IT'S not uncommon for a six-year-old to want to become an astronaut, but few at that age have already started learning Russian so that they can communicate with cosmonauts on the International Space Station.

Lots of kids enjoy playing on an iPad, but not many will put it aside for a while to read a university textbook on psychology.

But Reis Kaan Moumin, as his father says, is "a bit different".

Mildura South Primary School student Reis is a child genius, and that's official. He was recently accepted into Australian Mensa, a not-for-profit society whose members qualify by having an IQ in the top 2 per cent of the population.

Russian is just one of several languages he can already speak or read. He could ace a high school maths exam. He has a full-scale IQ score of 130.

But he also has a favourite stuffed toy called Hoot Hoot and loves playing childish games with his little brother, Haris. He is, after all, only six.

And that's the challenge faced by his parents, Kenan Moumin and Aheng Pheak.

They are very proud of their exceptional son and know he is capable of growing up to do exceptional things, but they also want him to enjoy being a little boy.

Mr Moumin, who has been working in the development of hotel resorts in Asia for a decade, said the family had come home to Australia, and the family home town of Mildura, to give Reis the best chance of developing his abilities while also being able to have a normal childhood.

"I have videos of Reis in nappies, spelling and doing things like that," he said. Things like that would later include the ability to make complex calculations by the age of 18 months.

"We thought we're going to eventually have to take this seriously and take him to a location where he's going to be nurtured."

Mr Moumin said Reis had been clearly special almost from birth, with an intense curiosity and focus.

"He was reading before he was talking ... he never really went through a baby-speech stage, but was already articulating what he could see," he said.

The complexity and depth of a conversation with Reis these days, his father said, could sometimes leave adults behind.

Mr Moumin admitted that Reis's advancement had been a bit scary and "freaky", because there were few society supports for bringing up an extraordinarily intelligent child.

"There was not really anyone to talk to, hence why he tested for Mensa, because that then enables you to connect with people who are gong through similar things with their children and can see the sorts of challenges we face," he said.

Primary school life is indeed a bit challenging for Reis and for a small country school he's almost mentally outgrown already.

Mr Moumin said the teaching staff at Mildura South had been wonderful in finding ways to keep his mind engaged.

"He's skipped a class now, but we're being very careful with how many classes he skips," he said.

"There's certain areas where he's performing at the level of a high school student, which is where it gets a little bit tricky because he's still just a kid."

Where Reis's intelligence can cause difficulty is in his social interactions with other kids.

"He has his moments where he's a little boy and just wants to play, but when he's communicating, his interests are just so different that its hard for others to know what he's saying," Mr Moumin said.

He is grateful for the influence of Haris on Reis.

"Haris is completely different and when he's around, Reis can just a be a kid," he said.

Reis told Sunraysia Daily that he was indeed hoping to be an astronaut, but he also wants to be a baker and a teacher. He loves baking, but eats no processed sugar and very little meat.

For the first three years of his life, he would eat nothing but fruit and vegetables and still prefers the healthy diet, perhaps because, he says, his main goal is to "live as long as I can".

At some stage in that life, he wants to go to "Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Eris" and points out that "Pluto and Eris are dwarf planets" and that his spaceship, which he expects to design, will be fitted with a bakery.

He knows his curiosity is unusually intense and drives his knowledge. Studying a kiwi fruit on the family dining table, he said that "I even want to find out why fruits have pips, which are seeds".

Mr Moumin said he hoped the Mensa connection would be a help to the family.

"I've been looking for government support for Reis and what we can do for him. Are there institutions, is there funding, and I haven't been able to find anything for gifted children," he said.

"When you raise that topic, people try to diagnose to the other end. Like, he's gifted but what's wrong, what's the catch?"

So far, there doesn't appear to be one. Reis is just one really, really smart kid.