In every endeavor and every goal we get to a certain point and have to reflect. We pause and look around us, observe the patterns and results to check our progress. Midyear feels like the most appropriate time for that.
This week was short as we were coming back from a family break, with lot's of school envolved, but a break nonetheless. When we came back we tackled math.
Astor was given a page with numbers and items on a page and had to match the number of items with the items.
Ada worked on factoring, simplifying fractions, and long division.
Nahuel worked on the same things as Ada and led the kids in a game of fraction fortress.
Leonardos progress was surprising as the task he was given wasn't one we'd prepared him for. He practiced writing the numbers 7, 11, and 12. He was presented with a page of numbers written out in one column and in numerical form in another. He was able to successfully match 8 of the 20 numbers with the correct word. That tells us that he can read a bit more than he lets on. The way kids learn in fascinating, how they absorb information. Leonardo is a person who lays in bed and processes in the morning. He often get's irritated if someone interrupts this time. And often when we ask him a series of questions he gets irritated and bored at the questioning so it can be hard to see what he is gleaning from everything we are doing. But the exercise in number matching shows that he picks up more than we realize. It's a gratifying moment to realize you are doing something right after so much time spent.
It's a good sign that things are going well when they happen fluidly and without force.
Leonardo has been doing a lot of hands on projects this year and one day he came up with his very own creation. He has never shown much interest in cooking before so it was quite a surprise when he decided to come up with his 'very own recipe' It was granola bars, cut up into pieces, with nutella on top and half of a raspberry...Quite delicious, but now half as satisfying as a kid who wants to do things for themselves.
Something else that was a good reality check this week was Astor. He was frustrated one day because someone he admired could do a headstand but the only place he could practice was the trampoline. It was too bouncy for him, especially since he always jumps with other people... We had a great conversation about yoga and how it can help you with your flexibility and balance. Once he learned that lots of boys do yoga, something he was quite convinced against, he spent the rest of the morning doing yoga, over and over again, trying to perfect the movements he saw in the kids in the video.
Perhaps the best example of learning happening fluidly and without force was this morning with Nahuel. We went to grandma's house for breakfast, a 45 minute car ride to and from. As we were driving I noticed that Nahuel was reading his book. It's one in a collection I picked up a while back and didn't know if it would be of interest. It's important that kids find things to read that they're interested in and we've been trying to help Nahuel find books he is interested in reading, but that he picked up this book on his own, without being coaxed or introduced. The expression and intensity with which he was reading in the car impressed me. A love for reading is obviously a cornerstone of a lifelong learning journey...
Along those lines, and not to steal Nahuel's thunder, Ada was excited to finish Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire this week.
So at least for today I feel like we're doing something right.