Where is the other kid?

I realize most of my posts are about Miss M.  That's mostly because she's a second-grader and doing "real" school work.  Mr. J has been a bit of a challenge for me.  He knows lots and lots of information, but he's not ready for formal schooling yet.  When Miss M was his age, I could pick up any book, read it to her, and then we could discuss the characters, setting, history, plot, etc.  She wanted to make crafts and pretend to be characters.  We could listen to music and paint our feelings.  She learns well through literature and discussion, so that was easy for me when she was four.  Mr. J has a comlpetely different learning style.   He doesn't want to sit at a desk and practice writing letters.  And he definitely isn't going to sit down and paint his feelings for me.  He is a linear thinker and totally a hands-on learner.  He is frustrated easily when things don't go the way he feels they should.  He needs a lot of transition time between activities.  So these are challenges for me because I still need to keep Miss M on task.  Should I force him into Miss M's learning mode and frustrate everybody?  No. 

So I am learning to adapt.  It is one thing to know young children (even up through third grade!) should be learning mostly in a hands-on manner, but it is an entirely different experience to have a child who is not going to do it any other way.  He is completely content to stay downstairs and play with his train tracks all morning or watch videos of trains plowing through snow set to Miley Cyrus music (who are these people that make YouTube videos???)  But I want him to interact with Miss M and I and feel like he's not beling left out.  And I want him to know that learning is fun

This week, I moved all the puzzles upstairs to the classroom.  We pulled out all the pattern blocks.  He brought up some trains and cars.  Well, he takes those everywhere.  We sang songs and danced the Hokey Pokey.  I am gathering as much information as possible to help me with this early childhood teaching that I've taken on.  {Special thanks inserted here to Grandma M for her awesome list of ideas!} He had a great time playing with us, and he even asked one night if he could come play puzzles with us the next morning.  And when I heard him say, "Wow!  That's a really cool trapezoid!" while playing with the pattern blocks, I knew we were on the right track for the day.

Lesson Learned:  My children are amazingly different, and for that I'm thankful!  They learn differently, their personalities are different, their needs and challenges are different.  These differences are shaping the way I teach and interact with each one.  These differences are pushing me to be a better teacher and mom.  Thank you, God, for these unique little human!