Looking for Inspiration

In the Teachers post yesterday, she wondered whether I have any insight on the issue of routine vs. getting bored. This was my response.

What kind of insight are you looking for? He does like familiar routines, and familiar settings, but gets bored by repetition. This seems like a contridiction. Whenever we need to change anything in his room, we have to prepare him in advance, and then it doesn't always work. He has a "Baby is Sleeping" Sign above his bed that has always been there, and he continues to ask for whenever it is moved. Now that he has a board with Glow-in-the-dark stars in front of it, we could possibly move it out. He had Bob's Red Mill totally awesome yummy GF cereal this morning, with honey. He ate it all up. Now, he probably won't eat it for at least three days, and if he does, he will refuse it for a week after that. I'm not sure how this is related to his intellectual development.

He loves to learn things, and can put intense effort into something until he decides that he has got it. I don't know if this is accurate or not, but it almost seems like when we try to ask him about something that he knows well, or try to teach him something that he has already learned, he feels slightly insulted. Like, "I already KNOW that, D-ay-ad! Review is always going to be a challenge for us, because it won't seem like a challenge for him. This is part of getting him to show you the rythmns for the Twinkle variations. He knows them, absolutely, no question in my mind. Occasionally I hear him humming them. When you ask him to show you, though, he feels like you would if I asked you to show me that you can feed yourself. You wouldn't do it. You'd make a joke of it instead, like sticking the spoon in your nose. He adds one more knock, just to tease you.

You remember the fabric swing in his room? It used to be tied unevenly, so the entrance on one side was higher than the entrance on the other. For probably two months, everytime we used it, he would argue about which hole was the up-high hole. When you tried to help him get in, he would try to use the other hole, because "this one is the up-high hole!" It was rather frustrating, because he would never believe you when you told him it wasn't. Well, one day, he gave away his fun and told Riley that he knew the whole time which hole was which, and was just tryng to get her. Arrrgh!

Anyway, if you go far enough outside the context of "show me that you know this rythmn" he should be able to demonstrate that. The thought I had was if you built a drum set with him, and had him give you a drum concert, perhaps you could request that he play Twinkle for you.

It has to be difficult enough to maintain flow, otherwise he won't play along. It's more fun to leave you wondering whether he knows what you are asking, or not.

The problem, as Hildegard points out, is that he needs to be able to perform for people, demonstrating what he knows, without just saying "I already know that, D-ay-ad!" Any commentators who have ideas are welcome to let us know.