Childhood Interests Ages 0-10

[vesstheastralsilky]

I forgot to mention something.

I created and wrote my first computer programs at ten in BASIC. One was a multiple choice "How Weird Are You?" quiz and the other was a color-number selector program with over 100 named values. That was in 1984.

I rarely played outside due to the discomfort of worst possible seasonal allergies.

I secretly used to privately morph my favorite blanket into characters and play out imagine different racy scenes among lovers.

My ethics were naturally fine enough but I wasn't exposed to religious doctrines that strongly influenced me until middle school. I was atheistic at times and formed my own theory at age 7 that many civilizations invented the concept of God over fear for lack of control over things like natural forces.

I started reading about new age things and the occult occasionally at 10. My Mom used to get a monthly new age paper for inspiration. I started my rock collection with hematite embedded with 2 garnets (like eyes) from Alaska and a Green Aventurine my Grandma gave me that her Priest had given to her.

I preferred school to summers but was usually frustrated with how much education was review we already learned. I hated homework - the drudgery of it. I liked the libraries school and public. I was mostly interested in astronomy books at the public one.

There are a few other things but I won't divulge them here.

[Chae]

- making Barbie and Ken fool around until my cousin ripped Ken's head off. From then on, Franken-Ken (FranKen if you will) wore a scarf and was living his best zombie life. Forced by unfortunate circumstances, both him and Barbie became gay.

- annoyed my parents by singing, dancing & listening to the same cassette 10 times in a row. I think that had lasting damage for everyone. It was mostly Ernie and Bert, everyone's favorite gays (in case you missed it: that was recently revealed by their creator, I'm still happy)

- I wrapped myself into my favorite green blanket and ran through the house like the spooky little Chaeghost I was.

- my grandma had to buy piles of aluminum foil because I liked building stuff from it. Years later I think that also had lasting damage. Aluminum foil is a lowkey biohazard. Just hoping Germany had good regulations back them. #fear

- somehow I could preoccupy myself for hours digging in the sand preaching to everyone around me at kindergarten: "water! we'll find water!". We did find water.

- being a daring motherfucker since birth, I — far away from 5'9 as I am now — once tugged at the fluffy tail of our town's festival rabbit mascot because I was intrigued and confused. I still feel a bit of guilt. Maybe it was just a pet play kink in the making and I never noticed. I am deeply sorry, Mister Bunny. That was inappropriate. My parents still giggle about the story because they thought it was adorable.

- since trick-or-treaters had vandalized our garden and our entire familiy has a grudge since then, I dressed up as a scary pumpkin to trick or treat visitors back but it didn't work, it wasn't scary enough. I'm a soft pumpkin queen I'm afraid.

- with my best friend I spent ages revamping and decorating an old caravan that was in her garden. Until a plague of ladybirds broke out and we had to escape. Our next place to decorate was her attic, then, but there, a giant hornet nest was located. This time we fought back with whatever toxic spray (more permanent damage) until the nest was pretty much done for. But then, the attic became too hot in summer so we begrudginly relocated to the caravan. I know, what a mess.

- being the vegan witch I am, I was always found surrounded by animal plushies in a circle. My parents say that even as a toddler I would rearrange them around me, even during sleep.

- I taught myself the alphabet by writing on a paper what was written on a soda bottle. Lord knows how. My parents think I'm some linguistic genius, I say um I was just too bored and wanted to read books on my own, simple logic. Gotta forgive them, I was the one terrorizing the house with my Ernie and Bert music extracting everyone's brain cells.

- I pretended to be Supergrover saving the world, but failed. Yeah, whatever floats my boat.

- in typical Germanic fashion, I enjoyed eating pretzels.

- okay I'm running out of wild shit to make you laugh.



Anyways here is my favorite Ernie and Bert tune. It starts when Bert feels grumpy and Ernie cheers him up with a song. That makes Ernie grumpy so Bert does the same. At the end, they cheer up the audience and everyone's happy (yay ethics win!).

[para]

@Troll Nr 007
Interesting. I had the opposite reaction towards me. I was not very keen on 'involving' others in my mental activities, so i was mostly seen as completely torn off from the rest of the world.

