I was an opposite. I believed that everything I hear from my parents and which I do not see in my vicinity is fairy tale. Talking animals, red hat girl and wolf, wars, African animals and so on. When I was 5, I was taken to zoo. I was very surprised that elephants really exist.

I do not lie to my children. At every story I explain if it can be true. They hear somewhere else about Santa Claus and I just keep silent about him

thank you for all these links!
I did some free ebook search after them.
Could you please evaluate these links

http://www.scribd.com/doc/30792537/Gifted-and-Talented

http://tknerr.de/ebooksearchr/home?cx=008836104266179945027%3As5ntw3b1uvk&cof=FORID%3A11&q=critical+thinking&sa=Search&siteurl=tknerr.de%2Febooksearchr%2Fhome.html&ref=&ss=4183j1272675j17

I found some recommendations here
 http://main.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_par_2436_think
...

Thinking Skills: 24 to 36 months

In this third year, you will see a big jump in your child’s thinking skills.  ....

Spend lots of time pretending

The ability to pretend marks a big leap in the development of thinking skills. When children pretend, it means that they understand symbols—that a block can become a car, a shoebox can become a home for stuffed animals, and that a word stands for an object or an idea. Understanding symbols is important for the development of skills such as math, logic, writing, and science.

What you can do to build your child’s imagination:

    Make the time for pretend play.  Let your child be the “director.” This helps him develop his own ideas. It also strengthens his thinking skills as he makes logical connections in his stories: The dog has to go back in his house because it’s raining. You can help him develop his ideas by asking questions:  What is the doggy feeling?  What is the doggy trying to do?  Why?  What might happen next?

    Offer lots of props that help him act out the stories he’s creating—hats, dress-up clothing, toy dishes, child-sized brooms, pads of paper, blocks, play food and household objects like big cardboard boxes, blankets, pillows, etc.

Build your child’s logical thinking skills

As children get closer to age 3, they begin to understand how things are logically connected; for example, that you need to eat in order to grow. They use their increasing language skills to ask questions about what they see, hear, and experience in the world. That’s the reason it seems that every other word 2-year-olds speak is “Why?”  The ability to think logically—to put 2 and 2 together—is critical for thinking through problems and being successful in school and life.

What you can do:

    Don’t answer your child’s questions right away. Ask first what he thinks the answer is. This gets his wheels turning.  Listen carefully to his response and acknowledge his ideas.   You can then offer the correct answer.  For example, if he says he thinks it gets dark at night so people can sleep, you might respond: Yes, it is easier to sleep when it’s dark, and then go on to explain as simply as possible about the sun setting and rising each day.

    Ask lots of questions during your everyday play and routines.  As you go through your day together, ask your child “why” questions.  Why do you think the leaves fall from the trees? Why does it snow?  This gets your child’s mind working and also lets him know that you are interested in and value his ideas.

Figure out what objects do and how things go together.

Older toddlers go beyond just exploring objects to using them as tools. For example, they might use a shoe box as a garage for toy cars. They also explore the world in more complex and creative ways. You may see your toddler’s active mind at work as he:

    Digs through the sand to find hidden toys

    Makes play dough creations

    Builds elaborate constructions from blocks

    Acts out stories in his play

    Takes things apart, stacks, and sorts objects

    Inspects the parts of toys that move (wheels/doors of a toy truck)

What you can do:

    Watch your child and see what he is interested in.  Ask questions about what you are seeing and experiencing together:  What do you think we will find when we dig in the sand?  Where do you think the butterfly is flying to?  Wonder about things together:  I wonder how many legs are on that spider?  I wonder how many stairs there are to get up to the front door?  I wonder where the rain goes when it lands on the ground?  By noticing and building on your child’s natural curiosity, you are nurturing her love of learning.

    Offer lots of chances to explore in creative ways. Take nature walks. Play with sand and water. Give your child objects he can take apart and investigate.  By working with familiar (and not-so-familiar) objects, children figure out how things work.  This type of problem-solving is critical for success in school.

