Noise & Contact!

I have often heard that boys make more noises than girls. Since I teach in college classrooms rather than elementary, I'd never really noticed this phenomena. However, my son makes lots of noises in the course of a schoolday. I wonder how he would manage if he were in a classroom where noises are discouraged (I wouldn't want to be a teacher with a classroom of boys making airplane sounds!)? Noise becomes part of the background of our schoolroom as our son punctuates his studies with appropriate sounds--kind of like punctuation in the written language. Other times it seems to be a bid to alleviate boredom with a task or to bug his sister. When the noise goes beyond background noise to the point that I notice it, it is time for it to end! Sometimes I will put music on and I have found that that technique does reduce the noises coming out of my child.

Now, noise is just one way to invade another's space. The other is physically invading it. I find that the kids will also do this, though each has a different technique for doing so. We have plenty of space in this cabin; there is no reason why there needs to be any contact. But at times the kids seem to need something to break up their day, and a little physical contact seems to be one way to take a break (I'll bet this happens in the classroom too!). For example, just now Aurora was sitting on the floor doing her math and Denver got right over her. Needless to say, she didn't like that and gave a chase and a few pokes back. Now they're back to work (mom intervened....this time!). Some days I wonder why I am doing this to myself.