I think certain people have a sense of 'giftedness' or something that makes them relate to the standardized problems in a certain off-kilter way that makes them still come out on top grade-wise but also radiate that weirdness that you talk about. Something more common in Ne ego perhaps?

I really relate to the weirdness aspect, but i was more inwardly weird so to speak, i retracted from the outside world and was sustained by very intense fantastical playing. It was very hard to talk to me unless you hit a point of interest, where i would sort of ''spill out''...

[squark]

Gifted classes are a joke. Or at least all the ones I was in were. They what, take you and a few other kids out of class for 20 minutes for "enrichment activities" which I mean, could be fun, we learned how to write calligraphy in one class, but those 20 minutes are supposed to make up for the fact that they actually don't give a shit that you're not learning anything new, and you're punished for being ahead of the rest of the class the rest of the time. My kindergarten teacher when she found out I could already read fluently and do all the math wanted me to skip a grade or two, and my parents wanted me to skip too, but the school had a policy of no skipping grades, so I was stuck.

It's actually kind of funny some of the things that happened. They gave us some test in class once, in first grade, a nationwide test that was basically an IQ test of sorts, and they had shape rotation questions, so I asked the teacher, whether they just wanted us to turn the shapes in place, or if we could flip them the other direction too. (In other words 2D or 3D rotation) and there was this cluster of teachers gathered around my desk trying to figure out the answer to that question, and they called the principal in too and all conferred, looking at the test and discussing it before they came to a conclusion to answer my question and tell me to only rotate in 2D. Which disappointed me, because 3D would have been slightly more interesting due to more challenge. I desperately wanted challenges, but didn't get any from school and had to create my own.

rant:

Frankly, I think the whole school system sucks. And age divisions are retarded. I think that kids should be placed in classes according to their abilities, and be able to learn at the rate they want to learn at. I think in this that even one-room schoolhouses of the past were an advantage where the kids completed lessons and moved on, not by age but by their ability to complete the lessons. When you get to college, if you pass a class you can move on to the next one, you can test out of classes if you know the material, and if you don't pass a class you repeat that class, not an entire set of classes. Why can't elementary be run the same way? I knew some kids who were excellent in English, but struggled with math or the other way around, and why couldn't they be in an advanced English class, but a more rudimentary math class? I guess, in some of the schools I went to they did separate the classes that way a bit, but they should have started earlier imo, and not separated by age at all. It's a huge disservice to kids imo, especially because you're training them their whole lives NOT to work, NOT to put effort in, NOT to care, and then what happens when they are suddenly faced with something that actually is a challenge? A lot of gifted kids crumble in the face of small challenges because they've never had to face any before, and it's so dumb because it doesn't have to be like that. You either create your own challenges on your own, or you put in the absolute minimum effort and still outpace everyone else. And the attitude you know, oh these kids are smart, they can handle it, and they can help the other kids in the class rise to a new level. But really, it's just neglect.

[golden]

?!?!

Probably assumed they would be disengaged or bored because they’d already learned what was being taught.

[sbbds]

@squark Thank you for your post. I had a similar experience in school as well. Now starting teaching part-time at a specialized school I’m thinking about how to create the best experience for the kids there. This offers food for thought on that and also new perspective on my own life and the struggles I faced.

[sbbds]

Probably assumed they would be disengaged or bored because they’d already learned what was being taught.

Yes, I know lol I was just expressing wtfness at it.

[moloko]

I lovvvved socializing as a kid. Other kids, teens, adults-- it didn't matter who I was talking to, I was a bit of a chatterbox and loved asking questions and telling farfetched stories. I could've probably easily got kidnapped if I didn't have anyone watching me lol (I trusted others too easily and wasn't shy on expressing myself).

I loved reading books whether it was fiction or not-- I often looked through my mum's medical books because the illustrations were kind of out of this world to me. I had a collection of bird books at one point because I thought they were beautiful and had wanted to be an ornithologist one day.

