Just muddling through

I met a psychologist this summer who said he was very interested in ADHD vs. neurotypical people.  He said that ADHD kids absolutely cannot focus when they are not interested.  Other people can focus even if it bores them, but ADHD kids cannot.

In my experience that is true; Elazar starts shredding things and wiggling and I imagine he would devolve into "misbehavior" but in our house we don't really have "misbehavior."  We have "ways of communicating that are clear, straightforward, and understandable" and "other ways of communicating a need or issue."

Suffice it to say that after dragging through part of the leining for one day of Rosh Hashana, Elazar is wiped out and I haven't tried to learn with him again.

Jack, on the other hand, is quite a contrast.  I can see that he is sometimes a bit bored but he is determined to get through the Chumash.  This is very much a personality difference.  I would say a brain difference, a neurological difference.  Yesterday he got a bit bored reading about the different rivers coming out of Eden.  So today I suggested we just do half of a page, since yesterday was emotionally boring.  He agreed.

But then it was so exciting (with the snake, and the tree) that we ended up going through the whole page and part of the next one.

He asked why, if Hashem told them they would die when they ate from the tree, did they not die?  I told him the Ramban's answer.  But I said not everyone agrees and that's a great question, and he should ask Daddy.

I read him the Hebrew and then translate it (either into simple Hebrew if he'll understand it or even into English if he needs it, or most often a hodge-podge).  I wonder if there is a benefit to reading it in Hebrew or if his mind just drifts and waits for the explanation part.  And therefore I'm making it needlessly twice as long.  I wish I had some expert to ask.

I'm just muddling through.