Adventures in Learning

Kwamai is at what one would call a low-tide in learning right now. Which just means he is processing rather than doing a lot of taking in right now. According to the library books we get coded by level, he can read at a 2nd-4th grade level. What is more important to me is that it is not unusual for me to find him sitting down to read just for the fun of it. Tonight he was reading one of his comic books to Felicity (who was rather bored by it). He also reads books to Blacky sometimes. He also gets fascinated by science tidbits and experiments and has an interest in learning. This is what is so valuable to me. If I give him something too structured, he shuts right down on me. If he can initiate a project, he's loving it. So be it.

The other morning, right after Felicity opened her eyes and found mine, she said "Mama, what's ten plus ten? Twenty plus twenty? Forty plus forty?" "How many years until I'm 11?" She apparently dreams like this. This morning she was remembering one of the Croatian songs Erol plays in the car sometimes. Last night before bed we read Dick and Jane. We got through about half the book, and she read the title of every story, with help only sometimes. She is going to be a completely different sort of learner than Kwamai has been.

What they like to do together these days (besides fight, right before dinner nearly every day like clockwork) is play imaginitive games, like Indian alien scouts who build fair rides or cooking show hosts. They also still make up rhythmic songs and sing together, and of course hide from the bad guys, who are usually Erol and me. Oh, and chasing the poor cat through the house is another new pasttime. She's still skinny enough to hide under the hutch. That area is getting a pretty good dusting these days.