The machines Builder

Jonathan has taken to planning and even building machines. Preferably laser machines.

He likes to draw out plans for his machines and make ingredient lists. Then he wants to build them, but is not always able to explain how. Planning the steps of a game and drawing instructions, drawing a course or planning the making of a cake (lets go to the supermarket and purchase ingredients and then we will bake a cake), are all charming pastimes for Jonathan. Decorating a plastic box and then declaring that it is a “creation” (Yetzira) or a machine is a daily event. 

I would have started to hope that I am raising a little engineer but then Jonathan wants to solve some issue with magic (mommy make magic so that…) preferably magic which entails the shooting of imaginary laser beams out of his hands (dramatic gestures, flying arms and shooting noises all included for special effects). Considering the statues he puts together at my parents (mommy, grandma, look I have built a machine..a laser machine…) using plastic boxes, toy pieces and a watering pot, I am raising a freestyle artists…such a shame that one must be truly exceptional to make money of art...Watching Jonathan handle any electronic device with ease (including my mother’s newest gem – the ipad) and his mastery of computer games, I do believe there is hope of him yet making a sensible living…Ah! Balsam to a mother's sole…

Playing big brother

Jonathan built the cart for jasmine from a carton…

Character Summary

If I were to summarize the character of my children and their learning methods I could do so with two simple sayings. Jonathan is the quantum leaper; Jasmin is the one after the other consistent. He the daydreamer, she connected to earth.

Jonathan can be stuck for months: repeating questions, discussing a subject respectively over and over again for days.  If he does not immediately succeed he wails and gives up. He is not thorough. Often he imitates, but with no exactness. He is detached from reality and lets a fantasy computer and cartoon world rule his imagination. It takes time for him to register how the world around him works, and he is often disappointed in what he finds. He has little patience or duration, bordering on the spineless, expecting mommy to solve the problem and somewhat typical for the eldest son. But once in a while he gets it! Suddenly its all comes together and he makes the quantum leap! And whatever it was he could not do before, he does naturally and flowingly.

Jasmin is the one who takes everything in. one step at a time. She is consistent and methodic – going about her way is small steps and phases to reach her goal. On the other hand she is earthly, connected to the world with sheer instinct. She needs to see something only once to understand it, and if she were not just a baby of 1 year and two months of age, I am sure she could also master any skill in a very short time. At this stage she imitates everything she sees immediately. She just gets it immediately! She learns quickly and imitates immediately. Her efforts seam not perfect only because she is but a baby!

How alike they may sometimes look, both strongly resemble their father, somehow, both have my “look” to them too. They are siblings. And yet, they are separate entities, two different people, who react to their surroundings in so different a way.

Jasmin, Jonathan and daddy