Monday, May 22, 2006

Words

A couple weeks ago, I had dragged my sick self and my three sick kids to the ped and the pharmacy and we were really wanting to be done. But we had to wait at the pharmacy for them to fill the script and there was quite a line. To help the kids attitudes last a bit longer, we walked down to the snack machine and out of the noisy waiting area. 5yL got a drink from the water fountain and dribbled some down his chin and onto his shirt. He muttered a word that I was sure he didn't really say. "What did you say?" I asked. "D#%$," he said, with not an ounce of guilt. We had a nice discussion about words that we don't use in our family (except Grandpa, and we just remind him to not use that word when we hear it...lol...why are Grandpas always the exception to the rule? LOL). He had heard it from an xbox Star Wars game he'd been playing recently. They only said it a couple times but it was interesting that he picked up exactly how to use it in the right context. LOL Anyway, he's asking me more about the context of words since that incident.

And I just have to brag a little...we read Bunnicula last week (cute vampire rabbit story - only scary on the level of a 3yr old - the rabbit "sucks" juice from veggies, not people/animals). This week at the library, I saw they had created a series about Bunnicula too so I grabbed #1 and thought we'd try it out. It sat in our library book pile for a few days while we weeded through a few others. Friday after nap, 5yL came downstairs with his nose in the book. At first I thought he was doing it to be dramatic, as he does most things (LOL) but I realized he was on chapter 3 and didn't want to stop mid-chapter. ;) He finished the book on Saturday morning, completing his first 'novel' by himself. I didn't pester him into it. I didn't force him to read for XX minutes a day. I didn't make him do phonics worksheets for the last two years. He did it because he wanted to. And he asked me to get #2 from the library for him next time we go. ;)

Yeah, I love unschooling.