Those moments when you see your child is naturally learning!

[Sarasvati]

Share some! We were at the shops other other day and Kira was looking around, and looked at the Donut King and said "that says "hot dog"". Sure enough I looked over and saw a sign that says "hot dog"! She's never had a hot dog in her life so it wasn't just recognising a familiar phrase, but reading. I put that down to "Go Dog Go" by Dr Seuss. WHich she then came home and read... not just from memory, but read, asked me to read the words she couldn't read, and corrected herself when her memory was trying to take over (as in when the words were a bit wrong and she could READ that she had remembered them wrong). I was a bit gobsmacked, we read to her heaps but we don't TEACH her... ;) So I joked to Jake about she was learning even though *shock horror* she's not in school!

What moments have you had recently?

[~*heket*~]

That's a lovely crying moment :lol

We had a few moments at the pool lately which I have a whole thread about so I won't cross post boring stuff ;)

Spikee is learning to count which is fun! And Stylish is writing a story atm which is AMAZING in its detail and language - and it just reeks of her too :lol it's about a snake and a girl who wants to keep it as a pet ;)

[Janet]

Isn't everything they do learning naturally? ;)

Both my kids have taught themselves to read numbers and count and the older one is learning to read atm under his own steam. I love it. :)

[Ceres]

That is fantastic! I can't think of any examples from the last few days but DS regularly blows me away with his sponge-like brain.

[Beatrice]

The other day K sounded out "b-a-g" on the side of a green bag and worked out that it said "bag" :) She's also beginning to write her name legibly, and is putting other letters together and asking what they say. And she's just learned to draw a dog by copying one I drew for her, so the house is covered in pictures of dogs :lol She's also turning them into books, asking me to write down her story, and then reading some of the words back to me.

When we were away B read every interpretive sign she could find and then told me lots of tidbits about the history and geography of the area which she'd read :eager It's the first time she's been genuinely interested in interpretive signs, previously I've usually offered to read them to her but generally she didn't stick around.

[Sarasvati]

Kira isn't interested in writing yet, I've recently realised this. I'm glad she doesn't have to go to prep and get forced to do that when she's not ready.

[Beatrice]

K's only just started. I agree, it's just wonderful to think that she's totally in control of her own learning process and that no one is imposing theories on her about whether kids "ought" to learn to read through writing or "ought" to learn to write after they learn to read, or anything else which doesn't fit with her own interests and abilities. Makes me feel more guilty for sending B to school though *sigh*

K is such a little school-at-homer though :lol She wants workbooks, worksheets, and even her own desk! :imateapot

[Currawong]

What lovely stories!

I have a similar one. Both kids have been listening to Rik Mayall's interpretation of Dr Seuss's ABC Book. They love it. Suddenly dh pipes up and says hey, come and have a listen to this. He sits down with both boys and holds the book while ds1 reads it, word for word, with expression. Apparently that was the second time he had done it and I'd missed the first time. Then while we were at the bank today they found the same book and sat down while ds1 read it. Then today he was looking at his keys and read the word 'toy' and while we were at the shops he spotted the word 'cafe'. What gets me is that while he isn't always correct (the ABC book is largely remembered and he read 'little cafe' instead of just 'cafe' as it said :lol and he already knows the word 'toy'), it's his enthusiasm and excitement at finding the world around him filled with words. I'm so excited for him!

[~*heket*~]

Spikee got a jigsaw out of the cupboard last night and started doing it all by himself! Then he got the rest of them and did them over and over! (I'd best dig the missing bits out of his toy box now :lol)

[Jasmine]

I loved reading this thread!

The learning is constant and amazing but I am still surprised by the stuff that is supposed to be learnt at school (you know, with coercion etc) that they just pick up.

The other day L asked me what the squiggly thing was at the bottom of the recycled-from-the-printer paper (he was drawing on it). I told him it was a number, a number '1' in fact. He adores numbers atm :).

He called me back a bit later- 'Look, Mum, one. Here it is! See!'. I wandered over thinking he was going to show me the same page number. Lo and behold, there was a wee number 1 right there that he had drawn! Quite small and even with the little line at the top of the downward line, like a typed number one....Back to front, mind you. All the same, I took a picture and took note that my son was clearly reminding me that I don't need to be checking out the local alternative schools :rofl.

[~*heket*~]

awwww that's cute.

Thanx to Ceres Spikee is well on the way to learning to read numbers too :D

[Janet]

DD and DS have been mad keen for typing on the computers lately. He likes to do the days of the week and numbers and is learning that the space bar helps. She really startles me from time to time by recognising letters and typing them while telling me what they are.

[~*heket*~]

Go Conor!

[Jasmine]

My child called me over to sing Happy Birthday yesterday.

I found a pear with about 10 small coloured pencils stuck in all over- this was the cake!

Imagination and unrestrained creativity makes my heart swell :):).

Oh yeah, the imaginary ball that resides in my child's umbilicus is another one for the journal :rofl.

This parenting gig is tops!

[Aurora]

My boy is only 3.5 but he reads his video titles and chooses them himself, and can read some words in books. We read ALOT (gee, I wonder where his bookworm tendencies came from....*glances at overflowing bookshelf*) so i imagine that's where it came from, and singing songs, talking about signs, etc. Nothing has ever been consciously ''taught'''but he's clearly learning. Just like everything else, walking, talking etc.

