My little man is not so little any more.. In fact, he turned 11 last month. Today I want to share his handwriting journey as it was such a fascinating time in our unschooling life.
Wade was slow to speak by conventional standards. At age 3 he used hardly any words at all to communicate to me. People found it very hard to understand him when he did talk, which frustrated him to no end. I always knew what he was saying however, but in all honesty we very rarely spoke with our voices. Most of our communication was telepathic. It came so natural to the both of us and at some point I wondered if perhaps that was why he wasn't choosing to verbalise his thoughts. It was working for us :)
As he grew and became more and more a part of society he realised that he needed to "speak" if others were to know what he was feeling, thinking, needing... This was challenging for Wade for a couple of reasons.
The main reason being that it annoyed him that other people couldn't just "hear with their minds" as he put it :)
He was never all that interested in books as a little fella. Way more into pulling real life things apart to discover how they worked and what made them tick. Old clocks, radios etc. were his preferred toys.
Our eldest child was really into books and reading. Around about age 3, she showed interest in learning how to read and by the time she was in preschool she was already reading. Reading is still something she enjoys to do. When Wade was a similar age, maybe 4/5, I thought it was only right to offer him the same opportunity to read.. and write. He quickly showed me he was not interested and became frustrated when I encouraged him to do so. This was my sign to back off and try again in a couple of years... Which I never did as he was too busy doing the things he loved most, like drawing diagrams, labeling inventions with x and y's and mc squares.. well that's what it looked like to me. :)
What we did notice with Wade was that he had a photographic memory with numbers at a very early age. In his third year he would memorise really long numbers after reading them once. For a kid who hardly spoke this was a complete spin out to us as he would look at a bank card number or a phone number on TV etc. then recite the numbers back to us!! Where did that ability come from?? It's still a bit of a mystery :)
Before numbers, Wade would fill notebooks with symbols. Think hieroglyphics but more like Rune style. I would say "What you doing there Wade?", in which he would reply, "Oh, that's Dragon Language." Okaaay... "Cool!". I thought it was the most awesomest thing I had ever seen!! and I was intrigued to learn more. Dragons have always fascinated me. His "work" inspired many great conversations between the two of us and as he spoke I clearly envisioned him cloaked up all Hermit like, in his Dragon type lair, concocting spells and wizardry and mastering the arts of alchemy! Fantastico!!
Had Wade seen Rune symbols before?? Not in this life time :) His scripting was coming from a very intelligent and ancient source.. Well that's my take on it anyway. Love a bit of Past Life Wisdom!!! and possibly Future Wisdom for that matter!
He's also been totally into making "potions" since as long as I can remember, and anything to do with chemistry, electricity and physics. Is it any wonder he wasn't interested in bedtime stories :) I remember his favourite book around the age of 5/6 was a thick Science encyclopaedia and the page he religiously wanted to look at over and over again was the pages showing the Periodic Table!!
You really can learn so much about a person, their past, present and future, by respectfully allowing them to pursue whatever sparks their interest at any given point in time and to notice what information naturally flows through them.
Wade played out all his past chemical and mathematical experiences as a little boy. He's moved on to scripting online games now, which is totally over my head, but still interesting to me as I love to support my children with whatever it is they are in to. They are after all, the Masters of their own Creation xx
