- 12:01 AM, Tuesday,
May 31st, 2022:
-
- Late night entry
as we're leaving for Hawaii tomorrow (today) so it's
kinda chaos with packing whatnot - but I have to
document this.
-
- So I decided to
relearn the rubik's cube and now that the kids were a
little older - show them how to do it. As I started
though, they both seemed pretty uninterested. So I
just let them play with it after I did it and
make patterns, etc.
-
- I noticed
Vienna getting SO FAST making the checkerboard
patterns I finally said "Vienna, I really think
you can do this."
-
- So we start.
Tears. Meltdowns. Intense anxiety issues come up which
is something we've always known about her and always
grappled with. She's brilliant, but has these crazy
blocks to learning that can freeze her. So I let it go
and then started trying to think LIKE her.
I started naming the patterns and algorithms. I
started breaking them down in different ways.
I felt like I just jumped in her brain and
spit out a way to learn catered just to
her...
-
- ...and it worked.
Flawlessly. She got to the last layer in a day. And
then I started showing her the final layer and again -
lots more tears... it seems impossible if your brain
isn't in the right place. Shit - show it to adults,
and you'll see what I mean. But she's too damn young
to feel that way - you just need to find her language.
Which I finally did. The clock pattern (picturing a
clockface). The magic layout (yellow face layout).
Your favorite pattern (the one that feels good to do).
And suddenly we're there. And she's fast.
-
- Like, I think
she's as fast or even faster than me. I'm buying a
cube scrambling computer and some software so she can
increase her speeds and we can find out what our
averages are. We're both around 90 seconds right now,
and I believe that's about as fast as you can
hope to go (60-90 seconds) when you're learning the
beginner method. After this? Memorizing soooooooooooo
many algorithms to shave off seconds here and there.
People do it under 10 seconds in competition for that
very reason. And of course the finger flicks and
movements you need to just practice.
-
- But, I make this
entry not because she can do it... but because it's a
mini-breakthrough with how her brain works. This is
math, something she thinks she's bad at. But if taught
the right way? She's brilliant... taught the wrong
way? She's frozen. It's concerning. It is definitely
spectrum-ish... but we're aware and this one thing
lets her know she can do... we just have to find
HOW.
-
- This is where
you're thankful you're in California and it's the
2020s. Handling autistic tendencies and progressive
ways to teach are the norm here. She's so outgoing and
social that she's nowhere near what would be
considered autistic... but there are learning
anxieties that are straight up crippling. Hopefully
this is a start to understand how that all
works.
-
- And it was the
cutest thing to watch her teaching Jesse and Megan
some moves on the cube...
-
-
- Also, I'm of the
opinion that nearly everyone can solve it if they
really want to. Jesse is certain this isn't the case
(which of course probably means he won't be able to)
but you just have to find your path. It's different
for everyone. Some people can go online and read the
patterns and just BOOM. I can't. Those patterns the Us
and the Rs and the U primes and what the fuck.
I have no idea. I just kinda look at it and feel
it. Of course I did memorize the algorithms but it's
from how it looked, not an assigned letter. In time
however if I wish to
KEEP THE FUCK UP WITH MY 9
year old daughter? I will need to do that or else
she's gonna blow past me. BLOWWWWWWWWW past me.
-
- She may have
already done it.
-
- Adam
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