Is your child showing early signs of talent?
February 19, 2009 by Jennifer Walker-Journey
Filed under Parenting
Truman and I had a concert at the house earlier this week. He was beating on the homemade drums and I was belting out a punk rock version of the Alphabet song (think Ramones) on the Tinkertoy microphone. It was awesome. We told Rick all about it when he got home and he gave me that look that I’m sure he gave Santa when he was a kid, “You know, maybe we need to look at getting him a drum set.”
Yeah. Whatever, darling. I mean, I’m all about fostering my son’s talents, but how do I know my son is wired to be the next Peter Criss? (And would I want him to be?) I’m not at all musically inclined. Rick played trombone in high school and now only dreams of playing the banjo and the standup bass. (No kidding.) So, how could my son possibly have a passion for music?
Rick argues that Truman has an obvious interest in drumming. Everyday for the past few weeks he goes into my cabinets and pulls out the pots and pans (not the good ones, mind you) and lays them out on the rug and starts beating the crap out of them. Rick says this is reason enough to consider buying him a junior drum set. “They only cost about $200 or $300.” Uh, what?
The thing is, my son’s obsessions change with the weather. For example, ever since he saw a commercial for that Big City Slider hamburger maker, he’s been wanting one of those, too. He loves to pretend-cook. Who’s to say he’s not the next James Beard nominee?
So, how do you know if your child is showing signs of talent? Do you first have to spend hundreds of dollars on equipment to see if his attention holds?
I Googled around about this very subject – how to identify my child’s talents – and came across this awesome quiz on MontessoriMom.com. It’s a non-scientific survey that gives you a clue what kind of areas your child excels. No freaking surprise here – my son’s talent is ADVENTURE. It says I may be living with the next great athlete! It also says these children are sometimes labeled hyper active when they don’t have outlets for their energy. Good god! This test is genius!
So now…go take the test yourself and let me know if you believe the results.
O.K. I took the quiz for both my kids, and it was surprisingly accurate on my daughter. Her talent was language…she loves to talk and write, and her heroine in her Girl Scout report was J.K. Rowling–the quiz answer actually said she may be the next J.K. For my son, I though it’d say his talent was comedy, but it said logic. It said he was analytical (he loves legos), and he may be the next Einstein (was Einstein a comedian?).
Pretty good test. It says Capra “has exceptional linguistic ability. Your child could be the next president. Also, your child may be the next Dale Carnegie, Dr. Suess, or JK Rowland.”
You know, Rick took the test and came up with “exceptional linguistic ability,” too! I think Rick cheated because Truman’s linguistic ability seems to focus most on potty language these days. “You poopy head!” Lovely…