Notice patterns and connect ideas.   
Toddlers can use their memories to apply past experiences to the present.  They see a cloudy sky and know that this might mean rain is coming.  This also helps them understand how the world works--the rain comes from the gray clouds.  You see this new ability to detect patterns and connect ideas when your child:

    Laughs at funny things

    Asks grandma for a cookie after mom says no.

    Remembers that Aunt Sheila can’t come to the party because she lives far away

    Tells you it is raining and that he will need an umbrella

What you can do:

    Make connections between past and present.  Make the logical connections in your child’s life clear to her: She has to wear mittens because her hands get cold if she doesn’t.  She needs to bring a towel to the pool so she can dry herself off.

    Use everyday routines to notice patterns.  Using language to explain these patterns helps your child become a logical thinker and increases her vocabulary.  “Do you notice that every time the dog whines he has to go out to do his business?”  “When the buzzer goes off, the clothes are dry.” 

Sort and categorize as you go through your day together.
Older toddlers can sort objects by their characteristics (all the plastic fish in one pile, all the plastic birds in another).  They are also beginning to understand more complex concepts of time, space, size and quantity.  You will see evidence of these new thinking skills when your child:

    Tells you her age

    Organizes objects in a logical way (plate next to cup; car next to dollhouse)

    Asks questions like how many? or when?

    Sorts beads by color or size

    Acts out stories in his play, especially common scenarios he sees at home (like saying good-bye to mommy in the morning)

    Completing 3- or 4-piece puzzles

What you can do:

    Sort and categorize through the day. Do laundry together.  Your child can separate colors from whites and make piles of socks, shirts, and pants.  He can help set the table and organize the forks, plates and spoons.  At clean-up time, have him put the cars on one shelf and books on another.

    Help him grasp a sense of time.  Use an egg timer to help him put together the concept of time with the experience of time (to help him know what 5 or 10 minutes feels like.) This also gives him some sense of control over knowing when a change will happen. (He can look at the egg timer and see the arrow moving closer to the “0” which is when he has to stop playing and get in the car.)

Think and talk about feelings. Two-year-olds are getting better at recognizing their own feelings. Some may even begin to label their own feelings:  I’m mad!  I’m sad. I’m happy.  But they are still learning how to manage them. (Tantrums continue to be very typical at this age.) Two-year-olds also know that other people have their own thoughts and feelings. You see this awareness of themselves and others when your toddler:

    Uses words to describe feelings—“happy” or “sad”

    Recognizes and names feelings in pictures from books (sadness, fear, anger)

    Comforts others when they are upset or hurt

    Recognizes others’ feelings: Mama sad?

    Role-plays caregiving and comforting with dolls or stuffed animals

What you can do:

    Talk about feelings.  Help your child develop a feelings vocabulary. Put words to what you think she might be feeling. You are so mad that we have to leave the park.  You feel sad when Grandma has to leave. This helps your child understand and cope with her feelings.

    Talk about what others might be feeling. That little girl is jumping up and down and smiling.  Do you think she is happy?  When reading books, ask what she thinks the characters might be feeling.  Do you think he’s afraid of the dark?
     

Test out new ideas and concepts to solve problems.
Two-year-olds solve problems by using trial and error.  You may see your older toddler solving problems by:

    Bringing others into her play: “You be the princess”

    Peeling paper off a crayon that is getting dull in order to continue coloring

    Turning puzzle pieces in different directions to complete the puzzle

    Making up words and songs

    Acting out stories, changing the plot to suit her purposes (not always logically)

What you can do:

    Help your child test out different solutions to problems. When she is stuck, suggest other ways to approach the problem.  For example, suggest she try different openings to fit the shapes into. If she needs a wand for pretend play, ask her what household object she might be able to use.

    Make up songs.  Instead of Rain, Rain Go Away, suggest it can be Snow, Snow Go Away, or, Birthday, Birthday Almost Here. Ask your child what else he wants to make the song about.  Change the words to the song to match his ideas.  This helps your child learn to think logically and make connections between ideas.

