Learning when you're not even trying...

This morning we had a couple of friends who we don't see that often come to visit with their younger boys.

It was one of those meet ups where I kind of felt like I needed to justify or explain how the "learning" happens without following a curriculum. It wasn't that I felt judged, but knew I was answering their questions so they can understand and see for themselves how this all works - and I want to show natural learning in a positive light instead of hiding away from confrontation and perhaps appearing blase and vague which I can be when not confident. So the more practice I get the better! Of course, if they'd interrogated me and challenged me that would be different LOL!

Well, without them even noticing, there was plenty of learning going on and for fun I pointed out where it was happening...

~ Nathan wanted to make them muffins and measure out the ingredients.

~ He then brought over some paper and was writing out everyone's names and in the process was covering spelling, reading and writing and pointed out that my friends name couldn't start with an E when it sounded like it would start with an I. Very true - and proved to her that he is thinking about what he is doing. (And he passed with her "testing" of "what word could I be thinking of if it starts with TH?" and his response was The). And pointed out that a word on the sheet of paper he had said To.

~ He was talking about the ages of the kids that were there and got onto that Danielle was 3 and he was 5. When she was 4, he would be 6, when she would be 5, he would be 7 etc. He got stuck though when he said Danielle would be 9 and he would be...10 (since he was using his fingers to do the math lol) - he knew that wasn't quite the correct answer and didn't follow the pattern he was doing but moved on to other things. I haven't yet pointed out how to get past this as I would love to see him "get it" on his own.

~ The morning also consisted of constructing a tunnel and ramp for cars to zoom down using cardboard tubes cut and taped, drawing pictures, reading stories together, constructing huts and jumping platforms from the couch cushions and making cheese on toast for lunch (did the slicing of the cheese using the grater, putting them onto the bread ready for grilling).

And that was all before mid-day...