when it comes to speech development.
10. Can tap in time to music. *ahem* yes, that one is kind of a given due to my subject matter, but still, taught by moi nonetheless, I am extremely proud given his age.
    
11. He knows tooooooo many character's names than is healthy. Rex, Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Bullseye, Lotso, Slinky, Ham, Sully, Boo, Randall, yadda yadda yadda, all those off CBeebies, any Pixar movie and yes, I am in the Bad Mummy's Club for even letting him watch tv! *shock*... in my defense, it isn't every day (grins).

I am sure there are various more I have forgotten about, but when you're faced with filling a blog space, suddenly, all words and letters escape you.

So... Cruel Mummy? Clever Mummy? Obsessive Mummy? All of the above?


You decide...


But be kind! ;o)