People always told me my son was smart, but I could never have dreamed what he would go on to achieve. My son Elliott Tanner has just turned 18, an age where most boys are graduating high school and going off to college. Elliott, though, went through that almost 10 years ago.
When he was 8 years old, Elliott had completed all the high school graduation class requirements and needed something more. He can’t just stop school at 8—so we approached the local community college. We met with the head of the math department and the dean of the STEM department, and they truly understood Elliott and welcomed him with open arms.
Elliott started full-time, on campus, just three weeks after his ninth birthday. As his parents, my husband, Patrik, and I have always been proud of our son, but we didn't realize at first just how advanced he was. We would share pictures and tidbits on Facebook, and people would chime in amazed at how smart he was.
Elliott taught himself to read at 18 months old. He learned how to add and subtract aged 3, and was reading the Harry Potter series by 5 years old. All the little things added up.
He was physically advanced, too—and while the jury is out as to whether physical milestones predict giftedness, he held his head up at birth, learned to roll over at 4 weeks old, and was sitting up unassisted at 4 months old. By 3, his favorite thing was to go to Target for workbooks, and he was doing work at a fourth-grade level. When we realized he was gifted, we struggled to know what to do about school, what the right thing for him would be.
At first, we enrolled Elliott in a Spanish immersion school, to give him access to a third language, as we speak Swedish at home, as well as social and emotional learning opportunities by mixing with other children his age. But he was already at a fifth-grade level across the board in the curriculum, and it wasn't the right environment for him. We ended up pulling him out to homeschool him.
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