I is for Imagination

Thank you for joining me as I blog through the alphabet. You can read more of my homeschool AtoZ posts.

I is for Imagination

One worry I have about IntelliGent's rapid mental development is he will be so focused on academic learning that he misses cultivating his imagination.

While other children seem to be content playing, IntelliGent focuses on letters and numbers. Does he play? Yes. But even his self-directed games have an educational bent. He loves to count things, discuss the beginning sounds of words, and has recently taken an interest in spelling. All these things are wonderful, but it does leave me a little concerned. Imagination is such an important part of life.

I've encouraged IntelliGent to play imagination games. He loves his train set, and we make elaborate tracks for Thomas and his friends to go on. He'll reenact the adventures he's seen on the show, but doesn't make up his own story. He's only two-and-a-half, but I would love to see some original creativity come out of his playtime.

Last week, I finally saw the first real glimpse of his imagination. He was eating his Pb&J when he looked at the piece in his hand. "Look! It's a boat." He spent the next few moments pushing his boat along the table. I don't usually allow him to play with his food, but I was too excited to see his imagination at work to stop him. That time.

Writing Woes

IntelliGent was ready for school in every area except writing. This has been a source of frustration for him, as his brain tells his hands to do things they are not capable of doing yet. He doesn't even enjoy coloring.

Recognizing his limitations in this area, I keep writing to a minimum during school. I've learned that IntelliGent likes to connect things with lines and circle correct answers. His lines and circles are well formed, but when asked to write the number one, he'd balk.

That was, until we introduced a fun iPad app called Letter School.


video
IntelliGent's favorite part of his school day is Letter School. We often do it last, like a reward for paying attention and trying new things. Because IntelliGent can trace the letters with his finger, it takes away the difficulty of holding a writing instrument. He loves making the letters and earning the stars. I love the confidence he is building.

This confidence is spilling over into his regular school work. He rarely balks when I suggest he tries to write a letter or number without assistance.

Number 4 written by IntelliGent

I was impressed this week when, instead of just scribbling, IntelliGent picked up his crayon and decided to draw a self-portrait. For a boy who has shown very little interest in art, this was a huge surprise. Dr. Dad and I thought the outcome was amazing.

2.5 year old IntelliGent's Self-portrait - Labeled for clarification

Writing tires IntelliGent faster than any other academic exercise. After he drew himself, and then told us about the picture, he was done coloring for quite a while. You can bet that little self-portrait is tucked away safely in IntelliGent's memory box.

With all the success we've had recently with writing, I thought we might have finally beat the writing woes. But yesterday proved that wrong. IntelliGent, once again, balked at picking up his pencil. When he did comply, his heart was not in the work.

While I could have been frustrated, I wasn't. The writing ability will come with time.

School isn't about paperwork, after all, it is about the joy of discovery. And we can discover a lot more without a pencil tucked between the fingers.