Oh, you want to learn something today?

I feel like I'm learning something almost every day about how my kids learn, what motivates them, the best way to approach them in regards to learning, etc.  This is a wild and fun ride, and it's only just barely begun :)

So, last night I was talking to my mom on the phone while I shopped for some materials for our fall unit...Well, I was rambling on and she was polite enough to listen (Thanks Mom).  Anyway, I was babbling on about how Adelyn is starting to know the beginning sounds of words, while blows my mind for my just-turned-3-year-old.  So, last night when I got home I photocopied the first sort from the "Letter Name" category of Words their Way and left it on the counter to (maybe) do with Adelyn if I could coerce her at some point today.  I just wanted to see if she could ace this or needed a little work.

The tongue means she's concentrating :)

Low and behold at 7:20 this morning when I stumbled down to get my coffee, Adelyn wanted to know if that paper was for her or Charlotte.  I said it was for her and I started to cut it....no, no, no.  SHE wanted to cut it.  For crying out loud - when will Momma learn anything?

Was I right? YES!  She aced this entire sort (which means, by the way, that she should move on to the next one).  I think I'll take this one to ballet tomorrow and then copy the next one.  Really?  She's 3!  Who is this kid?

Mid-sort, Charlotte came downstairs and wanted to do HER sort.  By the way, Charlotte has NEVER asked to do word study without my prompting.  Goodness, I moved as fast as I could. We decided last week that she needed a new sort, so I copied one quickly and she began to cut!

While I was downstairs copying this sort, she and Adelyn found a capital/lowercase letter sort and began to put it together.

While Charlotte did her sort, Adelyn wanted me to help her finish this one - well, okay!

While Charlotte was still sorting, I mentioned something about taking these particular sorts to ballet tomorrow to work on (they both have their own class so I have time to work with each alone).  Well, up out of her seat Charlotte jumped!

She went quickly to the calendar to see if tomorrow was (indeed) ballet.  She moved us to calendar time without my prompting - hooray!

Today was the 10th.

I hadn't really planned on any "school" stuff today, but I decided to take the opportunity given to me!

We counted by 5's during our creation unit, but haven't really counted by 10s, except when counting dimes.

Out of the blue, while driving down the road this weekend, Charlotte tells Joe that the "steering wheel thing" is counting by 10s.  It took us a minute to catch on, but she persisted and counted it for us - 10, 20, 30, all the way to 100.  Aren't real-world connections that kids discover the best?

We really haven't worked on numbers past 31 (per the calendar) much at all, but Charlotte seems to be ready and willing these days.

So, we counted by 10s, since today is September 10th.

Adelyn, pinning the 10 elephant on

Adelyn went right to the elephants (which has become her thing) and found the 10 elephant and counted 10 links to add to him. 

As Charlotte counted dollars, I asked Adelyn if she wanted to count 10 pennies. - She did!

She didn't want to do much trading, but I was happy to use the word "penny" and count to 10.

This is the most ownership Adelyn has ever taken during calendar and I love that it is becoming more of a thing that they both have a part in :)

Since I've begun putting all of the calendar materials (and other math manipulatives) in one box, the girls sometimes decide to play with other things in the box when they are done.

Adelyn said she wanted Charlotte to measure her for her "check-up" so she did :)

She counted by 1's all the way to 54 (I had to help twice with skipped numbers) so I was pretty impressed.

10 minutes later, when I gave her a story problem:

Kitty was 10 blocks tall.  She grew 4 more blocks.  How many blocks tall is she now?

She just counted one whole color strip as "10" and then counted on 4.  This was an awesome "ah ha" to use a 10-strip without counting it all.  I was impressed and would love to share the video with you.  However, her nightgown was going a little crazy and 4 year olds are rarely paying attention to such :)

There are so many things that I'm taking away from today's randomly organic learning.

1. When I have ANYTHING on the counter to prompt learning before the girls wake up, they start the learning cycle without my prompting and it seems like their idea!
2. Adelyn seems more engaged when there are things we CAN learn about, but not a script of things that I feel like we "must" do.  This is a reflection that I feel like I can put to work right away in my fall unit that I'm planning.  Instead of a prescription like I had for my creation unit (which made sense in that type of unit) I can have a few activities in my head, but letting the learning flow naturally is more important than how many "things" I get through!
3. It re-affirmed that having particular days of the week planned for learning isn't best right now (like Tuesday, Thursday).  Right now, having plans is great, but being flexible is even better.  I want to respond when they are energetic and excited.  When we've had an exhausting week, I need to get over my own expectations. :)
4. I've spent a good chunk of time planning a fall unit in my head and on paper.  Learning keeps happening, whether I have cute die-cuts and connections or not.  They are 3 and 4 1/2.  I have to give myself a break and be flexible in my expectations of myself.  Learning happens every day in our house.  I don't have to create anything daily to make it happen!
5. A little healthy competition isn't a bad thing.  I had been keeping word study separate because the girls have different word sorts, but doing them at the same time seemed to prompt a little more synergy!