.....

currently I continue to google-search using keywords "encourage logical thinking toddler". so many interesting articles, I recommend you to search the same

shadahfree,
here is a test if you are highly sensitive http://www.hsperson.com/pages/test.htm

If your child is sensitive, here is a book http://www.scribd.com/doc/60743155/The-Highly-Sensitive-Child 
and its summary http://www.mandalachildrenshouse.com/DYK/Did_You_Know-Highly_Sensitive_Child_1-08.pdf

I do not personally know any IQ 200 child. But I know several enough gifted children. Their parents think that their giftedness is inherited. I think that parents spent a lot more quality time with them than average child has.

All gifted children I know are the first kids in their families. When I see families with two and more children, typically the first child is academically more successful than the second one. It can not be due to genetics but probably because of the possibility to have more quality time with a particular child.

http://taylorfinch.hubpages.com/hub/How-Birth-Order-Affects-Your-Life
... The oldest child tends to have a higher IQ and be more responsible, career-driven and confident.  .... Many Nobel Prize winners, US presidents, astronauts and classical music composers were first-borns and likewise a Time magazine survey revealed that 43% of CEOs interviewed worldwide were an oldest child ....

[queriquita]

In general, I still lack evidence that it is possible to cause a child to be gifted,

Lately I am reading about highly sensitive children (hsc) because my girl is highly sensitive and I am. These children use pause to check before acting. They are more observative. They see and note more than another children. They do not need repetition so they usually are above the average academically.

This is fully inborn trait. Researchers of sensitivity say that brain of sensitive people somehow work in a different way, and something here is more complex (book about hsc is here http://www.scribd.com/doc/60743155/The-Highly-Sensitive-Child).

I did not find much research if it is really true about hsc brains, just some papers like this http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3023077/?tool=pubmed

In article cited by queriquita there are some suspicion that gifted children often are sensitive. "...  when the psychologists actually tested the intelligence of the children, the gifted children appeared not among the plungers but among the sideliners and go-alongers. "

I think, my girl is slightly gifted, similarly as I am. If we have some extra abilities in our brain than we use them  for intense emotions, and little bit for academical issues D) and this is inborn trait. Also the type of sensitivity is inborn - sensitivity to emotions, to sounds, food, harsh textiles.

I believe that the giftedness can be a type of sensitivity what is inborn. We can not get that structure of brain, similarly as we can not get another type of physical body.

Elaine Aron (one of authors of "highly sensitive person" concept) writes: it is undemocratically to say but we are born different.

My aim of early education is to help my kids to open and use their potential. I think we all want the same

A friend of mine is currently living in Germany. She says that every time she travels from Latvia to Germany, she takes some circus games with her. That there are several other games in Germany but not circus. Kids like the animal pictures. and she says that now she knows several kids who were presented as unable to count and calculate, after circus now count and calculate surprisingly well.

I do not know in which countries this game is used. Probably in Eastern Europe. Might be some analog in other countries?

I decided to share my experience on teaching (if it can be called teaching ) math. Here I translated an old entry from my blog.

Circus is a board game where each participant has one figure and all the participants have one dice. how many points you throw up, so steps can go ahead. in many places you have to go up or down. wins the first who goes to finish. kids like this game because adults are not favored because of their wisdom.

it looks like this http://www.freko.lv/trade/product/images/1278/ 

=====

MM and the board game circus

she began to play circus only from 4.5 years. earlier she did not understand how to play.

At the beginning, I had to show with my finger where to stand and where to go. although she can count from 1 year of age, however, she was quite regardless of whether a digit is omitted. with circus, she quickly was motivated to count fast and accurate. soon I no longer had to show where to go.

then somehow we started to play with two or three dice together. MM rolls three dice, counts the points, goes. so she learns addition.

than we started to play with cheating. a small cheating - a goat (top-down stairs) has a holiday. with more cheating - all top-down figures have holidays. recently we cheat pretty boring - we can go wherever we want. for example, MM wants to get a lion (upward stairs). until the lion is 8 points. MM puts three dice so that the sum is 8.

so a long time every evening MM in half an hour dealt with the excitement of mathematics. Interestingly, the circus induced her to the counting. by then she knew how to count with understanding to the 15. After some circus she started to count further and further. she already counted to 49 when  for three weeks we stopped the circus play. and she stopped counting. than we started to play circus again and she quickly counted up to 99. and 140. I did not ask or urge her to count; in circus we count only up to 6, rare up to 12 or 18.

