My Grandson, The Genius (in What I Hope Will Be a Continuing Series)--Part 1

Life has interrupted my computer usage, so I have neglected this blog lately.  Before I return to my digression, let me brag about an amazing event which occurred afer lunch today.

(If you do not know what Grandparents' Day is, you probably just want to skip this entire post.)

Today my grandson's, Omaha's, preschool had lunch for the preschoolers' grandparents in honor of Grandparents' Day.  Luckily, I was free to join my favorite three-year-old-in-2012.  Despite the controversy the next sentence will cause, I must say it.  No one in the world could ask for a better grandchild than Omaha.  (Hopefully one day I will be blessed to meet Omaha's equals.  This is not intended as a hint; I just don't want to hurt the feelings of any future grandchildren IT Prof and I might have if this blog still exists if and when said possible grandchildren exist and can read.)

Omaha dropped what he was doing and ran over to greet me.  Thus, my day was made.  I enjoyed playing with him, eating lunch with him, and then playing with him again.

Omaha did something with a set of ten nesting boxes that I have never seen any other child do (and I had three myself).  While Omaha was nesting the boxes back together from largest to smallest, he would pick out what he considered to be the next size of box.  Then he would match up the side of the smaller box with the side of the larger box as if they were squares and compare (in his head) the difference in sizes.

If Omaha thought he had selected the correct box, he would nest the new box inside the first box; then he repeated the process.  If he thought the difference in sizes was too great, he looked for another box.  He only made a mistake when the proper box was out of his sight.  When he saw the proper box, he self-corrected.

Of course, I was and am very impressed, and I am quite proud that I managed to keep from pointing out to the other grandparents in the room that Omaha was the most brilliant child present.  I asked Omaha whether anyone had ever shown him how to compare the sides of the boxes as he was doing.  He told me that it was his idea. 

Also, it is important to note that the nesting boxes were on shelves in a room Omaha does not usually spend time in.

Omaha has always been precise with objects and likes to line toys (such as train engines) up as perfectly as he can.  It looks as though he has harnessed this ability into mathematical smarts.  It was hard for me not to make a big fuss over my clever grandchild's talent, but I stayed silent in front of Omaha in order to keep him from becoming conceited.

Then Omaha had to return to his classroom for afternoon nap.  And, we had to say good-bye which was not nearly as much fun as saying hello.