Comparing two 5.5 year olds

1. At this age Nadia was really into princesses and dolls - little figurines, bigger dolls, magnetic dolls, etc. whereas Ian is really into Star Wars, superheroes, and Legos.

2. Nadia was sleeping with a Rapunzel doll and her beloved Poland pillow. Ian doesn't have a special pillow, but he has a special blanket that comes with us when we travel. Lately he's been sleeping with a large stuffed Yoda, Squishy, Mike (those two are from Monsters, Inc), and a very large Iron Man. Yoda and Mike were gifts he received 6 months ago, and he got the Iron Man for scoring his first goal in soccer the beginning of May.

3. Both of them gladly would have played with the iPad more, if I let them. Ian isn't as prone to asking for it as Nadia was at this age.

4. Although Ian now does play board games with us, he doesn't ask to play them anywhere near as often as Nadia did at this age.

5. Nadia was more advanced academically at this age, but she has a summer birthday so she had been in Kindergarten for a few months when she turned 5 1/2 whereas Ian will be technically old enough for Kindergarten in two more months. Nadia was on step 5 of Level 2 spelling. I plan to start Ian on Level 1 spelling the end of August. She was also on step 36 of Level 2 reading. My goal is for Ian to start the Level 2 reading curriculum the end of August, but I discovered two days ago that he had forgotten quite a bit during the last six weeks when he didn't do any reading. I need to backtrack some. We shall see if he can finish Level 1 in the next 10 weeks. This definitely reinforced in my mind why we don't take the whole summer off from school work!!!

6. Although Ian likes costumes, he hasn't been wearing them nearly as much as Nadia did at this age. Nadia loved to wear dresses seven days a week. Although Ian does like to get dressed up on Sunday mornings (he loves to wear a tie and even a suit jacket in the colder months), his favorite clothing to wear the rest of the week would be anything that has Star Wars, a superhero, or a pirate on it.

7. At this age Nadia was playing soccer and taking gymnastics. Ian hasn't done much gymnastics over the last 18 months, but he says he'd like to start again this fall. Ian has played soccer, and he scored his first goal (which Nadia had done before she turned 5 1/2). He also took ice skating lessons and has been in a homeschool gym class. Nadia didn't do either of those until she was 6 1/2.

8. They were both singing in a kids' choir at church at this age. Nadia had been in Sparks for a few months. Ian will be starting Sparks in September. Nadia did her first theatre camp before she turned 5 1/2, but Ian has no interest in that. Both kids were doing the musical at the Alliance church and VBS each summer.

9. Nadia usually had either a bagel, English muffin, or Raisin Bran for breakfast. Ian always has cold cereal. His first choice is Cocoa Puffs. For lunch Nadia's first choice was a ham and cheese hot pocket. If those weren't available, she'd have either yogurt, peanut butter and jelly, grilled cheese, or peanut butter crackers with either baby carrots or clementines. Ian usually has peanut butter crackers or a peanut butter and marmalade sandwich and a banana for lunch.

10. Ian started riding the BIG roller coasters before Nadia did. She was almost six the first time she rode the Phoenix and Twister. In general though she was much more adventurous than Ian. She was walking across the rope at the playground and loved the big water slide at the resort in Orlando. Ian has only gone across the rope once (with assistance) and only went down the water slide twice. 

11. At this age Nadia had lost two teeth (as seen in the picture at the top). Ian doesn't have any wiggly teeth yet.

12. Nadia had a daily quiet time in her room, and sometimes she took a nap in her bed. Ian hasn't yet gotten into a quiet time habit. He never naps in his bed, but he is far more prone to falling asleep in the van than she was.