In addition to backyard bowling, we spent a lot of time shopping. E&V had a nice conversation with a woman in the pharmacy while I was waiting to pick up a prescription. We discovered the "king" soda (Royal Crown), and also the display of public art set up for auction near the pharmacy. Why was there a 3rd place ribbon, but not 1st or 2nd?
We went shopping for shoes, and discovered that *some* of them come with mini-comic books. E has been reading and re-reading them since we came home, as well as enjoying the cool blinking shoes.
We traced feet before going, to accommodate R's wish to stay home while still getting new shoes (that fit). Tracing revealed that not all feet are shaped the same (although R & E have feet about the same length), and left is with remarkable purple toes for the rest of the weekend.
Later, we went to the large toy store nearby, to create birthday/holiday wish lists. The sweepstakes to win everything on your wish list was a big draw for us, and allowed the opportunity to discuss how sweepstakes work. (Adding more items to the list does not give you a higher chance of winning. Finishing your list does not mean that you get to take all the items home. It is not a contest- the only way to win is to be lucky.) We did not calculate the odds of winning, although R insists we told him he would have about a 4% chance of winning. Regardless of the odds of winning, we had fun looking at all of the interesting toys, and playing with the scanner gun to put things on the wish list. What a variety of things in the store! What a variety of prices!
By observing which things were put on their respective lists, I learned about my boys. E seemed to scan half the store; V mostly big things, and R was very selective- he had some specific ideas in his head, and when they weren't available, he preferred not to scan similar items.
We found some cool knight costumes at the store, and decided to return to purchase top choices with saved allowance money, leading to play with bowling, pirates, and a big dinosaur. We discovered a DVD that accompanied the pirate ship; what a cool find.
We played "travellers" last night, by looking at an atlas and imagining travel to the countries we examined. We discussed possible upcoming road trips. We had nice bedtime snuggles with conversations about the U.S. space program, rust, and how people have good days and bad days, among other things. We read books. We played computer and board games, as well as a few we invented ourselves. We discovered that improvised bread doesn't look like bread, but still tastes good with jam, and that tamarind soda tastes a bit like sweet iced tea. We showed the boys the "magic" of picking up liquids with a straw, and discussed why quesadillas are little cheesy things, but burritos are not little villages in the ground shaped like donkeys.
All in all, the weekend seemed to be a swirl of fun new and not-so-new experiences, enjoyed by all.
So what did we learn? Fine and gross motor skills, math, geography, prioritization skills, science & measurement, reading, vocabulary, spelling, Spanish language, history, art & literature appreciation, cooperation and conversation (social skills), and many, many more things, I am sure.
Once you get used to seeing the whole of life as learning, fractionalized "subjects" don't seem to add up.
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