mommyrocks,you are lucky to have such an intelligent child!
Accepting each child as they are, trying to figure out their strengths and weaknesses and what makes them tick, and working with them.
Hard work, good work ethic, and strong parental/family support. I am a firm believer of nurture.
D2 recently had a bad set back and thought her future dream was over. I talked her into not giving up and provided necessary support (monetary and emotional). She put in hard work herself. I think she will end up at a better place when it is all over and done.
It was the same with D1 when she was applying to college. She was ready to give up, but I was there with her. She has thanked me many times for being there. Can’t take all the credit because she did the hard work.
I think sometimes it is luck (some people seem to have all of it), but at the end of day, it is hard work. My kids are smart, but probably not naturally smart like some posters’ kids on CC. All of their accomplishments have been through hard work, and me having the resource to help out when needed.
To be in top 5% or 10%, you either have to have good gene or work hard. To be a true genius, like Einstein, both are required.
And Einstein did not talk until he was 3 or 4.
Agree with good genes. And my kids are adopted, so I guess I would throw in a splash of ‘luck’, but that’s more for my wife and me (or is it ‘I’? See how lucky my kids DON’T have my genes!)
To be smart, you have to be born smart. To do something with that intelligence you need the right tools and environment. There is no way to make someone smart if they aren’t born that way.
D1 read at the OCD level. She read upon awakening, in the shower, car, and in bed. I would say about 6-8 hours per week day and 10-12 hours per weekend day of reading. It drove me up the wall but it is paying off. Oh, and if she wasn’t reading, she was doing math puzzles.
Reading was huge in our house. More than that, ours has always been a house where ideas are valued with very little discrimination. An evening’s conversation could easily cover Avril Lavigne, Star Trek, the Norman Conquest, plate tectonics, the Beatles, the Big Bang, brains in vats . . .
The secret is going on internet forums and bragging about your children.
Hip hop dance in the 9th month of pregnancy seemed to do the trick for my oldest. 
Course he also has ADHD…hmm.
I have a wonderful husband who says my kids are all doing well and earned scholarships to school because of ME. He believes that all the time I spent with them especially as babies and small children interacting, talking to them, reading to them, encouraging them to play using their imagination etc. set a good foundation for them for their school years. I love that he thinks that (go ME) although really its because they inherited his smarts. (Although studies do prove that interaction is very important when they are little as those children who are not read or talked to are already behind when they enter preschool.)
Two tall parents tend to produce tall children.
I think that environment plays a whole lot more in it than anything else. I have one child who was born 16 weeks early, didn’t walk or talk until she was almost 18 months old, didn’t read until she was 6. She is now the most average kid in the world except that she has a wicked sense of humor. Grades, average. Athletic ability, average. We have many friends with kids born at the same level. Some excel in one area (academics) but can’t swim or ride a bike. Others are cleaver with puzzles or one area of academics, but can’t carry on a conversation with a peer. We all worked on what was important to us, and I wanted my child to be well rounded. Some took their kids to small motor skills workshops, social group interaction, robotics club, the zoo. We did a little of everything but didn’t specialize in anything. Gymnastics, girl scouts, the library reading club were enough for us. Jack of all trades, master of none.
My other child is adopted, so I can claim nothing but environment for her. Again I wanted her to be well rounded. We actually worked on her sense of humor, because it was non-existent when she arrived. I failed on getting her to like reading, but otherwise academically she’s above average, and quite the worker. She actually does excel at a sport that is against her body type. If she had not been raised in my environment, she would not have any of these interests of strengths, and never would have been introduced to most of them.
@kjcphmom, your husband’s right.
- Reading
- Playing games, puzzles
Mother can take more credit for kids’ “intelligence genes”, so I heard.
For my oldest daughter it was reading, reading, reading. She also was/ is too much of a perfectionist.
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when the kids were young, we would have a quiz before every meal. The kid who got the most correct got fed. The other went to study for the next round
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random acts of scorn and derision
Oh yeah, and every once in awhile mom and I would read a book and not watch TV. We always had age appropriate books around for them as well, and when they read them, we would talk about it.
Aside from great genes:
1- Interacting with the kids, asking questions, and seizing teachable moments. When they were very young it was simply labeling the world around them. As they grew, so did the depth of conversation. The topics would be related to anything: science, math, grammar, philosophy/religion, and so on.
2- An early literacy program. For us it was Hooked on Phonics.
3- A daily Omega-3 supplement and healthy diet that did not restrict fat (but included mostly good fats, hopefully!). All of the reading I have done suggests that the brain continues developing until well into adulthood, and fats are the major building block of brain tissue. I don’t agree that we should switch 2 year olds to skim milk, or restrict fats in the childhood diet, unless there is a truly compelling medical reason.