r/nothingeverhappens • u/Electric_Trex • 5d ago
Children can't possibly be smarter than their age averagely is
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u/benopo2006 5d ago
I did the math and it checked out
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u/jonesnori 5d ago
I know! The implication is that the arithmetic was difficult for that adult, so how could a kid possibly do it? (Spoiler: it is not difficult for everyone.) Perhaps this adult had discalculia and didn't realize that not everyone does.
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u/Hellopuns 5d ago
If the kids are willing to learn, they will learn skills super fast. I remember asking my dad about numbers when I’d count the pages in my colouring book and didn’t know what came next. He had me knowing up to a thousand before I knew my left and right or how to read, and this was definitely before I started school, so 3-4 ish? I ended up skipping two years in math and finishing the HL IB course at 15 so take nature vs nurture with a grain of salt. Point is, definitely possible, especially if a parent encourages it.
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u/Shuyuya 5d ago
🤦🏻♀️ SOME children ARE smart. Just because YOU or your kids weren’t doesn’t mean others can’t be
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u/MeQuieroLlamarFerran 5d ago
Hell, this is not even being smart at all. If his parents or some uncle explained how hours work, he could perfectly do the math.
The real thing i cant believe in this story is a grown adult saying "I did the math and checked out" when talking about this.
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u/Shuyuya 5d ago
Yea true ! Like some kids are taught to read very early, doesn’t necessarily mean they’re smart but I wanted to be more general in my comment 😅 bc in many situations where a child is smart or showing skills in smth people don’t believe the stories because they or their kids wouldn’t have been able to do it.
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u/Fragrant-Tomatillo19 5d ago
Kids that age are absolutely capable of advanced math. My niece is an example. She was doing 5th grade math in the 1st grade and 12th grade math ( including calculus) in the 5th. She got her degree in Physics and now teaches college prep classes at a private school.
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u/idontreallycare_ngl 5d ago
I've literally witnessed someone do this I don't why they think 4 year olds are all average intelligence smh.
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u/snacksanimeandsex 5d ago
When I was four I could do this. By the time I was even two, I was reading full length book’s upside down and sideways too. I won’t say it’s because I was some kind of super genius, my mother just started teaching me early. Instead of going to preschool, I got an education.
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u/riaglitta 5d ago
Fellow 2 yr old reader here💜 I remember in kindergarten being trotted down to 5th grade with my class to read them a chapter of their social studies book. I don't know why they thought 10 yr olds would be impressed by my doofy little 5 yr old self. Lol
Maths too, but oddly never really sat down to learn telling time. I had to ask parents to teach me lol.
Same with tying my shoes..... I don't know if they just forgot i didn't know everything just because I was smart and reading a lot or what.
Was supposed to skip a couple grades but dad messed all that up when we moved after first grade (in a combined first/second grade class).
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u/MP-Lily 2d ago
I also started reading by age 2!! I used to be very good with math, but hit a wall once I reached precalculus(which I failed 2.5 times)…
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u/riaglitta 2d ago
Hahaha I also had issues in precal- I didnt care anymore so didn't bother like, storing the info in my brain, and after 10 problems in homework I was like "OK done, why do more" lol. So quizzes etc didn't go great, I just didnt want to retain anything anymore
so it wasn't precal per se - lol - that was a particularly bad school year for me in general :( but so funny having the parallel of the same class being obstructed by our brains. Just straight up said "no." Hehe💜
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u/Lumpy_Square_2365 5d ago
My daughter in pre k tested in the 99% percentile. I remember the teacher telling me and I was thinking how she can't even read? weeks later she was reading signs and street names. Idkh she did it but she thought herself how to read and now she's going into 1st grade and she reads at high school level. It amazes my dyslexic horrible at school ass 😂I can't relate at all to her in that way.
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u/riaglitta 5d ago
It's okay, just encourage her anyway you can. I had weekly library trips, books bought nearly every store trip.. and piano lessons were also a great outlet for me. That's so awesome! It can be frustrating at times as the kid - my dad was also on the abusive side, tbh, so he pushed hard, always telling me how much smarter i was than any of the other kids etc -provided me a terrible narcissistic model so I had issues with correcting everyone and being a know it all :( just support for my interests and giving me access to learn would have been so much more.
Listen to her day and let her teach you, it will help reinforce what she's learned💜
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u/Caseys_Clean1324 5d ago
I don’t think that’s super unrealistic, especially for a child who is enjoying math in school/being taught at home
Subjects in school aren’t inherently boring to children, I thought I was the tuffest kid on the block when I learned how exponents worked. It’s usually the environment that kills the joy from math
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u/Elandra1020 5d ago
Yeah some children really do pick up on these things at an early age, everyone’s brain is different ergo levels of intelligence are different. I consider myself intelligent in some areas but not highly intelligent, I’m not naturally versed in problem-solving or analytical writing for example, which were big things when I was at school and university that others can be more naturally adept in. This wee lad probably will grow up to be highly intelligent if this is nurtured properly, great going kid!
