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Over the past week, Chloe has quickly progressed from drawing squiggly lines to drawing people. She drew a portrait of our family. That's dad and mom swimming on top, Chloe on the bottom left, and her cousin Avery on the bottom right. She calls Avery her "sister" but doesn't call her male cousins her brothers. I guess the kid really wants a baby sister! We'll see if we can make that happen for her this year :)

We've been told that Chloe is advanced for her age with her verbal, cognitive and motor skills more that of a 4 year old. I thought her portrait was really interesting and did a bit of googling. I found this post and learned about the Draw A Person test, which is a non-verbal qualitative test to assess a child's intelligence. I've felt that Chloe is smart for a while now (as in, when she's 6 years old she'll be debating me on things and I won't have an intelligent answer on why she can or can't do something). She already takes herself to the bathroom, gets on her stool to use the toilet and washes her hands. She dresses and undresses herself. She makes up songs, complete with lyrics, a melody, and repeating chorus. She has a laser sharp memory, knows her numbers and letters, and can spell and write her name. And she draws pictures like this.

I don't know where this came from (I think daycare should take a lot of the credit) and I'm curious with how to deal with it. How do you create an environment where an imagination can flourish? Are schools like Montessori really a better place to develop these abilities? What toys and books are best to challenge her? Do other parents feel as ill equipped as I do? At the same time, I don't want to push her too much to excel... there's something to be said for being a kid, with the freedom and lack of rules and expectations that entails. There's lots of time to grow up. Just my deep thoughts on a Tuesday morning.