That's my literal translation of a yoruba proverb (ono kan o w'oja) which just means there's more than one way of achieving a goal or getting somewhere. It's one of those sayings that's had moments in my life when it was my mantra. Yesterday, I had THAT moment again when it came to my twins, how they learn and their approach to tasks.
It actually started a few months back when I was trying to teach them to count objects on the pages of a counting book. Sugar quickly grasped the concept and could count along the line of objects but Spice struggled. She would skip objects and jump lines and I knew a moment of hyperventilating-panic. Girl's got a 4 of engineers and a maths teacher in her direct genealogy and she can't count a line of 6 fish??? This mama had to work hard not to panic. I reminded myself that she's still young and there's plenty of time to learn to count and that was it.
The next day as we drove by a construction site, she yelled "look mama, there's three diggers". I absentmindedly nodded in agreement before I felt a jolt of awareness. MY BABY CAN COUNT! She just is not interested in counting stuff on the pages of books but she can count just fine. Mama learnt her lesson and that was a good thing because whenever it was time to practice writing letters in our "homeschool", Sugar quickly learnt most of her letters and enjoys writing whenever she can get her hand on pencil and paper, chalk and board, crayon and walls... you get it. But Spice would pick up a pencil, look me dead in the eye and declare "I'm tired. I can't do it", and that was that She refused to write her letters and I didn't force the issue.
That brings me to yesterday. We got home and both girls asked for TV time. I suggested we write some letters before TV and handed them their books and pencils while I cooked dinner. When I turned around, Spice and turned to the last page of the book and done this!
Ladies and gentle people, MY BABY CAN WRITE HER LETTERS! She's just not interested in writing them unless there's an important reason like watching Diego and Dora perpetuate world peace.
Twin Parenting Lesson 1: The market has more than one entry and kids have more than one learning style.
