Learning in Spades.

Unschooling is an organic, natural learning, Rye is learning from his environment, his play and interaction with others.  Quite often his learning is not visible to me; where he derived much of his knowledge is a mystery to me, and other times it amazes me just how much he does soak up, especially when it appears  he's not listening or particularly interested.  His learning is kinda like osmosis.

Yesterday, in contrast was one of those days when his learning was very visible and covered a wide spectrum.

 He learned to balance and jump on the bungee bouncer.  Huge for Rye.  Bless my lad he is a bit of klutz; some of it is deliberate klutz-y-ness; he has always had a penchant for throwing himself on the floor. Initially he threw himself off the bungee bouncer a lot.  He blamed the bouncer for not working, became really quite frustrated, so as he'd already asked if we could do workbooks, I suggested a break.   Much later in the evening he did come back to the bungee bouncer; and in those hours between play there had obviously been a mental shift.  Rye got on the bouncer and bounced, properly, he corrected his balance when he began to loose balance and he stopped deliberately throwing himself off.  Oh the sheer delight and pride on his face was marvelous.  He asked if I was proud of him, I assured him I was, and very happy that that he was enjoying bouncing.

 Misnomer for Rye, these are not workbooks but funbooks.  He really enjoys the books.  He completed 6 pages, the 7th page began to frustrate him, because it was copying patterns, the box was a bit small though and Rye's attempts too large, and the patterns were pretty difficult too.  So we agreed to take a break and move onto claywork.

Rye wasn't in the mood for clay faces at the youth centre the day before, so we had a go together after the workbooks.  Rye mostly directed me rather than actually doing any clay himself.  Still, we had fun together, especially as my mindie was taking a nap (she asked for!).  One on one time when I'm minding is, these days, very rare, and we both thoroughly enjoyed being able to immerse ourselves in an activity together.

Later Rye played on the ipad; Angry Birds game, a Montessori matching board game, oh and he also watched James and the Giant Peach. Much later in the evening he brought me one of the oxford learning tree books and asked if we could read it together.  Again a very pleasant and lovely experience for us both, I read, he copied, sometimes chiming in with the next word before I read it.  Really exciting too that at the end we discussed the story, truly discussed it, he was able to tell me which race he thought was the funniest and we talked about other types of racing.  This had been a concern of mine previously, his inability to be able coherently discuss what had been read, and to have a clear conversation.  He seemed completely unable to extrapolate parts of the story and discuss and see comparisons, or give examples outside of the story.   

These burgeoning abilities are coinciding with Rye beginning to come more out of himself.  I was always a bit skeptical of Steiner's ideas about children been in almost dreamlike state until about 7yrs, yet this does describe Rye; he is beginning to wake up and see the world around him and engage in it more. 

Paint, glue and glitter.

Blah, I keep forgetting the order in which blogger loads photos up.

Nevermind, I decided this morning it was time to start summerising the season table (and remove the clutter that had started to build up)

After a successful breakfast, where Rye spooned his cereal all by himself; undoubtedly helped by the decision to start eating up at the table again, the paints, glue, glitter, pasta and paper plates came out.

Rye's excitement was palatable, which piqued some parental guilt, since buying the easel I've not really sat down and done any drawing or painting with him, sure, I've drawn and written on the easel for him, but this boy loves the paint.
He loves squidging it between his fingers, rubbing it all over the paper, sticking his fingers in it and watching it run down his hand, and covering every conceivable part of his body with splodges of paint.

Most of the paper plates he painted he just covered in an orangey goo of paint (limited him to 3 colours, orange, yellow and red). Still, I'll leave those one to dry and we do some more sticking and gluing later, or tomorrow.

The plate hanging from from a piece of string in the 1st picture of the season table was a concerted effort. My idea was to create the sun rays with the pasta shells and then Rye could paint and stick to decorate. I forgot, little boys aren't known for their patience, so some pasta got stuck down, but not quite how I planned. Still, I rather like it, and Rye looked very pleased with himself.
Quickly going off topic, the lip balm is courtesy of the talented and clever Izzy - thank you hon, it's gorgeous, and the smell - strawberry and white chocolate, yum yum.

The flower fairy below was a request kindly filled by Shell
Isn't she beautiful :) I almost wish it was Yule now so she could be sitting proudly on the season table. Rye is very taken with her too, he picked her and the daffodil faery up and sat chattering away to them.

And finally, the plate of pasta, paint, glitter and glued on bits of tinsel.

Then after painting, the pencils and a large sheet of paper came out. Rye wanted to me write the numbes 1-10 down and he counted it out as I wrote. Then we drew moons and stars and he counted those too. Then he wanted me to write some his favourite letters from the alphabet and then he had a go too.

I particularly enjoyed sitting in the front garden with picking dandelions (well actually, they look like dandelions but the stem is more fibrous than dandelions, so not quite sure what they are, but pretty anyway) and making dandelions chain. I didn't stay out front too long though as Rye was in his birthday suit and covered with paint. I don't mind him running naked in the back garden that is nicely secluded; but the front makes me a bit uncomfortable. We picked extra flowers too for the cauldron. Rye wasn't that interested in making pretty dandelion chains, no, he was more interested in tearing the flower heads to shreds and sprinkling the petels etc all over his little table. I had to control the urge to snap and tell him not to do that. But, he's learning and he was having fun and clearly loving all the activities done together.

