we're nearing six, just like Calvin!

Firstly, we’ve finished the Calvin and Hobbes Treasury. Sigh. We both wish there was more, and will be happy to go and start again from the beginning, however. There have been many  incidends of Kiernen becoming Hobbes and pouncing me, especially on the trampoline (not actually landing on me, he’s quite careful that way). He loves to pounce and wrestle and be Hobbes. He also loves saying the words he knows by sight: AAAARRRGH!, No, Yes, Achoo!, KAPOW! to name the ones I can remember.

Now we’ve moved on to Garfield, and he is delighted by this. We’ve only got three Garfield comic books, though, so far, and we’ve read them all, two of them twice through. I know there about a billion of these, so I’ve been on the lookout in thrift stores for more. He does the same in these: says the words he remembers - sometimes by sight, sometimes by memory (he has a fantastic memory, this kiddo).

Speaking of memory, in Windsong we’ve got two different entry codes on the doors. Usually when the codes change, they change on ALL the doors, but there is the door to the trampoline that the codes seem to be difficult to change, and so have remained. So this means there are two codes to remember to get in. Kiernen knows them both easily, even though they contain a different sequence of number-asterisk or asterisk-number-#. He’s had this going on for some time now, it just occurred to me to mention it. He also knows his and my library pin # (they’re the same as each other). He LOVES that he has his own library card (with his name on it that HE wrote), and delights in the self-checkout process when we take out media there.

Kiernen has been coming into what I’ve termed the “six-year-old-boy syndrome” phase. What I am referring to when I speak of this (and I’m told it applies to girls as well) is the incessant need to direct every bit of play so that it goes in his favour, and not allowing anyone else to have the same courtesy. It isn’t so much his wanting to have things go his way as wanting to have things NOt so much go as well for the other guy. (My guy is the good guy, you’re the bad guy. My guy kills your guy. - to oversimplify) It isn’t too powerful as of yet, and I have seen some evidence of it getting in the way of some of his friendships - mostly with older kids, to be honest. Well, to be REALLY honest, mostly with his cousin, who also has some issues of his own that are interfering with that relationship going smoothly...I call it “10-year-old-boy syndrome”. * LOL

I'm in a way joking when I say this, and what our Learning Consultant (Jen) said n response is actually so much more akin to what is really happening for him: 

Well, if we go back to the Path course and the assertion that all behaviour makes sense to the person doing it otherwise they wouldn't do it, what do you think Kiernen's positive intent is in this kind of play?

Could his intent be that he wants to feel powerful?
Could it be that he is exploring power dynamics?
Could it be that he is learning how to stay connected to his inner power?

Kids at his age are IN THEIR BODIES and learn from engaging in the experience. His playing out characters and taking on different roles and embodying them is another example of this kind of learning.

Anyway, what else? Every time I have a thought to take notes on something, I’m not with my notebook - like we’re outside in the garden or on the trampoline or in the playroom or something. (I always have it with me otherwise.) I bring this up because in my mind there are about three different incidents this past week where emotional intelligence was shown, and I SO wish I’d had my notebook to write it at that exact moment, because Of COURSE when I sit down here at my computer, it is just NOT returning to my brain. * facepalm *

I am seeing that Kiernen is getting a grasp on the days of the week, in the correct sequence, and now we’re sort of dabbling in the months of the year. Also because of his great memory, he remembers when we have or had plans for a certain day. An example is today we’d originally had plans with his cousin, for him to come over and play before his horseriding lesson, since we’re fairly close by. In the interim, his mother and I had exchanged a few emails and decided that neutral areas were best for meeting up, and to cancel today’s playdate. I just hadn’t really said anything about it all week, because I had a feeling it wasn’t going to happen. But we woke up today and I suggested we call a different friend he loves, and he said, “What about Cohen coming over today?” And of course I told him that wasn’t going to happen, that they weren’t going to come over after all.

So Kiernen's intuition - as I suspect most kids' these days - is just spot on.

There are times when he will knowingly declare something like, "She isn't home," when we're going to call or go check, and I will just know he is right. He doesn't say it as something he suspects - he will say it as a knowing. And he does it often.

So of course I wasn't surprised when Kiernen knew the playdate with Cohen was cancelled - and I was curious. Oh, I didn't type that part in the original email. When Kiernen said, “What about Cohen coming over today?” and I told him that he wasn't going to come, Kiernen's response was, "I know."

Since I hadn't actually told him anything that had been going on other than to speak with him about things that happened for him and strategies he could employ in the future, I asked him how he knew. He said, "I just know." Of course. And when he asked, I'd just finished that second email to my cousin about that very thing.

He is quite sensitive/intuitive. I find it fantastic to see it manifesting in our experience and how.

An interesting thing I’ve noticed, ala Alfie Kohn, is that when I ask Kiernen to do something that we expect him to do as a part of this household: put away his toys/books, put something in the hamper, get me a towel from downstairs when I’m in the shower and managed to forget to bring one, brush his teeth, etc...he will do it willingly and without much resistance.

Conversely, when I offer him something to do for a job, where he gets paid, he sometimes will, but much of the time he does it grudgingly, and lately he has taken to not doing it (since he does have the option). So even though he knows he will get money for doing something, it is not really continued incentive to do so, and after awhile, he stops doing it altogether. And he DOES get that that money means he gets to buy a toy, too. Interesting, no?