Ben has definitely turned a corner at age 5. His personality and interests are more and more defined. He is strong-willed and has his own ideas about everything. That makes more work as a parent but is probably preferable to the opposite, right? He is also delightfully positive and laughs and smiles readily.
Last fall he took a sports class and enjoyed all five sports (football, t-ball, soccer, basketball, and track and field) so much he didn't have a favorite. But this winter he had settled on soccer (over basketball) as a sport when we realized that our overcommitted life was going to force us to shelf sports for a few months. Ben was very understanding.
Music is still a huge interest and when I asked what instrument he would like to start learning first, he said "violin." Ben was listening to a CD in the car the other day and identified the piano, and then a while later said, "And there's the violins." I have no musical ear at all and I'm impressed with his interest in violin. We still need to figure out how to get him lessons.
Ben reads EVERYTHING at museums. At the Natural History museum, the rest of us would have looked and moved on and he was still reading all the information. I love this interest in being thorough, even if I get bored going to museums with him.
Academically he is way ahead of the curve. He has taught himself to tell time (analog) and is adept at reading a calendar. He has started quizzing us on addition at the dinner table, and from what I can tell is reading at a grade 2 level. I try to do "activities" with him a couple of times a week and next year I will round out his kindergarten education with the areas he hasn't already learned. Right now, learning is a carrot I want to dangle in front of him. Give him too much and he might become bored with it; not enough and he'll lose interest. I'm working on the "just right."
While my biggest challenge is channeling that independence and teaching him obedience and respect, I'm very grateful he is my son and will watch his path with great interest as he matures.
1 comment:
Kyri is so lucky to have a brother who reads things!! When they get older, and do things together, she'll realize this :) I loved going to England and Scotland with Darren, b/c he'd read everything while I looked around, and then he'd tell me the history behind what I was looking at! For an auditory learner (and a little sister) it was heaven :)
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