Mom and dad of 9-year-old high school graduate share their No. 1 parenting rule: ‘You’ve got to develop a different mindset’

Subject

David Balogun; Pennsylvania;

Description

Talking to David Balogun is like talking to, well, a 9-year-old.

Despite the occasional tangent about quantum entanglement, David is a kid at his core. He competes in paper airplane races with his sister, presses cupped hands to his eyes to simulate glasses and gets antsy after sitting still for too long.

“This is the normal 9-year-old part,” his mother, Ronya Balogun, tells CNBC Make It as she refocuses him on the conversation.

David is one of the youngest people in the U.S. to earn a high school diploma. He graduated in late January from Reach Cyber Charter School, a tuition-free online school in his home state of Pennsylvania, and is currently enrolled in online classes at Bucks County Community College — where he says he completes a week’s worth of homework in a single day.

“If I don’t learn, then I probably will stay up until 4 [a.m.] and wake up at 5 [a.m.],” David says.

His parents are Ronya and Henry Balogun, who also have a younger daughter, Eliana. They first tested David’s intellect when he was 6 years old, and have since scrapped many of their more conventional parenting techniques for him.

“You’ve got to develop a different mindset as a parent,” Henry says. “It’s not always easy when your son is asking you questions constantly. You have to keep answering the questions, because you don’t want to say, ‘Just leave me alone.’”

Creator

Rebecca Picciotto

Source

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/14/parenting-nine-year-old-high-school-graduate-david-balogun.html#:~:text=Raising%20Successful%20Kids-,Mom%20and%20dad%20of%209%2Dyear%2Dold%20high%20school%20graduate,to%20develop%20a%20different%20mindset’&text=From%20right%2C%20David%20Balogun%2C%20with,%2C%20and%20his%20sister%2C%20Eliana.&text=Talking%20to%20David%20Balogun%20is,a%209%2Dyear%2Dold.

Publisher

cnbc.com

File