I enjoyed drawing and crafts and often made handmade gifts to friends in self-made envelopes. I used to also like drawing out my daydreams in a sort of haphazardly formatted comic form but was too shy to show them to anyone so I'd hide the papers or throw them away. Despite also being really good at drawing realism, I was more interested in drawing cartoon characters and dragons. Playing pretend with dolls and different shaped cosmetic bottles was also a favorite past time :,P

Most of my childhood was pretty much spent romping and rolling around outside despite having a weak constitution-- it's all I ever wanted to do everyday and I had to often be forced to sit down to eat cuz food was never really on my mind lol

I was a pretty friendly kid, I had both my shy and loud moments. Was never really interested in sports, but enjoyed going on solitary bike rides. I'd often get in trouble for exploring places I shouldn't Having an over protective mum only spurred me to be even more rebellious and there was also even a couple of times where I tried running away from home. I was a shite kid tbh... but thank god I was cute at least

[chriscorey]

I liked reading, drawing, tree climbing, singing, acting, and catching alligator lizards. A regular tomboy, but I also always liked speech and debate. I was annoying to my friends that way.

Attachment 141365 In Texas when I had a southern accent. Kick-ass purple unicorn shirt.

[Rebelondeck]

I don't remember anything before age 5 but from then onward, I was given huge amounts of freedom in a small town surrounded by a 100kms of wilderness and with no TV. Needless to say, there wasn't much going on so I spent my time climbing the cliffs, exploring the forest and out on the harbour. I was totally unsupervised while most of my friends had little freedom so I spent a lot of time on my own and in my own head. I did prefer communicating with adults more than children of my own age.

a.k.a. I/O

[Desert Financial]

My mother thought that kids become disruptive at school if they learn to read before school.

My mother took the opposite approach. Being a teacher, she taught me how to read and write before other kids my age knew how.

She also put me in special tutoring programs, where my math skills outpaced those of my cohort by at least a couple grades.

Afterward, I made the mistake of becoming egotistical, rubbing teachers and other students the wrong way. I was pretty bored, too. Spent a lot of time goofing around while other students were working.

Fast-forward a coupled decades and I got my ego shattered by people who had brilliance that I certainly lacked.

[The Reality Denialist]

My mother took the opposite approach. Being a teacher, she taught me how to read and write before other kids my age knew how.

She also put me in special tutoring programs, where my math skills outpaced those of my cohort by at least a couple grades.

Afterward, I made the mistake of becoming egotistical, rubbing teachers and other students the wrong way. I was pretty bored, too. Spent a lot of time goofing around while other students were working.

Fast-forward a coupled decades and I got my ego shattered by people who had brilliance that I certainly lacked.

I kind of got bored at math during first grades. I was the last one to finish those exercises . When it became bit more challenging – not filling in numbers any longer – I became bit disruptive.

For example:
Me: "Oh god, please! This is just obvious!"
Teacher: "Fine, tell us how."
Me: "Ok, ...."
Teacher: "Yes!" and kind of shakes her head... again...

Anyways, fast forward to university. Lots of details and they wanted model solutions – GAAH! It was not any longer as much exploratory stuff as it was back in the school.

[Metamorph]

I don't think what you do as a child tends to say much since children are doing lots of different things. The only things that really seem to matter are if your parents or other relatives were any good, if you still have any friends from then, and if you managed to survive not getting diagnosed with AD(H)D, Asperger's/autism, child bipolar, child schizophrenia, auditory processing disorder, food allergies, glasses, special needs, mental retardation, "gifted," having to skip a grade, having to be held back a grade, getting suspended, or getting expelled. All of those are just people fixing their dislike of you to a law of Nature like Hercules pinning the constellations in the firmament.

[The Reality Denialist]

No Child Left Undiagnosed
ADHD Is Now Widely Overdiagnosed and for Multiple Reasons
Asperger’s, Overdiagnosed, Ill Defined, May Not Be a Syndrome Much Longer



Anyways, I argue that mental health sector diagnosis might not reveal actual problems. It can be as simple as eye sight – not refraction issue necessarily.

[chriscorey]

I forgot to add that as a child I was the one to stand up to bullies for people. I would not let that slide...Not EVER. I was small, but scrappy. I recall these two very popular Nicholes in third grade trying to get me to ditch my little redheaded friend. I said no way, that's mean, and then I hung out with her instead.

