zandes, I didn't ever try to keep up with our son, unlike many parents. At 18 months of age, he could identify 30-some states just seeing a black magnet of the shape in any orientation after just playing with this magnetic puzzle for a couple hours (and the rest soon after that) and I could try to learn state shapes for days and still not be able to differentiate Wyoming from Colorado like he could, but I also just wouldn't care to bother. While I never had much desire to learn anything other than what I felt there was a good reason to learn (like I researched homeschooling as I wanted to know which form of education would be best not just for our son, but for our family and others our son would be around, like fellow classmates and teachers), our son seemed born with a desire to learn everything he could, and he learned it rather well just from living. For example, we were having our traditional Halloween donut at a Dunkin' Donuts when our son was 7 and some man sitting at a table near us said to our son, "Are you familiar with the imaginary number i?" and I have no idea why this man would ask anyone such a question, but it peaked our son's interest and he asked people he thought might know, "What are the practical applications of the number i?" and when nobody was giving him an answer, he went and researched it at the library (it was funny as he asked the librarian and that man thought he meant the letter of the alphabet and pointed to the children's section, and which time our son felt this guy didn't even understand that there was an imaginary number i and so went to the online catalog to look up the topic and then checked the math section in the regular part of the library, upon which time he also introduced himself to "e"). He had been given a tour of NIST in MD when he was 10 (set up by someone who knew our son and had given a talk there and suggested to their physics director that they meet out son) and researched NIST online before that tour and learned that there is an atomic clock at the NIST in Colorado and so when we were there on vacation that next summer, our son went there for a tour only to learn they stopped giving them on 9/11. But was he deterred? No, not him (at least not back then; I think he has lost much of his "spunk" in more recent years and hope he some day gets it back). He happened to notice (and memorize) the number of the director of NIST there (it was on some directory that was facing the guard and upside down from our son, but reading upside down was something he was doing at 2) and went to the lobby and called the director and explained that he was a 10-year-old college student from the east coast who had hoped to get a tour of the atomic clock while there and was disappointed to see public tours had ceased and wondered if he could arrange a *private* tour, and sure enough, the director came out to the lobby two minutes later and gave our son and he 12-year-old friend a private tour. He has always been good about learning what he can on his own and seeking those who can teach him when he can't find what he wants to know (or see or experience) without help....well, I take that back as at times, he is resistant to asking for help as he prefers to do things on his own if it's not something set up as a group activity, but at least he has plenty of experience of reaching out to others for help in his youth, as well as being reached to and helping others. If your son has the Internet, he probably doesn't need much else other than maybe lab equipment or others to discuss things with, and we provided the later by allowing him to join things like a book discussion group where all the other members were adults (who appreciated him and invited him to have lunch with him and give presentations, etc.) and the lab equipment he got some exposure to with "Physics is Phun" (a college program for high school students but all the public is welcome) when he was 5 or so and then in a physics lab once he started college. At times, your son might benefit by a "traditional" library. For example, I had a health issue arise last month and our son felt the online information helpful, but went to the MIT library for hard copies of journals and then to the Harvard Medical School Library (which MIT grad students are allowed to use) to look up more in books and journals there.
cela, I can't list exactly which studies I've read over the years as I unfortunately never kept track of the article titles or links online, but here is an article that covers a number of research studies done in this are that can start your quest to learn more on this topic:
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