“I’ve never met another child like him,” is how Birchwood Kindergarten head teacher Purdie Campbell describes 4-year-old Anhad Singh.
Anhad has an undeniably exceptional mind – already able to read and write, he has a fascination with literature and flags.
You can be forgiven for thinking that being able to identify the flags of all 195 countries – and share the capital city of around half of these, could be due to a photographic memory, or looking at the same book repeatedly.
But when shown random images of flags from Google, accompanied by no words, he knows each and every one.
Costa Rica, Pakistan, Nigeria, Russia, Portugal, Italy, Canada and Bangladesh to name a few – then we move on to capital city of China, Australia, England, Egypt, Panama, Bolivia and Brazil - Anhad would clearly make a great quiz night team member.
Purdie says he can also read the names of all the children at kindy, even if they are new – in fact, she says he can read just about any word.
She says they help foster his learning by allowing him space to share his interest and making sure the kindergarten is resourced accordingly.
Anhad is then passed a globe and encourages another check, almost to confirm the information.
“Ask me where,” he encourages. China – easy. Turkey takes a little more time, but he nails it. How about Kazakhstan? He spins the globe carefully reading for the correct letters until he locates it just below Russia.
When asked if he likes to read books, he simply replies – “no, I like to read the dictionary”.
His parents Preet Kour and Kawal Singh say they have never pushed him to learn any of it; they simply follow his lead.
His mother Preet says, before the age of two he could count to 30 - and then began counting backwards.
“He will not do it if you ask him, just when he is in the mood.”
“He just figured out himself, we don’t even know how he did it,” remarks his father Kawal.
Kawal says he took a look at current world records to see what the most flags a young person has been able to recall is. He reckons Anhad would have a shot at taking out a new record.
When asked what Anhad’s favourite flag is, an emphatic “India” escapes with a big grin.
“It’s orange, white and green stripes,” he says.
He has visited the country, the original home to his parent, twice already.
And does he have a goal of how many flags he would like to learn?
“Lots of hundreds.”
This might not be possible being there are only 195 recognised countries – 193 United Nations member states and two non-member observer states of Palestine and Vatican City.
