Personality Differences

I post a lot about E's unschooling exploration and not so much about L's. It's not because she isn't learning, but rather that her method of learning is different. She is also younger, so the things that fascinated and excited me about watching E learn when she was 2 and 3, I take for granted more with L. I still love to watch her discover new things, but it's like watching a baby learn to walk or talk. You know they WILL, you don't stress or worry about it, you don't try to teach it or make a big deal about it, it just happens as you live life and enjoy their company. I knew that before, but now that I have one already past this age, it's so much more apparent.

She has a quiet personality. She doesn't ask a lot of questions, she just observes and absorbs. She has learned to count to 10, count objects to 3, say the alphabet, identify animals, and many other things mostly by listening to E and I and by tagging along with what we do. I do try to be engaged with her with the things that interest her, I read books to her and sing her songs, but to be honest I am not nearly as good at it as I was with E at this age. She doesn't talk as much in order for us to have conversations for me to find out as many of her interests. She also is not very open to me showing her how to do things. For example, she learned how to write the letter E by watching E write her name, but when I offered to show her how to write her own name, she was not interested.

I am interested to see how her personality makes a difference in the way she learns as she gets older. It will not surprise me if she becomes a voracious reader when she learns to read. Rather than finding things for her to do and see, it might be better to find things for her to read. However, I need to do a better job of staying engaged and connected with her. Learning will happen, I'm not worried about that, but the relationship that fosters the learning opportunities takes work.