my odd bird

I have an odd bird.  She's 9.  And she's my kid.  This leads to some unfortunate issues.  Like making friends.  Its not that she's unfriendly or mean.  She's too smart for her own good.  We've always exposed her to things not in her age range.  When she was 1-2, we exposed her to the Muppet Show and Doctor Who.  Because of this, she now loves Alice Cooper and will scream "DON'T BLINK" when we drive by statues.

We also exposed her to a lot of animal documentaries and science shows (Yes, Mythbusters was a must for us).  So because of this, the questions she asks on field trips and in the classroom will often catch the adults off guard and make the kids look at her funny.   She loves to go to museums.  She loves hands on experiments.  We took a group of her friends to our Science Museum for the CSI exhibit and it really seemed that E was the only one really into it.  She had to help some of the Older girls.  I was shocked and proud at the same time.

This leads us to why she doesn't get along with kids her own age.  I was the same way.  I hung around with adults more than kids.  She does too.  My friends are a lot of geekiness through and through.  From Teachers, to IT folk to you name it.  But this lends it self to a whole set of issues.  Her friends don't get her. My friends do.  The kids poke fun at her because she likes to talk to the teacher.  E gets super frustrated with her peer group when they just don't see it her way or how they just don't know something so basic to her.  Its no one's fault - the kids just haven't been exposed to the same things she has.  Try explaining that to a 9 year old who was determined to make her school project Catapult shoot marshmallows as far as possible so it went through a redesign phase.

My odd bird was asked yesterday why she was wearing "funny clothes".  She was trying on some Medieval based garb for a fundraiser we are doing this weekend.  Our hobby is medieval living history (the SCA).  She loves it.  So when challenged with this question, she answered the same way I do.  The girls who asked it gave her a funny look.  Then I stepped in and repeated what E said and the girls were understanding.  Coming from an adult, it makes sense.  From a 9 year old.. she's off her rocker??

I know I'm not alone in this.  Some of my close friends who have kids are challenged with the same thing.  Kids too smart for their own good.  So I'll keep re-enforcing that 1) Science and Math are cool 2)Always ask questions 3)explore 4)the friends you have now are not the ones you'll have when you are older and 5) Don't Blink.

learning why a huge marble sphere can spin super fast with water flow at the Botanical Gardens