Alex has been counting to 100 lots lately, especially carriages or engines on the model trains he watches on Youtube. Today we went to a freight train yard, he was ecstatic. Alex is also close to earning his 100 badge for karate. He’s been asking “how many more” for a few weeks now. I think he’s at 99 right now. The great thing is that these numbers are meaningful. He’s also been asking about ordinals after saying three’th. I’ve also discovered that he can count to ten in 3 different languages! Being English, Japanese, and Romanian.
We’ve been to the children’s garden at the RBG recently and had a great time racing boats in the stream, splashing in the fountain water, angling the water coming out of nozzles to change it’s shape and trajectory. We went to one of our favourite places this week – Animal Land. Daniel enjoys it too, except for the pony. He even said ‘duck’ for the first time as we were feeding them. We were the only ones there except for a school group. Alex quickly integrated himself into the grade 1 group, and I had to say his social skills were much more impressive than theirs! The staff were great and gave us extra attention. Alex was at the front of the line for sheep feed, it was really touching to see him hand Daniel some of his share of the feed and take care of him amongst the big kids. Especially as he is often rather rough with him! Daniel idolises his brother and is becoming an appealing playmate for Alex.
Yesterday we were supposed to go to Scienceworks, a family favourite. However after picking the kids up from their grandparents, Alex decided he wanted to stay home. I almost insisted we went but decided against it and we went home instead. We ended up having a great afternoon! I got Daniel occupied with some pasting, Alex joined in a bit too. We spent time on the trampoline, in the sand pit too. But the best of all was when Alex found a millipede. We went on a hunt and found 7 in total. We established that they liked to live under stuff and so looked in appropriate places. After finding a tub for them to be placed in, we did a quick book and google search for information on keeping them. Alex watched a Youtube clip on caring for millipedes and found that they needed soil to burrow in, a misting of water daily, a rock or sticks to hide under, and carrots and lettuce to eat. So we organised a makeshift terrarium. This morning we checked on them, and not only were they still alive but they’d clearly eaten the carrots! Today there have been further requests for millipede hunts. In hindsight this was how I feel living and learning, or unschooling, should feel. The like for millipedes is unsurprising given the interest in all things long. I’ve reserved a few library books and we’ve watched other clips about millipede anatomy and various giant species.
We’ve been hitting the library frequently. There’s usually a few mass reading sessions in the following days. Alex has lost interest in our home library but loves new books. He’s not that picky either! This week I thought I’d ask him about some of the visual elements, also any predictions he had. He asks me the meanings of words he hears me read or say in conversation. I’m conscious of giving him access to more complex vocabulary – it’s something I was really aware that I lacked in high school and adult life. Below are some pics of the stories we read. He asked to count the baby birds on this page, and I asked how many legs the creature had in the second picture. Alex responded that the creature was moving and did not have many legs. Seems obvious but I think interpreting pictures is not valued and I for one do not analyse pictures but rely heavily on text for comprehension. I notice this in the children I tutor too. The third picture I read the title to Alex “Magpie learns a lesson” and showed him the back cover with a falcon. He used his bird knowledge to tell me that the magpie was going to play a trick on the falcon. I was surprised to learn he was correct! Alex is not yet interested in reading for himself. I am not at all concerned about this. I love our reading time together. And I think that kids in school get caught up in the decoding of letters and words, losing any appreciation for the beauty of a book and comprehending it as more than just a reading exercise.
Lastly, Alex told me he would write me a note to tell me he loved me. He rarely writes anything but his name. This is what he produced, a long snake because he loves me so much and a heart <3
