Busy time of year

Sheesh, 10 days since my last post-- I guess blogging has taken a backseat to Christmas shopping, wrapping, decorating, cleaning... etc. I just wanted to put something up, even if it's miscellany:

Tristan has a new habit of putting his chubby little hands on his forehead and saying "Oh no!" when things fall or spill. It's very cute, though I say it myself. He also shakes his head wildly and says "No no no no no" pretty frequently, which is followed, if that doesn't work, by hollering at the top of his lungs while stomping his feet. His car obsession continues, with a high proportion of his spoken words being vehicular in nature: car, bus, truck ("tuh"), tire, wummm for any sort of construction equipment, and "tay" for train.

Another funny thing he does is babble this elaborate stream of nonsense when excited. I think I've got two chatterboxes on my hands. The night we decorated the tree, Tristan circled around it practically vibrating with glee over the Christmas lights, pointing to the ornaments and giving a nonsensical lecture in a high-pitched voice. Meanwhile, Anya talked right over him: "Do you want to hang this one Mom? I like the red ones but I want you to get some red ones to hang too, because I know you like red too, so I'll just hang this little drum and you take this one...."

I was feeling guilty the other day because I ordered these "base 10" blocks to help Anya with math, to help her learn the ones, tens, and hundreds columns. I wanted to teach her about adding two- and three-digit numbers by adding each column separately, but somehow, we hadn't gotten to it yet. But then she wandered over to me the other day, calculator in hand, and said "You know, if you add 333 and another 333 it makes 666. You can add the numbers by themselves. And 222 plus 222 makes 444." That boosted my faith in this whole process-- here I am feeling bad that I haven't taught her about adding the digits separately, and she goes and starts figuring it out on her own! I'm not a total unschooler, though, the way I had originally imagined I might be. My very next thought was "I've got to get those darned blocks out and strike while the iron is hot!" Still, we practice child-led learning, which is a foreign concept to many people.

Anya has been interested in learning European time, which has been complicated. How to explain that this isn't the time in Europe at this moment, it's the time right now, as Europeans would measure it? I think she is getting it... sometimes I am frustrated at myself for not knowing a better way to explain something, and I have to be really careful not to show it because she might think I was frustrated with her.

We've also been doing a bit of social science, because she is suddenly describing things as "girlish" or "boyish." I've explained that girls and boys are basically the same, and "the people with the factories" want to make us think they're different so families with both daughters and sons have to buy twice as much stuff. And that these people make commercials trying to make you believe that girls and boys need different things, but it's actually a lie. [Incidentally, I dressed Anya completely gender neutral until she was 3 and still avoid clearly girlie clothing. Tristan is currently wearing her old clothes.] I've also been trying to cultivate a certain defiant stubbornness, saying for example: "You like the color blue. Are you going to let them try to say you don't like the color blue because blue is "boyish"? They can't tell you what you like or don't like!" We've spent probably hours going round and round about businesses, advertising, and girls vs. boys.

On a different note, we were at the public library in the nearby college town the other day, and I got a glimpse of what life is like when one is devoted to traditional academics. There was a mom there who was being so very didactic and educational with her young sons that I began to feel she was showing off or attempting to compete with me (we were the only ones in the small child storytime/play area). She interrupted her 4-year-old's playing with a truck to ask him what he saw on the rug, which had roads and a small town scene. She pointed out different buildings and asked "What clues do we have that this might be a firehouse?" Her son never answered her, just waited and then resumed playing with the truck (wouldn't you give up after a while, if the schoolmarm tone resulted in your kid patiently ignoring you?). She also, over the course of the time we were there, asked Anya if she knew how to spell her last name and whether she could read, among other questions. I half expected her to quiz Anya on the names of the planets or her times tables. She tried to get her 10-month-old to identify the correctly colored car ("No no, the GREEN car-- where is the GREEN car?"). And she brought up her son's "class" and "school" a remarkable number of times, though he was not yet kindergarten age. I don't tell this tale to be catty, I just wanted to describe it because I had truly forgotten there were moms who acted this way. At unschooling group playdates, the kids just do what they want with little adult concern, and I have never heard any mom getting "educational" unless she was specifically asked a question. The homeschooled kids I know certainly are not micro-managed to this extent. There has to be some sort of psychological backlash from scheduling and micromanaging kids to the point where they can't play with a truck without being pestered and directed by adults.


[I'm hoping to post in the next day or two on some new graduation requirements in my own state of Michigan.]