Listening to Internal Voice

Last night Alexander had a babysitting job.  As soon as he arrived the new first grader told Alexander he had 400 million points on Lego Starwars.  Alexander thought, "Okay, he is talking numbers in kid talk."  However, when they checked it out, this little guy was reading his numbers right.  He showed Alexander how he was accumulating so many points.  This was new information for Alexander.  He had played this game when he was younger, and actually passed his game along to this little guy for his birthday.  I loved that first, this little guy is learning his numbers from technology, second that Alexander at 15 was able to learn something new from his younger gamer friend and third that this little guy wanted to get to a new level and didn't know how on his own.  However, he knew Alexander would know and checked it out with his mom beforehand to make sure they could play longer than his alloted game time.  

When Sophia and I visited the Waldorf school the other day, the admissions adviser shared that computers are not used much in the school before high school.  I remember my immediate response being, "Oh, how sad."  She explained that they focus on the brain/hand coordination through knitting and other arts.  While I believe this is important, I find it interesting that my two kids who have always been heavily into technology (Alexander with video games and Sophia with computer), both crave hands on projects. Neither one of them has ever had time limits on when and how often they could use technology (minus a few short months when I was waking up at 2am due to the noise of Skype.)  Yet both kids seem to know their own limits.  When either one of them has used technology past what feels comfortable to them, they stop and find a different creative outlet.  When Alexander was younger it was Legos and Geomags. He was always building something new.  As he got older it was running, archery, wood carving, and wood working.  One day he will decide he needs to get outside and will shoot for a while or plan a new project.  For Sophia, leaving her own world and entering the world of Playmobil was always her outlet as well as pulling up grass and other objects in our backyard and replanting them.  As she got older, she painted and learned to crotchet and sew.  Last night she set up an Etsy shop and plans to begin making and selling some of her own stuff. 

Kids really do know their own limits.  They know what they want and how they need to get it.  When we allow them to take charge of their needs and give them help as needed, they are truly amazing.  I think it is when we decide what their limits and needs are that they lose track of who they are and can no longer listen to their internal voice.