In most ways, Quakertown Elementary School student Kipton Hardcastle is just like any other 5-year-old.
He loves flying his toy airplanes, has a keen curiosity about the world around him and is a big ball of energy.
“He's always on the go, always,” said his mother, Dana Hardcastle. "I think that comes with the giftedness, they just never sit down, their brains are always on.”
The smart-as-a-whip kindergartner already has an idea of what he wants to be when he’s older — either an astronaut or a pilot.
When it comes to planets and planes, the intelligent child really knows his stuff.
“What do you want to fly when you’re a pilot?” Kipton’s dad, Rob Hardcastle, asked his only child.
“A Corsair!” Kipton replied. “It’s one of the fighters from World War II!” he said, sharing a fun fact that perhaps some adults might not even know.
Dana and Rob say he loves reading about outer space. One recent Christmas, Kipton was gifted a textbook on the solar system and he dived into it right away.
“This isn't like a, you know, ‘Spot can run, see Spot run,’ this is a book about the solar system, describing Jupiter and all its moons,” Rob said.
Yes, Kipton is like most children his age — yet the 5-year-old has already proven himself to be as bright as the red hair he inherited from his dad.
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He was recently inducted into the high-IQ society, Mensa. Kipton’s unique level of intelligence earned him the rare honor after his parents had him tested.
He received a welcome letter, complete with an official membership card and ID number, last month.
Across the U.S., Mensa has 107 members between ages 1 and 5 out of roughly 50,000 members.
Mensa accepts people from all age groups who have scored in the top 2% of the general population, demonstrating an intelligence quotient of 130 or greater.
Kipton’s IQ is 138.
“Our membership number is dynamic, changing almost on a daily basis,” said Mensa director of marketing and communications, Charles Brown.
“It’s hard to say exactly how many are in (the one-to-five) age range in Pennsylvania alone, but at the moment, it seems to be only one out of the 1,776 members we have recorded for Pennsylvania.”
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The test results provided by his parents show that his full-scale IQ score is in the “very superior” range when compared to other kids his age.
Kipton knew the entire alphabet when he was just a year old. He was familiar with his shapes and colors by the time he was a year-and-a-half, could count to 100 as a 2-year-old and — “Now I can count to 500!” Kipton eagerly interjected.
Proud mom Dana says her son taught himself to read, knows the planets and their features, and even remembers all the U.S. states and most of the corresponding capitals.
Last year, she shared a video online showing a pajama-clad Kipton reciting the world’s countries from a colorful map.
“I swear people follow me just for him,” said Dana, who’s been married to Rob for 10 years. “He has this fan club because I post videos of him doing certain things.”
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Mensa doesn’t provide testing for children younger than 14, citing security concerns and testing constraints.
However, the organization accepts qualifying test scores from school districts and private psychologists.
The Hardcastle family says they had a psychologist evaluate their son. “I only found two places in the area that actually do this test, we took him to Warminster,” Dana said.
Recommendations from the test results show that Kipton’s parents may want to consider a gifted program for him in the future.
“His academic achievement scores are well above students his age and fall within the high range (of the) 94th percentile and above,” the document reads.
In school, Kipton’s full-day kindergarten teacher, Kirsten McNamara, says her “super kind” and “helpful” student has wowed her with his excellent vocabulary.
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“I was telling (his) mom that we were learning about the Antarctic, and we did a Google Earth search,” said McNamara, who’s in her third year of teaching kindergarten in the Quakertown Community School District.
As the class pretended they flew to the Antarctic, they viewed photos of ice volcanoes.
“(Kipton) said, ‘Oh, those are ice volcanoes! There's ice volcanoes on Pluto!'” McNamara recalled.
“That was awesome, because you know, he can teach me things,” she said. “He's a great kid.”
Kipton is immensely fascinated by the planets and can share interesting tidbits on each one at the drop of a hat.
“So, Mars is pretty cold,” explained Kipton as he laid out his planet magnets in his parents’ living room. “The reason it's red is because it has iron and dust in its soil.”
With Dana’s high school friend knowing a NASA employee, there’s a big chance Kipton will soon be learning from the experts themselves.
“She showed him some of Kipton’s space videos that I have online, and he was like, ‘bring him in!’” Dana said.
“I think we've been really good about anything he wants to try or anything he wants to do, and pushing him — but not forcing him — in directions that can help him,” Rob said.
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