Alex has been filling lots of his home time with watching Youtube on his iPad. He rarely uses it for playing games, though there are plenty there. He watches The Avengers, probably his new favourite show. His favourite is Iron Man.We’ve also watched a couple of the movies. He wants me to build him an Iron Man suit. I guess we’ll take this further and look at technology – materials, weapons even. I’ve told him that this stuff is just pretend, but he insists he will be the first real Iron Man. We already watch the ‘how do they make …’ shows and he often turns to watch whilst doing other activities if the item they are making is of interest to him.
The other thing he watches on Youtube are videos of model trains. We have established that he likes trains that are long, and occasionally he has asked me to watch these clips with him (I would do so more but Daniel is not keen on sitting still and he desires my interaction). Of course I watch some with him, or I come and check in for a minute or so to see what’s taking his interest and to make sure content is not inappropriate! He can just sit and watch these trains for hours, he is mesmerised! Anyway, as I began to doubt this freedom of ‘screen time’ and question what he could possibly be learning and is this cheery neglect? Am I not offering enough of other activities? This usually ties in with my ‘why don’t you play with your toys’ thoughts. So, after watching several track layouts and seeming to focus on layouts with upwards and downwards loops/spirals, I walk in to find Alex has created one of his own! This is pretty significant as firstly he knocked it up very quickly, and secondly he didn’t ask me for help. He often wants me to help with building a track, even if he directs me on the layout construction. Then, ever since he was a toddler, he has joined every single carriage he can to each other to make the longest train he can. He used to lose his temper when the trains would fall off the track at the turns. Daniel is very different and doesn’t seem to have the same interest. he will just push a single engine without carriages haphazardly around the track. He rarely tries to gain an extra carriage.
This week, as part of a school holiday program, Alex attended a workshop at the lego education centre. It was called ‘city movers’, and the kids had to build a motorised vehicle to drive through their lego block city. I was unable to stay for the duration because of Daniel’s need to touch everything! So I was in and out of the workshop often. I saw that Alex had built…. along truck! Unfortunately his motorised vehicle didn’t work (the woman running the workshop was quick to point out it was because of his design and did little to help him succeed). He has said he’d like to attend again, but lego doesn’t seem to be Alex’s passion at the moment. I guess we’ll see what comes up.
We’ve noticed a few other things this week.
- When Alex doesn’t get 10-11 hours of sleep at night, he is quite sensitive and emotional the next day. We had a play date with a local hs family, and a small issue was escalated very quickly. He ended up napping at lunch time which is something he hasn’t done for well over a year.
- Alex can swing himself now! He’s asked how for what must be a year, but never really got the hang of timing the movements. Last week he sat on my lap for a swing, and ever since he’s been able to do it himself. Perhaps he just needed to know what it should feel like? Anyway, now he doesn’t even ask me to start him.
- There was another incident where schooled friends commented on Alex not reading. He was really unaffected by this thankfully and seems really happy with his life. I’m glad we have friends to see that share our lifestyle so that he does not feel so isolated.
- We watched a lunar eclipse together last week after our Planetarium visit alerted us to it’s upcoming occurrence. Alex was curious about how it happens. He knows that the earth goes around the sun, and the moon around the earth so we explained how a lunar eclipse happens and showed a quick video. He seems satisfied and has not commented since. Though a few days later it did lead us into a talk about the sky. We talked about gravity, and what the atmosphere does for the earth. Then he concluded our chat with “So the sky is like a shield”. Indeed.