completely out of sync

Have you ever gone through a time when you felt like you just were not as tuned with your kids as you thought you were? That is where I am right now.

In the last few days, I have come to the realization that while I was looking at the holidays coming and going, my kids kept evolving, and I obviously missed some of that.

It started with E's letters, one that I didn't saw coming at all.  And it keeps going with now the pink tower.  

I wanted to wait until E would be 2 1/2 to start using real Montessori materials.  I didn't want to rush anything.  So today, I felt like it was a good day to surprise E (30 months old) with our modified pink tower (the tiniest pieces of 1cm and 2cm are not included), hoping that we would be interested in that for the next few days, and go from there.

Turns out, the only person that was surprised was myself.

I was looking at E building the tower.  He made a mistake, which was what I was anticipating.  But what stunned me what that he looked at his tower, realized the mistake was there, changed the wrong blocks, and added the right ones instead and kept going until the tower was built.  I didn't think he was there yet.

I tried having him make the tower on another mat, going each time to take the right piece on the mat that was further away.  This shows another level of discrimination, because you have to remember what size piece you need to build the tower without looking at it.  With this, I thought it would match his level, and yet again, I could only realize he was passed this.

He finished the activity with building the tower horizontally, again, making a mistake, and fixing it right away, and showing me, with his tractor (see first picture) how every step was even.

Our children are out best teacher.  How is that for a lesson of humility?

The same holds true for X, who we have learned that is a visual spatial learner, and sees the world pretty much upside down from the standard benchmark. Trying to understand the world his way is my current challenge, and it is a big one.

I guess I know what I have to do for the next few days: sit down and look at my kids, play with them, and try to meet them where they really are.  I guess I might be surprised.

Do you have any tips for when you are out of sync like that? I'd be all ears!