Every child comes with its own unique characteristics and built-in talent which shows up in various ways and takes a keen eye and patience to identify and nurture the seed into a thriving plant.
We could see the twinkle in Tanmay’s eyes as he marveled at the LED displays in Stockholm public transit showing the station names and various numerical displays. What we were thrilled to learn was that not only he was observing but rapidly learning also.
At the age where children are mastering their motor skills, this is what Tanmay was working on
Reading numbers
Tanmay is naturally curious and always ready to explore, learn and discuss things. He is able to learn
master topics within 1-2 attempts. True to his name (Tanmay) he becomes deeply
involved, both physically & mentally in whatever he does.
At the mere age of 14 months, he was able to recognize and
utter numerals 1-20 just by watching rhymes. Recognizing his curiosity, we
provided him with charts of English alphabets, Hindi varnmala & numbers. In
parallel, he picked up French, Spanish, arabic & tamil alphabets from
relevant rhymes.
He is always eager to explore and expand his knowledge and
understanding of the topics being taught at school with help of books from
school library and other aids out of his interest.
To illustrate an example, we had provided him a World map
puzzle to learn about the 7 continents, but he went beyond just that and ended
up learning and able to recognize countries, their capitals & flags as
well.
Hindi Varnmala read through
Writing his own name with Hindi block letters
Hindi Varnmala
Arabic Alphabets
French Alphabets
Geography sessions
Countries of the world
Countries of Asia
Countries of Europe
US states and capitals
Astronomy
Planets
Dwarf Planets
Mathematics
Addition
Subtraction
Multiplication / Division
Human Body
Longest word in the dictionary
Reciting Maha Mryutinjya Mantra
Hindi Reading
Gayatri Mantra
While there is so much to cherish and feel proud, it also brings in the sense of consideration of how to channelize and continue him on his journey so that he doesn’t lose interest and expands his knowledge and vocabulary without feeling bogged down with the normal routine of school life which obviously he is well in the advanced stages.
What we did not do is to pursue an agenda of active learning but let him pick topics of his choice and aid him learning them.
Montessori schooling system so far has provided him the liberty of choosing his pace and activities to work and also to observe his elder classmates do activities which he is happy to accomplish, which he did after coming to home and working on them.
I often wonder when he lands in the day long school system with the defined set of classes, how his concentration and patience will hold on subjects which he is already aware of and has a tendency to play a teacher’s role by instructing his fellow students which comes very naturally to him.