Then before I knew it, it was 2pm and time for lunch (we got up very late this morning). Again sitting at the table Rye ate half a cheese sandwich, some crisps and a strawberry fromage frai and the gorgeous Rock Organic squash! The orange is delicious. I have picked up the Blackcurrent one too, which I've not tried yet. After lunch, upstairs for quiet time, read a few books, bit of a breastfeed and then I quietly left the room while he continued looking at books. It's all quiet now, so I assume he's asleep.... and looking at the time, time he was up.

Today, has been just what we both needed. The HE review has scared the pants off me and there was a bit of headless chicken and trying to read and respond to every email, link, survey, suggestion etc and somewhat ironically Rye was been neglected a bit. And putting the laptop in my bedroom was a brilliant idea - most definitely out of sight and out of mind.

Well, blow me down with a feather!

I am chuffed to the high moon! My darling little boy used the potty for the first time last night; and then went on to use it nearly every time he needed a wee; just one accident. Mind, the amount of peeing he did tends to suggest he's drinking too much but who I am to say he can't have a drink when he asks?

I did bounce of the walls with joy; he received hugs, kisses, lots of clapping and whooping; hence the repeat preformances, especially when his Aunty Queenie popped over and he received even more praise. I'm not a big praise nut, but that surely deserved some whooping :) He looked rather chuffed himself.

I was laughing in joy at his success at one point and said "Wow, Rye have you potty trained in one evening?" and he said "Yessss", while grinning at me. I know, probably not; I'm just so chuffed at his accomplishment and while I did initially sit him on potty when it became obvious he wanted a wee (he was pointing to his nappies and holding himself) and he wasn't too keen so I read to him to distract him a bit. I didnt' think he had, so I was going to put a nappy on him and leave it be and try again another time. Except when I lifted him up I saw he had! He doesn't like to sit on the potty though so after that first time, he now stands over it - his aim isn't too bad either.

My other joy was when Aunty Queenie was reading to him and one of the books is a Peter Rabbit book that has a clock in it - basically to help teach children the time. Anyway, it turns out he knows more of his numbers than I realised! He was pointing at 2, 8, 9, 6 and 5 and naming them. He did it today too I was in the bathroom cleaning my teeth and he was holding up these wooden numbers from a sorter he has, and telling me what they were. I explained the number 6 could also be a 9 and bless him, he got it and then was telling me it was a 9 and then turning it round and saying 6. I'm beginning to suspect that his verbal skills aren't quite as bad as I thought and it's more my hearing.

Automonous Learning at it's finest eh. With a little encouragement he's peeing in his potty and he knows his numbers far better than I realised and that's just from me telling him numbers when he asks (he's fascinated by page numbers) and counting things; coming down the stairs that kind of thing and not forgetting "1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive," he does like that rythm.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

There's nothing quite like snow to bring the inner child out. I adore snow, I recognise, as an adult, its highly inconvenient, an utter pain to travel in; nonetheless I do love that wet, cold stuff.

Tl'un was rather taken by the snowfall too and just kept staring out at our garden watching the lovely large flakes drift down from the sky, as we mixed up banana muffins.

I am rather amused at the palavar a bit of snow causes down here. I grew up on the moors in Yorkshire and to me "heavy" snow is where one has to walk on the dry stone walls because its drifted and is so deep and if you fall off the wall you disappear. "Heavy" snow is where it is so deep it is impossible to get out of the valley and the RAF drop off coal and food supplies as we wait for it the snow to melt. Mind, even Yorkshire doesn't get those types of snow falls anymore.

So, yes, rather amused at the idea that a possible 5-10cm of snow is considered "Heavy" Snow and the Met Office has issued a "Severe Weather Warning". Ah well. There's a mere dusting out there at the moment; there's suppose to be more overnight, I guess we'll find out in the morning.

Wintery days like this I really miss the real fires I grew up with. Central heating just doesn't provide that glowly warmth of a real fire. Still, it has been nice to watch the darkening skies and then the snow fall while warm inside the house, pootling in the kitchen with tl'u.

His is very chatty these days, "what's that?" is his favourite phrase at the moment, and, yes, it is driving me a bit batty, particularly when he askes "what's that?" of the same object half a dozen times. However, I have been waiting a very long time for him to start speaking, so despite the reptition, it is just so lovely to hear him speaking, finally!

His comprehension is fabulous. I have a laminated sheet with nursery rhythms from bookstart and I use it as a place mat for tl'u, this evening during tea, he kept looking at it and asking what the various pictures were. After explaining the pictures and reading the words to him, I then asked him to show me where the various pictures were, and he remembered them all. He also recognises symbolic drawings for noses , eyes and mouths. He is also very into numbers at the moment. He is pressing the numbers on the v'tec teddy all the time now, whereas before he was only interested in the letters, and if a book has page numbers he points indicating he wants to know what the number is. While looking at a Thomas the Tank Engine book he kept indicating to know what the numbers on the trains were. Whether that is an indication of anything, I don't know, time will tell.