Unexpected Education

So I'm sure every parent knows that any given moment can turn into a teaching moment. Today was one of those days. Matthew had his ice skating lesson this morning, and then when we got home it was gorgeous outside, so he wanted to play. I told him if he could listen to me read while he went on the slide, he could play while I read to him. After I finished, we would get out the balls and play. Well he got so distracted wanting to see the pictures, he decided he'd rather us both sit on the porch swing and finish the readers.

Then he found a piece of a chopped up tree in the yard. I picked it up and pointed out the rings and told him that if we counted them, we would know how old that tree was. I told him each ring was a year. Then I asked him how many rings he would have if he was a tree. He answered "3" without hesitation. We proceeded to go through the entire family and he was even able to turn it around - when I'd say "Mommy has 28 rings, how old is she?" he was able to comprehend the "reverse" of the equation. He had a lot of fun with that.

Then he found a stick that was shaped like an "L" and one shaped like a "Y." We noticed that if you covered up the bottom of the "Y" stick, it looked like a "V." We used our ears and heard dogs and even a woodpecker. Then we heard a firetruck in the distance. It started to honk its horn and I explained to him what that meant and why they needed to honk their horn. He listened very carefully and then said, "Or it's a parade." Such a funny guy.

When he took off his socks tonight he was folding them in half horizontally and said "hmm... these are not symmetrical." (Daddy was floored!) He was so proud of himself, I thought I'd throw him a loop. I folded them vertically and said, "What about now?" He got a big smile and said "They are symmetrical!!" So much for throwing him a loop! I guess Mathtacular is paying off!

All things handwriting related are frustrating to him... I'm imagining its partially because he's left handed and trying to write left to right so he's constantly covering up what he just wrote with his hand. I also think it's because from the moment he was born, his brain has been developing at twice the rate of his muscles, I'm convinced.

Anyway, I was planning to update this site on Fridays as like a "week in review" sort of thing, but didn't want to forget these priceless stories.