Ever Hope for a "Normal" Child?

This may only make sense to those parents of gifted children, but do you ever wish you had a "normal child"?  

Our three older children all began reading very young and all three of them have ended up skipping a grade in school, but it has been a crazy road.  Trying to figure out what to do or not do when you know it's going to affect your child's future is not an easy thing.

While we are very proud of our gifted children, sometimes we wonder what it would be like if they were just "normal" or if they even struggled in school.  We've always been so focused on trying to figure out what we should do for our kids in school to better challenge them or help them not be bored or let them learn on their level that it gets tiring sometimes.  Is it really that important?  I mean, maybe we should have just let things be and left them alone to go through school with no changes.  They could have gone to Kindergarten, or my son could have gone to 5th grade.  They could all be in the same grade as kids their own age.  How would that be?  Would they really have been bored forever?  Would they have started to hate school?  Who knows.  

We look at our youngest daughter now and it's funny how we smile and are excited by maybe finally having a "normal" child academically.  That's silly to say, but it's true.  While each of our kids have surprised us, and we love them all, it seems like life might be easier if they could just go to school and be normal.  

   Our youngest daughter is only 3 and we figure she is just right on track for her age.  Well, actually for a short while we worried that she was a little behind in her learning, but I think it was just too hard to tell when all we've had to compare her with is her older siblings who have all been early learners.  Anyway, she is slowly learning her ABC's and she can write her name, and that is great.  While her brothers and sister were a bit more advanced at this same age, that was "not normal" for a regular 3 year old.  She surprised us the other day though.

It was quiet in her room and I walked in to see her working on this 50 piece puzzle at her desk.  I went over to see it almost completely done and I was confused.  It was like I was thinking, "Who else is home to have put this puzzle together?"  But there wasn't anyone else home.  She was in there all by herself, and not for very long, and she had figured out this whole puzzle herself?  How did she do that?  

OK, maybe it's just because I'm not a puzzle person, but I can't even get those little 25 large pieced puzzles together without getting frustrated!  Hence to say we were very impressed and surprised that she could do this 50 piece puzzle with small pieces on her own.  

Who is to say if she will be gifted like her siblings, and it doesn't really matter in the long run.  Maybe we'll finally get a "normal" child, and we'll be just fine with that.  No more teachers asking us to skip our kids grades or telling us they are "wasting our kids' time".  Normal could be good.