===

Now she is five  (and two weeks). We do not play circus because it is boring. I do not press her to anything concerning math. but it seems that she herself continues to think about math. sometimes at the breakfast time she says something like "if I have 10 sweet sticks and I take 4 away than I have 6 sweet sticks" (in this region we do  not have sweet sticks; we see them only in movies). she can add and subtract up to 15 and  do some multiplying.  she understands written numbers up to 120 (or more; I do not test).

I can not teach her directly. she does not allow it. so I do not teach, I just encourage

here are my fever tips.

======

do not touch temperature if it is below 37.5 (this recommendation comes from pediatrician in our local forum).

If it goes higher: slake child. wet cloth on forehead, legs, hands.

but be aware. if legs and hands are cold than it means that temperature continues to rise. than it is not allowed to slake. give socks and blanket to child because cramps often start because of temperature difference between head and extremities. you can start to lover the temperature if legs are not cold anymore.

much drinks.

call first aid if it goes close to 40.

======

some mothers use 50/50 water and alcohol. I used only water and it was very effective (one degree per hour).

when my son had "three days fever", temperature raised until 39.8. I measured temperature after every half hour (I slept with alarm clock which waked me up every 30 minutes, and slept together with child). our cousin used medicine to lower temperature, at the same virus, and they had fever for 5 or 6 days.

probably you can find your local parenting forum with much experience.  and I agree to every sentence of Mandabplus3 .

my child was very healthy until 2 years when she got 5 bronchitis within one winter (our winters are below 0 degC). While she was sick I "studied" medicine, every new bronchitis was easier and finally I stopped them. next 2 winters were healthy. both my kids have  had some "fast febers". my experience:

- avoid too warm clothing. it is ok to have "cold hands" sometimes. for immunity.

- be suspicious when doctors prescribe antibiotics. usually they are useless in case of common cold which typically is caused by viruses. 

- I allowed temperature until 39.0. after that, I decreased temperature just by sprinkle hands, legs and face with cold water. very effective. if your kid does not have cramps at high temperatures (which is rare), you can do it. with temperature, body is fighting against the viruses. it "burns down" them.

- now I fight cold mainly with inhalations of tea tree oil.

- and I do not trust our pediatrician. you as a parent can observe your child and see what works and what do not work. pediatrician can offer only the "one size fits all" solution, and often it is antibiotics.

google hygiene hypothesis

I started to teach colors to my girl when she was 18 months old; 11 colors including pink and grey. She learned to name all of  them within few weeks.

typically, kids cannot learn colors if they do not understand what is the color. parents show her red ball and green pencil and say "this is red". than, kid cannot understand what is "red" - shape, material etc.

TeachingMyToddlers,

probably it is about this:
http://forum.brillkids.com/general-discussion-b5/how-to-teach-shichida-method/
http://www.shichidaparents.com/rc/downloads/esp-games/shichida-hsp-games.doc

I also tried. Until 4 years, my kid did not understand, what is the guessing. Also later she did not like this game.

Now (after 4.5 years)  we often play games with dice. Sometimes we try to guess which will be the next number. Unsuccessfully (1/6).

well, you should read also this, if you are going to be a parent!
http://www.epjournal.net/wp-content/uploads/ep05102183.pdf

Makes me wonder if LO is going to be a HSC.

You never know. My second child is non-HSC, he is very active, very resistant to pain, insistent, interested in tractors etc.
and I do not understand him. I can not tune with him. he is like alien for me. of course, I try, and it comes better with time. But I am afraid that in the very beginning I was mentally rather far away from him.

you can read a book "the highly sensitive child" here
http://www.scribd.com/doc/60743155/The-Highly-Sensitive-Child

via this http://tknerr.de/ebooksearchr/home.html

And why I have minus 7 karma points

Minus 8. Please do not bury this very useful thread. It is not about the teaching to read and about failures. It is about kids who are already reading and going to the next milestone - sentence reading.