Rychen is 4 1/2. He is a very intense child--emotionally, mentally, and physically. He used to be mellow but in the past 6 months or so has become pretty hyper. He's a total chatterbox, needing to be the center of attention all the time. He's just so social, preferring to be with people so much that I have to make him go play quietly in his room by himself at some point each day. He's got some weird quirks about him (I've mentioned before he has Asperger Syndrome to some degree...not much now that he's eating mostly raw foods and we eliminated his food allergies) and that can either make him "the annoying kid" or the most endearing, charming fellow you've ever met. Luckily most adults think he's the latter. They say how smart he is, how clever, how enthusiastic--way too much for us at home! He is a handful but a lot of fun. I wouldn't have it any other way. He keeps me on my toes, and I am learning so much from him. He's also my special buddy as we have so much in common, and both of us are such overzealous people.
Rychen is so curious and asks a lot of questions. This makes teaching him easy. Usually we look things up online to learn, and occasionally I get a great idea for hands-on. He's been asking about evaporation so I told him we'd learn about it. I boiled a cup of water and we talked about the steam rising, and felt how moist it was. We measured the water before and after to show that some had disappeared, and talked about temperature, clouds, and rain.
Learning is interesting with him. With Rychen, it's his way or the highway. I cannot tell him "Sit down, we're going to learn about this right now." Oh no, that would be too easy and simple. If there's something I want to teach him, it's gotta be a trick or a bribe! Usually I give him some choices and he gets to choose. For a while we did "something" for school every day when Elisabeth took her nap. Then we focused more on my reading aloud to him and less school activities. I used to make sure that he read to me each day, but he was beginning to fight it so I decided to let it go for a while and read aloud to him. But I can see how quickly he is picking up on reading, as several times each day he voluntarily reads words in his environment. He's also starting to read books aloud to Elisabeth.
Since he's such a chatterbox, the best way to teach him is to talk. Then talk some more! This goes for scholastic topics, gospel topics, dietary topics, behavioral topics, pretty much anything I want to teach him. We take a lot of walks so those are great times to discuss any given topic. If he doesn't have any questions, we practice math. He is quite good at math and has figured out certain patterns and tricks on his own, without me teaching him. There are a few math games we like to play, like guessing the secret number (higher or lower) or incorporating a physical response (like he gets to "punch" me as many times as the answer to the problem).
We've been very involved with friends and community activities, and I intend for this to be a big part of his childhood.Since he is so social (and I am more of an introvert) I have needed to arrange plenty of playdates for him, park and recreation time, library time, and attending whatever age-appropriate events are happening in town.
So what is he interested in right now? Sports, dancing, and mainly physical activities like that! He says he likes baseball the most, but he is quite talented at basketball, frisbee, scooter and skateboard (he won't touch his bike). Also lately he has started to practice sprinting, as he has fun timing his short runs and doing it over again to beat his time.
He enjoys art from time to time - painting mostly. He was never one for crayons. He certainly loves art through music, he's very musical. He's a very expressive, passionate dancer.
Today he started a preschool music class, which will be weekly. He really enjoyed it. It's a group piano class where the kids learn the solfege through singing, and then play by ear. The kids sing together and then take turns practicing form, bowing, playing notes, and solfege exercises on the piano.
We've made the decision to homeschool, now that kindergarten registration time is upon us and we're not joining the fun. I am really excited to see what this boy can do, of his own accord, what topics he will choose to pursue, and how his person will be shaped in the next few years as he discovers his interests and focuses on exactly what motivates him at the time. I am so delighted and privileged to be the one involved with and witnessing this process first hand.
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