Our son shows an interest in physical activities, but he simply cannot 'get' how to do things. He's very (VERY) slow to be able to get his body to do what it needs to do, and he really doesn't seem to care whether he can do it or not. We don't have TV or video games, so it's not that he's parked inside all the time. He's very much an outdoorsy type.Thanks for reading,
Mom2MrQ
My 11 year old son was never much of a kinesthetic learner. I remember someone telling me that all kids are kinesthetic learners in kindergarten even though I had just told her that my son was not because my son and I had done an online learning style quiz and if I remember correctly, his learning style was 48% auditory, 48% visual and only 4% kinesthetic. He never did things the way the books said he was supposed to do it. He read at 2, preferred talking to adults and older kids and his friends were 3 and 4 years older,
He was slow to get his body to do what he wanted it to do. He once told me that it seemed like all the other kids' bodies were like race cars and his was more like a Model T. He had low muscle tone and got tired faster than other kids but he had to dance to be part of his musical theater group, so since age 4 he has had to dance even though it was much harder to learn the dances than lines or lyrics.
I am so glad he stayed with this group because he is the only child at home, is homeschooled, and there are no kids living close to us. We had a musical theater rehearsal at our house a few days ago and we had 15 kids here. I just love these kids. They are all smart and funny and just great kids. These are the kids I want my son to be around, not the football players in our small town that I have seen and listened to. Bullying is common at our school. Teachers look the other way, especially when the bully is a good football player.
The musical theater kids talk to each other daily online on facebook. My son is okay with only online friends during most of the week. We do allow video games. The new musical theater director and her boyfriend play some of the same games he likes. We also have Wii Sports, Dance, Dance Revolusion and Guitar Hero that have helped a lot with his coordination and timing. I don't think coordination issues are noticeable anymore. I watched videos of his last performances and I don't think anyone seeing him for the first time would notice any coordination difficulties. He always learned the dances in time for performances, it just wasn't as easy for him as most of the other kids.
My son still can't swim. He was very close to being able to swim last year but it is hard to find private lessons even at the YMCA in the city about 30 miles away.
