Marky

I don't know how much I have written about my friend sweet-stay-at-home-mommy and her family. She has asked me to write a recommendation letter for her son to get into a toutoring program for highly intelligent kids, and so I am going to use my blog as a place to pull out my thoughts before I write it.

I wont write much about SSAHM, our relationship is quite complicated, but I will say briefly that she is an achiever, always got good grades in school in spite of extremely full schedule. Most people wouldn't think "smart" the first time they would see her, because she looks quite a bit like a young Michelle Pfieffer, with long blonde hair down her back, with a little Cameron Diaz mixed in.

Her husband Tom is, well, a rocket scientist. No, seriously. He just got his masters in aerospace engineering and is not far from a PhD.

And then there is little Marcus. Oh Marcus. First off he is a sweetheart, just the most polite little boy you could ever imagine. This has very much to do with his unbelieveably dedicated mother, who protects him fiercely from the world's impoliteness (I don't necessarily agree with how she does it, but I think I should wait to have a kid of my own to protect before I judge) Not only are his manners wonderful, he is the most caring little child ever. One year, I think at 3, he had a jar of pennies he had earned for the times he was good, and when asked what he wanted to do with them he said he wanted to give it to the kids without food. Recently his mom asked what he wanted to spend the money he earned for a little gumball machine business he has, he said he wanted to buy me a car! (I told her I didn't approve, because it was teaching him I should be pitied for not having an unnecessary material item- but still, how sweet!)

So Marcus is cute, sweet and polite, they are a pretty lucky family to have a kid like that, but he is something else too. He's pretty gifted. I first noticed that he was "unique" a few years ago when he drew me a picture. It was a child-like picture of a car with a wheel zooming past it. He drew a picture of a story I had told his mother when he was about 2 years old, of the time my wheel fell off of my car. When I was two I certianly wasn't listening to grown-ups conversations, even when I was 6 they were too boring to listen to, but he had absorbed it.

Something that is very obvious is his brain is incredible mechanically oriented. He LOVES to describe, in detail, the inner workings of Flour Mills, Steam engines, and different types of motors and engines. He is often zipping around the house pretending to be an airplane like any other 5 year old, but while he is doing it he is saying "Oh no! One of my spark plugs isn't firing, so my right engine is failing" as he veers of sideways (in much more precise detail but since MY brain isn't so mechanically oriented I cannot recall it)

I have watched him at the science museum, the demonstraters see him and seem to assume he will be bored with the experiments, but instead he is riveted and asks tons of questions. And he loves, just LOVES the steam engine there. He adjusts the levers (and I am pretty certian he knows what it is he is adjusting) and will literally stay there for an hour, not wanting to leave.

Besides his aptitude, what is remarkable about Marcus is his total enthusiasm about learning. He seems to enjoy it as play, and I think he is in a very special place to feel that way. To keep this wonderful perspective, he will need to be appropriately stimulated, enough so he does not get bored, but not so much that he doesn't have time to master the material he is presented with.

He is a person who could live a very happy life, he has a facilitative mother who wants all the best for him, and is willing to give what it takes for him to have that, he has the aptitude and enthusiasm that he could one day create something innovative, and he has the compassion that he would use this ability to create something to help the world.

I think I will re-write most of this and add at the end PUH-LEEEEEZ let him in! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZE! That should get him.

mood: mildly anxious, not terrible, eating too much