"Mom, do you see this?" It's what I heard over and over again for the entirety of an hour as we were having dinner at my grandparents' house one evening. Cap finished his dinner early and was sitting in the living room watching the Science Channel show, How It's Made. For an entire hour my four-year-old guy sat completely mesmerized by the process of building some portion of an airplane. He has since decided that he is going to become an aerospace engineer. Of course, he'll get his pilot license as well because what fun would designing aircraft be if you can't fly it yourself?
And then the other day we were sitting in the bathroom, waiting on the potty-training Skidamarink. Cap was sitting underneath the sink trying to figure out the mechanics of the plumbing. For a good 15-20 minutes. He's always wanting to know how things work. I'm pretty sure it's only a matter of time before I start discovering random disassembled tools and electronics around the house.
We started calling him our little engineer about a year ago. He got a Buzz Lightyear toy for Christmas. But it didn't have wings. It had karate-chop action instead. He really wanted a flying Buzz and would not accept my advice that he learn to be happy with what he had - Buzz was going to fly. So, he rigged up a contraption involving our ironing board, a cabinet door and some thin elastic that enabled Buzz to hang suspended in midair.
I'm pretty sure most kids learn the most when they are interested in what they are learning. It is certainly true in Cap's case. I spent last school year frustrated that we couldn't get Cap to want to hold a pencil or a crayon. But when he got interested in reading he started picking up the writing utensils on his own. Lots of people marvel that he knows the difference between carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. He's not a genius, he's just interested. He wants to know things like why our dogs' teeth look different from his. So, we spend a good amount of time finding answers together.
Today, when I picked Cap up from school I had an interesting conversation with his teacher. He didn't want to do his worksheets today. It's something he's struggled with before, regularly missing out on playtime because he doesn't want to complete the worksheets. She said unless it's something he's interested in, he just doesn't want to do it. He reasoned that he didn't need to do the worksheet because he already knew the material. She warned me that he's going to have a really hard time in kindergarten next year.
None of this was news to me, but it was interesting to hear her say it. I can see both sides of this problem. It's important to learn that sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do and to do those things with a good attitude. Also, there are certain things, like learning to write letters, that just have to be practiced. Repetition is necessary. Even though Cap may know the material already, he still has the work of training those muscles for the fine-motor task of writing.
On Cap's side, he does things he doesn't want to do all the time. Granted, he doesn't always have the most willing attitude when he has to do something he doesn't like, but who among us does? And there are other ways to practice that are more palatable to him. He struggles with a paper full of letter k's that he has to copy over and over, but is almost always eager to write words. A page full of a single letters to copy is a physical exercise that doesn't challenge his brain. Adjusting the exercise to writing words adds a mental challenge that engages him.
I don't believe that Cap is smarter than the average kid, but I do believe he is a bright, capable child with specific talents and inclinations that need to be developed. I have a hard time justifying the idea of a child who is eager to learn having a hard time in kindergarten. He won't struggle because he's incapable of learning the material. He will struggle because he won't be challenged in the right ways.
The choice to me seems clear. I can send my boy to kindergarten and expect a kid who is going to be a challenge to the teacher, a disruption in the classroom and a very disinterested student. Or, I can keep my little man home and nurture those talents and inclinations in a learning environment that is specifically fitted to his needs and can provide him with the right level of challenge.
Just to be clear, I am not in any way suggesting that my son's teacher isn't doing a good job or that kindergarten teachers are incompetent to teach Cap. I'm extremely grateful for the teachers Cap has had and for the majority of the teachers I encountered in my own school days. They are remarkable individuals! What I am saying is that there are certain limits to teaching a large group of students at one time that will almost definitely create problems for my little learner.
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