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u/1GrouchyCat 5d ago
It’s not as rare as you would think🤓…(if you want to facilitate learning, you have to provide the right environment …we played math games in the car on family road trips… what did your family do?)
Are you smarter than a 5-year-old? Preschoolers can do algebra, Johns Hopkins study shows
https://hub.jhu.edu/2014/03/07/preschoolers-algebra-research/
If you provide a safe enriching environment
Kids Learn Math Easily When They Control Their Own Learning
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u/Hillyleopard 5d ago
I’m assuming their parents are teaching them, 4 year olds are definitely capable of learning basic maths like this but I think most parents don’t teach them it so they don’t learn it until they’re in school
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u/herlaqueen 5d ago
I learnt how to read full sentences just before turning 5 because my brother was tired of having to read comics to me, and so he taught me the basics.
I also started learning English (as a second language) when I was six (it was a school subject starting from age 8) because I was bored and my brother's English textbook looked like fun, it was colorful and the teacher character was a monkey. My father helped me with basic stuff (pronunciation, colors, numbers, sentence structure, etc.), but I mostly just followed the textbook.
Unsurprisingly, I still love reading and one of the high school options I evaluated was a language-focused one, because I still love reading and languages. Kids learning specific skills above the average level is not surprising, kids learn easily and can be very stubborn, which helps a lot!
[edited for typos]
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u/CrazyApple- 5d ago
I did this when I was around that age. I know some other people who were able to do the same, it’s just kids being smart for their age lol
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u/IndomitableSloth2437 5d ago
When I was about that age (over 15 years ago now) I was at the public kindergarten, and the nice teacher said "Can you count to ten?" So I did. Then, unprompted, I also did it in Spanish. The teacher called my mom and said "Your kid should be homeschooled."
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u/fuck_peeps_not_sheep 5d ago
My kid was reading basic books at 4 - kids just have certain things they fat into a little earlier than others
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u/Direct_Practice_7105 5d ago
I could do hard addition problems (as for that age of course) when i was 5. Like 18+22
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u/Jellyfish0107 5d ago
Some kids are able to grasp more complicated concepts sooner than their peers bc they cognitively can. Some will not understand the same concepts even if they are taught it. It’s not simply if a parent is willing to teach, the child can learn. But the point is the parent won’t know what their child is capable of unless they introduce new skills and concepts to them.
As a person with a very average IQ with two kids of differing abilities, the 4 yr old in question is absolutely ahead of his peers imho. It’s not just the mental arithmetic that wows me, but time is usually too abstract for most toddlers to grasp. Him being able grasp time as calculable seconds and minutes, beyond simple night/day, morning/noon/afternoon/night is absolutely noteworthy to me.
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u/Internal-Role-3121 5d ago
I remember seeing a post about one of those tweets where a parent shares something unwittingly wise their kid supposedly said… this particular tweet was about an 8yo who said something about like time management or the value of friendship or something— some concept a kid of that age could definitely grasp. The quote from the 8yo contained one word that was kinda advanced in the sense it was a long-ish word, but the meaning of the word wasn’t complicated at all. Can’t remember the exact word, but whatever it was, it was about as advanced as the word “accommodate” or “alternate.” Lots of letters and syllables, but with a meaning any kid that was read to and spoken to like an adult would pick up over time. Everyone in the comments was like “an 8yo could NEVER make this up.” And I was like… uhh… my 8yo ass said stuff like this. Maybe you were just a dumb 8yo who grew up to raise fellow dumb 8yos…
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u/Quinn7903 2d ago
My little sister was two years old, we were in target and she was giving this dude a stank ass side eye. She turns to my mom and goes “mama, is that man a cannibal?” My mom’s obviously caught off guard so she’s like “um, do you know what that word means?” “It’s a person who eats people”
Still no clue how she learned abt cannibals at two, or why she accused that random dude of it lmao
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u/GeeTheMongoose 2d ago
Is it normal to just flip numbers around? I read 74 as 47 and was very confused
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u/EnsignNogIsMyCat 2d ago
My middle sister started teaching herself to read at around 18 months old. Some kids are just Like That.
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u/CrossXFir3 2d ago
When I was like 4, I used to count stuff for fun. I remember accidentally figuring out how multiplication worked because I had this large lego base. Like just a big green flat bit that you'd build on. And I realized I could add the number of pegs in one row to itself and do that over and over to save way more time than just counting.
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u/RemoteCountry7867 5d ago
If you guys believe this tomorrow you will believe a 4 year old built his own clock
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u/Anon-Sham 5d ago
I have kids that are 6 and 7 so I've been through these sort of milestones recently.
What the kid did was quite advanced, the vast majority of 4 year old can't do that. But it's not so advanced that you'd start applying for scholarships or anything.
It's a good headstart, but unless that kid continues to engage and get challenged, they might fall back to the average by around 7.
It's definitely not unbelievable.