[GreenGully]

Yesterday J got out his junior scrabble game and turned it over to play the harder game himself. He made about 6 words that he knows ( asked for help with a couple but he had them correct already anyway) and put them on the board just like you would in a real game. He has watched me play that many games online that he worked it out :lol

[Beatrice]

:lol

[Sarasvati]

I didn't see this but jake was telling me that when he brought the shopping home Kira was saying "there are two xs in this bag and two in that bag, so 2 and 2 makes 4! And if there are two and two and one that makes 5!" I'm a tiny bit gobsmacked as I've not really explained addition beyond adding 1...

[~*heket*~]

Spikee is just learning to count, it's so exciting. He counts to ten, and then it gets a bit weird. He said 10, 7, 12, 13,14, and I reckon that's coz 11 ad 7 rhyme :lol

[Hush]

Today Omar has blown me away with his understanding of plurals. He had some dice on the weekend and was running around saying 'dice, dices'. My first thought was 'no, not dices, dice!', and then I stopped and realised - we don't say dices, it's not a word he would ever have heard, it's a word he has created from the concept that more than one of something is thing(s). Seriously incredible.

[Sarasvati]

Well actually it would be die, dice :lol. But that is seriously cool!

Going back over this thread and realised I misunderstood the "not dices, dice" comment. :lol Whoops!

[Ceres]

Spikee is just learning to count, it's so exciting. He counts to ten, and then it gets a bit weird. He said 10, 7, 12, 13,14, and I reckon that's coz 11 ad 7 rhyme :lol
Hehe, that's pretty clever! My DS says "two-leven" instead of eleven.

[Sarasvati]

Kira used to say "twelveteen" for 20 :lol.

[Currawong]

My ds1 (5yo) made a set of scales the other day. He got an old felt board and balanced it across two fabric blocks. Then he proceeded to check if stuff weighed the same or different and which were heavier and lighter.

[Janet]

DS is now moving onto writing letters and numbers. Today he did a join-the-dots that was the alphabet instead of numbers. He's really getting into reading and reads me letters off signs, off packets, off the tv, anywhere really. It's great! he learnt the alphabet one night last week and is now singing his own jazzed up version of the alphabet song regularly. DD has also learnt the alphabet and can consistently recognise a few letters, knows lots of numbers and can type 1-10.

[~*heket*~]

My ds1 (5yo) made a set of scales the other day. He got an old felt board and balanced it across two fabric blocks. Then he proceeded to check if stuff weighed the same or different and which were heavier and lighter.

That's cool!

Go Conor :eager

[Sarasvati]

Imogen seems to have an ear for music. We got a new CD on the weekend and listened to it, and a while later she was singing the chorus... she doesn't get the words completely right but they sound similar and the tune is right. Very cool!

(Figured in light of the other thread I wouldn't prioritise reading amd maths over music!)

[~*heket*~]

I was just thinking about that when I read your post! How excellent :D

[Ravensworn]

About a month or so ago, we were awake in the middle of the night and Hannah was playing around and pulling off our beanies. Eventually, we put them back on, and she looked at us and said, "Two beanies!".

She was so pleased with herself. We hadn't even been doing any counting, nor have we ever counted beanies, so we were pretty impressed.

[Sarasvati]

That reminds me! Imogen can count 2 things too... very cool. Must be the birthday ;)

[Beatrice]

K has been having enormous fun sorting a big jar of marbles into a muffin tin. She's sorting them by colour, opacity, pattern, etc.

[Hush]

:smileydance My child has taught himself to swim... I am absolutely gobsmacked. We've always been very cautious not to pressure him around water, and have given him a variety of things to let him play around us while we dive under and play around. About a fortnight ago he started diving under the water, holding his breath for 5 seconds or more. Then yesterday he stood at one end of the pool, dove under, and did a cool little kicking thing with his legs (mermaid style, as most kids start I think) to get across to me and then lifted himself up.
He's absolutely bloody amazing! In shallow water he'll do his kicking thing, but in deep water he wants to be standing under the water as much as possible only coming up for breaths. The lifeguard was getting a bit tense yesterday because every time O came up for a breath he'd shout and scream at us a bit. I think the lifeguard thought we were holding him under, but O was getting after us for holding him up too long :lol

[Ceres]

Wow! That is amazing!

[GreenGully]

That is so cool!

[Ayla]

Wow that's so cool! :D Nuts to swimming lessons then hehe.

[battlecrumpet]

Wow that's amazing Hush! Caelan's about the same age as your LO, and we're thinking about pulling him out of swimming lessons (he enjoyed them when I went in with him, but doesn't enjoy being the the water by himself now he's in the next class up).

Caelan has been learning about volume. He puts heaps of tiny play-doh bits into a measuring cup, or old baby bottle, and asks me "how much" is in there; then puts in a bit more play-doh and repeats the process till the measuring cup is super-full.

[~*heket*~]

apologies in advance for discussing frogs again :lol

Stylish is currently holding a Dainty green tree frog. She knew what it was from all her constant researching. She is currently refreshing the facts about it in the book she's been keeping for years and filling with facts on frogs and other animals. Mostly frogs ;)

[GreenGully]

J now knows left from right. After years of him having to ask me every time (and also deciding to disagree with me on my answer! :lol) he asked me the other day which side it is that he sits on in the car. Since then he hasn't had to ask me and has used the new knowledge in different contexts heaps of times :)

[Ceres]

Fantastic!