Early Reading= late blooming??

First and foremost: The fundamental task of early childhood isn't learning to read, or to "get ahead" for school, or to impress the neighbors, or to give the folks something to brag about. Encouraging children to surge ahead beyond their real developmental needs leaves them with some really sludgy clean-up to grapple with later on.

- Marsha Lucus, Phd.

This is key. As a child I was intellectually advanced. I got concepts quickly and became bored to tears.

While I can balance a chemical equation or find the area under a curve with ease I am socially inept.

I have no idea how to relate to people most of the time. When in a group, I like watching people interact and often am struck with an, "ah ha!" moment. As in "ah ha! that is how they do it!"

My book smarts are great, but they only get me so far. I would rather have a kid who is empathetic than able to read Dostoyevsky at age 12.

It is easy to get caught up the the mompetition of life. Moms bragging that their kids are in 5 activities and school or has mastered their third language without accent by age 8 is a hard act to follow. Even harder is realizing an internalizing that your child is a person, not a trophy, that he or she has wants and needs that are every bit as important as an adults.

To be sure, I am not saying that kids activities are bad- just that kids should be kids first and foremost.

So my three year old can't read, but if she sees someone hurt, she'll offer a hug or ice- and I think that is a pretty great skill to have.