Adaptable Parenting

The dynamics of our family are both unique, and equally common in our current era. My two eldest children came from a prior marriage, and my wife and I have added two additional kids to the mix. The range is from sixteen down to four. Age is just scratching the surface on the differences in our clan.

If I were to take this post to list the wide variety of personalities that my children have, it would be the longest and most confusing post that I have written to date. This is one of those areas where I look back on my past career as a wonderful training ground. Strangely working retail management did a solid job of preparing me for working with children.

At the beginning of my prior career I was eyed for leadership positions. This came with some leadership training, but it really meant that I had to learn a great deal through trial and error. What I found is that attempting to get a group of people to all learn the way I liked to teach was far harder that adapting my teaching style to the individual.

Please know that I understand adaptability is not everyone's strength, however, I do believe it is easier that trying to force an individual who is kinetic learner to learn in an auditory manner. This proved a very successful strategy in leadership, and now that I have four kids I find that the same lesson translates to them.

So much goes into an individuals personality. From birth order, to learning style, to age, natural gifting, combined with nurture, each person is a one in a billion. The unique differences require us to consider the most effective ways to connect. This is easier when dealing with individuals than it is when dealing with a group.

My eldest son is a great student, and going to school is easy for him. He is a self starter, and learning new things comes easy to him. My second son is also a great student, but he is a kinetic learner, and needs to be able to get hands on in order to learn most effective. Both are intelligent, yet they learn in completely different ways. Kayden is artistic, while Grayson is more mechanical in his style.

I would breakdown the youngest two, but they are still forming their learning style. Needless to say, all four are different, which requires my wife and I to approach teaching them, and loving them for that matter, in ways that work for them. We want the best for all four of our children, and this means finding the most effective way to support them as they grow. This also means that we need to grow in this process too.