[bgbg]

Gifted classes are a joke. Or at least all the ones I was in were. They what, take you and a few other kids out of class for 20 minutes for "enrichment activities" which I mean, could be fun, we learned how to write calligraphy in one class, but those 20 minutes are supposed to make up for the fact that they actually don't give a shit that you're not learning anything new, and you're punished for being ahead of the rest of the class the rest of the time. My kindergarten teacher when she found out I could already read fluently and do all the math wanted me to skip a grade or two, and my parents wanted me to skip too, but the school had a policy of no skipping grades, so I was stuck.

It's actually kind of funny some of the things that happened. They gave us some test in class once, in first grade, a nationwide test that was basically an IQ test of sorts, and they had shape rotation questions, so I asked the teacher, whether they just wanted us to turn the shapes in place, or if we could flip them the other direction too. (In other words 2D or 3D rotation) and there was this cluster of teachers gathered around my desk trying to figure out the answer to that question, and they called the principal in too and all conferred, looking at the test and discussing it before they came to a conclusion to answer my question and tell me to only rotate in 2D. Which disappointed me, because 3D would have been slightly more interesting due to more challenge. I desperately wanted challenges, but didn't get any from school and had to create my own.

rant:

Frankly, I think the whole school system sucks. And age divisions are retarded. I think that kids should be placed in classes according to their abilities, and be able to learn at the rate they want to learn at. I think in this that even one-room schoolhouses of the past were an advantage where the kids completed lessons and moved on, not by age but by their ability to complete the lessons. When you get to college, if you pass a class you can move on to the next one, you can test out of classes if you know the material, and if you don't pass a class you repeat that class, not an entire set of classes. Why can't elementary be run the same way? I knew some kids who were excellent in English, but struggled with math or the other way around, and why couldn't they be in an advanced English class, but a more rudimentary math class? I guess, in some of the schools I went to they did separate the classes that way a bit, but they should have started earlier imo, and not separated by age at all. It's a huge disservice to kids imo, especially because you're training them their whole lives NOT to work, NOT to put effort in, NOT to care, and then what happens when they are suddenly faced with something that actually is a challenge? A lot of gifted kids crumble in the face of small challenges because they've never had to face any before, and it's so dumb because it doesn't have to be like that. You either create your own challenges on your own, or you put in the absolute minimum effort and still outpace everyone else. And the attitude you know, oh these kids are smart, they can handle it, and they can help the other kids in the class rise to a new level. But really, it's just neglect.

ours was very different. we spent 3/4 of a day a week in the gifted room, where we basically had self directed learning. we would choose topics of interest to give a presentation to the rest of the gifted class on and were allowed as long as we felt we needed to research that topic to prepare (weeks, months, etc...). each day started with creating our own personal schedules for the day where we could set time for games, research, computer time (this was the early-mid-80s and the gifted room was the only class with their own dedicated computers for the kids to use) which would be approved by the gifted teacher. the gifted kids had access to all the resources that the teachers had, such as the district library of films etc... which we could order to watch (either by interest or to research our topics for presentation). the gifted teacher acted more as a facilitator than a teacher giving us "work" or "topics", by helping/teaching us how to arrange interviews outside of school for our research, getting equipment for us such as microscopes, projectors, books the school library didn't have, and whatever else interested us from the district, and things like that.

middle school was similiar (it was the same school and the middle school gifted class shared a portable "classroom" with the elementary kids, but had their own "teacher"). the big difference with middle school gifted class was that the topics were a bit more defined for the entire class (such as disasters or media, still though this overall topic was selected by the kids of that class) and we would choose groups to research more refined areas of interest within that umbrella. twice a year the middle school side of the gifted room was sectioned off to give each group their own "room" that they would set up as a walk in display for the other kids and parents to tour through like a museum. (for instance, one project we did our group chose cults for our specific research and set up our section with a copy of the helter skelter door and stuff about the manson family, and the other half of our section about the peoples temple where we had pictures w/ facts about what happened along with a punch bowl of flavorade on a table in the middle of the "room" surrounded by suspicious powder as refreshments for the people viewing our display .

gifted kids also had access to the gifted rooms and library for recess and lunch which was cool as many of us weren't into sports and throughout the day "normal" class frequenty erupted in chaos/near riots/revolts in my grade all through grade and middle school years, and this gave us a quiet zone with interesting things to do.

