We talk a lot about learning at our house. Kenneth is currently in school, Shawn is 4 and I see that his little mind is yearning for some guided learning and I love to learn and have watched my Dad and mimic his desire to learn. I remember growing up that anytime my Dad wanted to know how to do something he would get a book or a video and pour over it until he felt he knew what he was doing. When I was a teenager we got horses and I became Daddy's little cowgirl. Horses have lots of expenses and so Dad and I wanted to learn how to do as much as we could to save on paying someone else to do them. Some of my favorite memories with my dad involve teaching Monty (our colt) how to walk on a lead, be saddled and cross small streams. We also learned how to trim and shoe the horses hooves.
My Mom is another example to me of learning. When I was in high school my mom and my youngest three siblings decided to take a stab at homeschooling. My youngest brother was showing signs of some "learning disababilities" (I don't like this term because he is not disabled he just learns differently than the way he was being taught) and my mom wanted to give him some individualized teaching/learning. The other kids decided that they wanted to try it out to. At first I was appaled! "don't homeschool" I thought "They will turn into FREAKS!" I didn't notice any horns growing or green goo anywhere but what I did notice was the way my mom took everyday opportunities and helped ALL of us to learn from them. There are two that stick out in my mind. One day my youngest brother saw a spider and was fascinated with it, so my mom got a mason jar, they carefully caught it and observed it. Then they turned to the computer and did a little research on spiders. Simple, yet they learned. My mom still won't dust down cobwebs because they are "beautiful and add to her home." The second learning that sticks in my mind is about birds. We moved from Riverton Utah to Klamath Falls Oregon and into a migratory bird path. There were so many new birds that we had never seen before! My mom bought a bird book that went EVERYWHERE with us. We all learned at least the names of some of the most common birds in the area. She made every drive we took a learning experience because there were always birds to point out and look up in our bird book.
So now your asking yourself how my childhood memories have anything to do with colors, sorting and Laundry. Well let me link them for you. I think that learning should become a part of our day and that our day should become a part of our learning. I have taken memories from my childhood to link learning to my family. About a week ago I was doing laundry (a chore that I put off as long as possible) and Shawn came into the laundry room and asked if he could help. After I got over the shock of why anyone would want to help with laundry I said "sure." Our first task was to sort the laundry. Sorting is a great thing to teach a preschooler I just have never associated it with laundry before. Well here it goes. I showed Shawn that we had three piles: Whites, Lights and Darks. Then I showed him what I considered each one to be. Then I let him do the sorting. Occasionally he would ask for my help, and I believe that here is where the real learning opportunity is, rather than tell him what pile it went in, I asked him what he thought and then we made sure it got in the right pile.
After we had all the clothes sorted he helped me start the washer and put the clothes in. He thought it was so funny to watch all the clothes get wet! We let them wash and the he helped transfer them from the washer to the dryer. During this time Shawn made an observation, he noticed that the clothes were cold! Then after the clothes were dry we pulled them out and he exclaimed "Now they are hot!"
I wish I could say every laundry day provides us such learning, but even one simple day of laundry taught colors, sorting, hot and cold and gave mom a needed break from the boring routine of laundry.
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