Better get started then

Ok, so the blog looks all nice and pretty, but what have we been doing? I can't even begin to list all the things that the boys know already so I'll just do it day by day.

Reuben has recently started going to a gymnastics group, I thought he might struggle with the structured lesson but what a surprise! He loves to take things seriously, he listens carefully to all instructions and concentrates enormously on getting it all right. But more and more now I have started noticing the things he does differently, most children were happy to make their way across the trail in the gym, but often got stuck and waited for one of the instructors to come along and help, also there are some pictures strewn across the way, with positions the children should attempt (like touching toes and similar), I noticed that none of the children, unless prompted by and adult, attempted any of these positions on their own. Reuben is quite different in the sense that he's happy to take instructions from the adults but he very much does the trail on his own, he never seems to get stuck and if he's not sure what to do he will still do something, and he was the only child who attempted all the position he saw on the cards. I imagine this is because he does not spend the day being told what to do so he is not reliant on adults to give him instructions all the time. I compare Reuben and Isaac's experience of the world with the one of schoolchildren and I am so glad I can give them this freedom. Hopefully they will never know that learning is supposed to be boring.

Reuben has also started to "write" in the sense that he writes little notes he leaves all over the place, it's just scribbles at this stage but he thinks they have meaning, so of course they do! And drawing, here's another surprise. Reuben has never shown much interest in drawing, painting, colouring, anything like that, he likes to mix the paints to see what happens and he likes the feel of clay and play dough but he doesn't attempt to make them into any sort of recognizable figure or picture. Well, recently he has started to draw what he calls "little Reubens" and they're wonderful! Little people with giant heads and little legs who do actually look a bit like him (the curly hair gives them away).

Isaac is going through an obsessive phase, his loves are trains, play dough and the i-pad!!! You would not believe a 21month old could sit still for such long stretches of time. I have struggled with the boys using the i-pad and computer but have come to the conclusion that as these things are in the house they might as well start self regulating when it comes to them. And if I think they have been on them too long I will resort to distractions, lets make biscuits usually works!!