[ashlesha]

All I remember from gifted class:

1. Puzzles like this, which were my favorite, I loved them so much, I think they were my favorite thing from school period

2. Playing around with a rorscharch test and feeling inadequate because everybody else had more creative answers and I figured they were reaching instead of just saying what they actually immediately saw (which would be the more "obvious" things I saw) which I thought was like cheating

3. When we went around the room saying how we were doing and i just said "fine" and the teacher was like "you can be honest here" and I starting crying and talking about my mom being an alcoholic and then the boy in the class who had a crush on me stopped liking me and I had to start seeing a counselor lol

[ashlesha]

@bionicgoat that sounds really comprehensive, I only went in elementary but it was just hanging out in a conference room for like an hour a day doing random shit. And I have no idea how it was supposed to be catered to "gifted" students

[ouronis]

I always had a drawing pad with me and read atlases and encyclopedias for fun. I would also wheel, deal, and steal Pokemon cards. I played a lot of videogames and went outside a lot.

[golden]

My mother refused to send me to the school with the gifted program because she would have had to drive me there or put me on a bus. As a result of her saying no, I ended up shut out of all GT programs for the remainder of school somehow.

[Adam Strange]

^Tracking.

Where you enter the system often determines where you end up.

[Number 9 large]

I forgot to add that as a child I was the one to stand up to bullies for people. I would not let that slide...Not EVER. I was small, but scrappy. I recall these two very popular Nicholes in third grade trying to get me to ditch my little redheaded friend. I said no way, that's mean, and then I hung out with her instead.

Conclusion: fat ppl are evil

[chriscorey]

Conclusion: fat ppl are evil

I've seen evil people of all different shapes and sizes. Are you going to murder me with logical fallacies? Now I have to stick up for the people who are overweight.. Damnet.

[1981slater]

ILE here

Reading
Construction toys, such as Lego
Action figures

...
Chess
Monopoly
Risk

...

Videogames

[vesstheastralsilky]

All of those are just people fixing their dislike of you to a law of Nature like Hercules pinning the constellations in the firmament.

So true. This bs in USA society being accepted as 'normal' and 'professional' forms of hate must end. I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees this reality of these emperors clothes.

[Tonatiuh]

Lego, dinosaurs / animals, mythology, reading, running around in the forest and building stuff. That pretty much sums it up.

[Desert Financial]

My mother refused to send me to the school with the gifted program because she would have had to drive me there or put me on a bus. As a result of her saying no, I ended up shut out of all GT programs for the remainder of school somehow.

Thanks for the perspective.

Chess
Monopoly

+1

[Aramas]

Living. My childhood years 0-8 were consumed by a huge battle between my parents to decide which one would keep me. Didn't end until my mother died. So, father won by default. I didn't discover books until age 12. I had a computer starting at age 8. But I really just played games on it and started enjoying the internet at age 10. Used the internet mostly for reading but also playing really old text games called MUDs. My default interest has pretty much always been reading, and that determined what my major in college would be many years later. I discovered at college the fact that just because the kids are in college doesn't mean they are interested in learning stuff. And even the professors often seemed kind of average. There were only a couple I actually liked.

[Aramas]

All I remember from gifted class:

1. Puzzles like this, which were my favorite, I loved them so much, I think they were my favorite thing from school period

2. Playing around with a rorscharch test and feeling inadequate because everybody else had more creative answers and I figured they were reaching instead of just saying what they actually immediately saw (which would be the more "obvious" things I saw) which I thought was like cheating

3. When we went around the room saying how we were doing and i just said "fine" and the teacher was like "you can be honest here" and I starting crying and talking about my mom being an alcoholic and then the boy in the class who had a crush on me stopped liking me and I had to start seeing a counselor lol

#3 sounds really painful. I've had a situation like that before. You think that because they tell you that you can be honest that you should be. But that's not the case lol. But maybe if he stopped liking you, he didn't deserve you anyway. I wrote a story once that got me sent to the counselor. She didn't even know what some of the words were.

[ashlesha]

#3 sounds really painful. I've had a situation like that before. You think that because they tell you that you can be honest that you should be. But that's not the case lol. But maybe if he stopped liking you, he didn't deserve you anyway. I wrote a story once that got me sent to the counselor. She didn't even know what some of the words were.

A lot of painful stuff from childhood is absurdly funny to me now, thank god for time.

