Over the past 8 months, I have occasionally been responsible for home-schooling my 9-year old twin grandsons.

My takeaway from this experience is that I chose the right career path. I am NOT a teacher, and I’m sending a great big shout out to all those who chose teaching as their career path. You are my heroes and here is why:

I am only teaching two kids! According to https://nces.ed.gov, the average primary school class size in America is 20.  That means, based on Color Code demographics, teachers average 5 Reds, 7 Blues, 4 Whites, and 4 Yellows in their classes. Imagine teaching that many kids with such varying personalities!

Although my grandsons are twins, they also have very different personalities–Red (logical) and Blue (emotional)—and thus, completely different learning styles.

Make no mistake. What I observed has nothing to do with IQ. My guess is that if I were to measure their IQs they would be as identical as their cute little faces. Instead, it has everything to do with personality and how they react to their academic performance.

My Red is loaded with self-confidence and arrogance, while my Blue is burdened with self-doubt and worry. Because of this, the Blue believes that his Red brother is the smart one, and of course, the Red concurs.

Right after I watched YouTube videos like “Area Model Multiplication Explained!”, my goal was to set them on an equal academic footing.  Using my Color Code knowledge of each of their needs and wants, I got to work.

My Red was getting his needs and wants met. He looks good technically and has gained approval from his teacher.  My goal was to work on his insensitivity and his need to always be right. A little infusion of empathy goes a long way. Every time he teased his Blue brother for not understanding something, I interceded. I told him how proud I was that he was a good student, but being a kind person is as important as being smart, if not more so.

My goal for my Blue was to build his confidence. He worried every time he was faced with something new, sometimes reducing him to tears. When this happened, I sat with him and told him how smart he is and how much I admire his tenacity. I gave him examples like when he was learning to dive and how many bellyflops it took before he succeeded. I could see his confidence grow.

I created games that had them compete against one another. I saw my Blue begin to win as many as he lost, and I saw my Red compliment his brother on the wins instead of slugging him in the arm.

By the end of my week of home-schooling, there was a marked difference in how they functioned academically and how they treated each other. Both boys were scoring 100 percent on their assignments, and learning became a pleasant and fun experience. CC

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If you’re wondering how you can use Color Code to help with your children’s academic performance, check out our new product Parenting and Personality and the companion child assessments. https://thecolorcodestore.com/parentingguide1

Teresa Glenn has been working with the Color Code since 2006, where her main focus is product development. She has been in the publishing and product development field for over 20 years. Teresa is a core Red with a strong Yellow secondary.