Loving My Little Learners

I've now been homeschooling long enough that I'm beginning to plan the graduation of my oldest child. One of the things that I have struggled with over the years is accepting each child for who they are.

It is phenomenal to me that my children, all originating from the same DNA, are so extremely different. Some of them are math geniuses, while others pick up languages easily. Some of them have talents that are obvious while others struggle to see where their gifts lie. Some of them LOVE social interaction and are always making plans to leave the house and gather with their friends while others would prefer to never leave their own book shelf. ALL different, all unique...

I know this. I appreciate this about them, and yet, I still struggle to really accept it. But, I keep trying.

Recently, I posted a bit about Teaching my six year old engineer to read.  He can't seem to sit still for twenty minutes to finish a reading lesson and I wonder how I'll ever teach him anything.
But, I learned something today. There is nothing wrong with his attention span.

I know this because he spent ten straight hours building this "Ninja Training School"

 It has all sorts of details and moving pieces...

These guys actually fight on a platform that works like a foosball table. This set has 518 pieces. It took all day to build and every one of the 70 (Yes, seventy!) steps was intensely complicated and involved. But, he worked on it all day, with only a couple of breaks to get a snack and have dinner.

There are numerous other examples of times that my children have exceeded my expectations, and shown me that my way of teaching doesn't always fit their way of learning. But, that's one of the greatest things about homeschooling... I'm learning just as much as they are.