[Aramas]

A lot of painful stuff from childhood is absurdly funny to me now, thank god for time.

I wish I could say the same except for the theistic part. It's easier, I think, when you have a different context you're in that's more positive. That often happens when people become adults and begin living on their own. Me, on the other hand, the black hole still has me in its grip. I escaped for a little while, but ended up right back in hell.

[schwiftyrickty]

Cool thread.

Interested in systematizing. I would make toy dinosaur battle formations, giving ranks to the specific dinosaurs. I loved making lists of things (from best to worst) by ranking subjective qualities of things. I was interested in how things were interconnected, i liked Pokémon especially because of the way different types and moves interacted, and how there were a multitude of creatures inhabiting a parallel world. I also really enjoyed graphs, climate and planetary ones especially. I think it was the comparative method which graphs were introduced with side by side that caught my interest. I was almost always imagining things, which had an effect on both my performance in school and practical things (had trouble with hands-on things, like putting on clothes right, writing etc., was hard to reach, hard to get to do things because i was very busy internally and not responsive to the external world)

I was also a bit of a rebel, i would defy ''authorities'' simply because i hated being told what to do, and i walked around in pink for a while, which was, to many an elementary teacher, a sign of disrespect for established conduct.

I'm considering ILE, LII, ILI and SLI currently.

I relate almost 100% to this whole post. I still do/enjoy most of these things. Makes me wonder since I've always assumed I'm ethical.

[squark]

wow @bionicgoat - that is definitely different from my experience.

[The Reality Denialist]

LOL @BFGDoomer sounds like pathological LII.

Dinosaurs? What specifics makes them so interesting?

I have always been interested in knowing things in context of "what, why and how".
I think sometimes my thinking lacks concreteness to a pathological degree. I have always been like this even as a child. I have discussed about this with a psychologist who had hard time to grasp my development because children are supposed to take world in concrete sense at the beginning. I still interpret concrete words as metaphors occasionally.

[idontgiveaf]

I cannot even remember that. I like art and i like to read and play outside

[para]

LOL @BFGDoomer sounds like pathological LII.

Dinosaurs? What specifics makes them so interesting?

I have always been interested in knowing things in context of "what, why and how".
I think sometimes my thinking lacks concreteness to a pathological degree. I have always been like this even as a child. I have discussed about this with a psychologist who had hard time to grasp my development because children are supposed to take world in concrete sense at the beginning. I still interpret concrete words as metaphors occasionally.

I think it's the ancient, inaccessability of it. The further away in time something is, the more interesting it is to me. The 'alien' aspect of it was my connection. I have a bit of the same attribute as you, if i understand it correctly. You say metaphors, i think i tend to reduce something to the most general it could be. I have always worked with 'ground principles' in the way i interpreted the world. I am interested in subjects like metaphysics for the same reason.

Pathological how? As in, excessive, stereotypical? I am not very balanced in my qualities, as my post shines light upon.

[The Reality Denialist]

Just a joke that pathology: Wanting to put things in systematic order.

[para]

Just a joke that pathology: Wanting to put things in systematic order.

1D Fe

[WinnieW]

Dinosaurs? What specifics makes them so interesting?

I love a spectific type of Dinosaur and the portrait of the extiction.


Sorry, no translation in English language available right now. It's a french-german production. For all the -lovers out there.

[Guillaine]

ONe thing I have noticed about my son and I remember myself doing is kind of destroying or treating toys very badly which I think might be related to being C. If I got given a toy I wanted to cut the hair and change the clothes immediately etc so that pretty soon they were ruined. My son is the same but being a sensor more interested in toys than myself. I am terrible at buying children's toys as presents as I have very little interest in them at all, so I end up buying books becasue I trust my taste. As a child I liked climbing trees the best, climbing anything actually and running, handball, writing stories and reading, movies, putting on "shows" either as the performer or organising an event with my cousins, fashion shows, imaginary play, dressing up, I loved dressing up in my mum's clothes or anyones, doing my hair or other people's hair and makeup, music.

I remember I wrote a story at that age called The Runaway Chocolate and the teacher read it out to the class and everyone liked it I guess because they started to write stories like the runaway this or that... but I remember feeling a sense of shame about it because I knew deep down it was just a spin off of The Gingerbread Man and not such an original idea.