Dude music or math?

Dude is turning out to be quite the pianist.  He really enjoys playing and I never have to order him to practice, though I am often the one suggesting when the best time is.  I also often have to remind him to play what is written rather than what he feels like.  He was given 'We Three Kings" (speaking of which, where does it say in the bible three?)  and he played most of it wonderfully, until what was written differed from what we usually sing.  That part he simply couldn't wrap his head around playing 'wrong' to his ear.

I have seen the talent in my husband who can sit down to a keyboard, or xylophone, or anything and pick out a simple tune.  I on the other hand can only play percussion type things from memory and not very well at that.

Dude has totally picked up his fathers talent for music.  We just started his third book, after not yet a year.  I wish we could actually get him a piano in the house, but we simply have no room for it.  One day I hope to have just a slightly larger house, though a mansion would be fine, I don't need that much space to clean, just about 2 more rooms, and one more bathroom. Maybe three more rooms...but that is completely off the subject of Dude.

The only thing he likes more than playing piano is trying to figure out how it works.  He often spends as long as he can looking inside the piano while playing to figure out exactly how it is all hooked up.  Other times at home on our keyboard he plays a piece in every different 'instrument' setting.  Some days I think he is more a scientist than a mathematician.

Math is still his strong suit, though he tends to 'feel' math, or 'guess'.  Which is very often right, or at least mostly right.  We often have to force him to explain himself so he will slow down and see where he went a smidgen off course.  He hates that, and frequently tells us 'well it was close'  I keep reminding him close can kill folk in engineering.    Unfortunately if he goes more than a week without doing math he falls back into his 'innate' talent and skips steps.  Drives me batty, but his father understands completely.  It would be easier if he was doing simpler math, one of the reasons why we bumped him up is so he actually has to learn to do long division and multi digit multiplication.  So long as the numbers were simple, 5s or 10s, or 2s (or 15, or 30) he was skipping all the steps and just putting the answer down.  

While his imagination is wonderful, he hates writing, and has no skill at drawing.  So he often comes to tell me an intricate tale illustrated by some robots or stick figures.  I wonder if part of his reluctance is a lack of skill.  We have just started going through a fun imaginative book on drawing to see if he will pick up a simple trick or two and branch out on his own work.

Of all the annoying things to be good at (to me) he memorizes dates and names.  While his sister (and I) remember how things managed, he can only internalize events as dates and details.  So upon reading about Marco Polo he has the date, and the names down, as to what they did he only has a basic recollection..somehow a guy from Venice met 'the Kahn'.  (if he were near I would ask him the dates, I am sure he recalls, and I certainly don't!)

We can listen to an entire story, he will name most of the central characters and if anything was purchased tell me exactly for how much, but he has the hardest time with motivations.  'Why' is his most dreaded question.

I have been surprised over the past year at his ability to actually work.  Other times I am surprised at his honest acceptance that he himself didn't do the work.  For example the other night he worked really hard for 20 minutes, then spent the next 20 playing instead of finishing the last 10 needed.  He was so disappointed, and partly his siblings should have been working and gotten it all finished in 20, so I cuddled him and listened while he told me how disappointed he was.  Then I asked him what he was doing for the last 20.  He was fully honest and had the tone that shows he understands when he admitted he had done nothing.

While I do wish I could have made it all work out for him that night, I am so glad to hear sometimes he is mature enough to know he himself is at fault.

This Webelos year he has managed to complete 11 badges of the 20 available.  At the end of the month he will receive his Webelos badge along with several of the pins.  He hopes to earn all 20 before he works on his Arrow of light. 

The Robotics we have done through 4H has been great fun, though he wishes he could play with the robot program more often.  And 4H has morphed into a monthly commitment including airplane study.  

We also picked up an opportunity for him to be on a Science Olympiad team.  He chose the topics he was interested in.  Paper airplanes, weather, and space.  So we have done some preliminary work in those areas, and will begin some serious study soon.  I was a bit surprised by the interest in weather, but the other two were known interests of his.