Rays

As I slowly continue to heal from whatever nasty virus put me down the learning has continued. It is a good reminder that kids don't really need to be taught, they will go on learning with or without us.

We have enjoyed everything from Rachael Ray to sun Rays.

As I sat miserably in my overstuffed big chair watching the Food Network, I realized I had a little companion, Retta, sitting next to me watching a marathon of Rachael Rays' 40 Dollars a Day show. Retta couldn't get enough, when she watched the episode about DC, she was begging to go to the tea house and try the scones. She realized that DC was near and recognized many of the landmarks. She now gets paper and pen and wants to play Rachael Ray. "If we only have 40 dollars, then this is how much we can spend on dinner and lunch." She adds and subtracts numbers and looks on maps to find new places to go.

Hmmm...free social studies, science, (she loves when they go to the kitchen and show how the chefs make the food) math, history, geography curriculums all for free. No coersion, no worksheets. Just natural plain old genuine learning.

One of the days I couldn't get out of bed the kids were sitting in the bed talking with me. Musa noticed the dust particules in a sun ray that was coming in the window. This lead to discussions of the suns existence, how old the sun is, what will happen if the sun gets stronger...it also lead to reminders of the book Horton Hears a Who and the universe in a dust ball, what is an universe, do we have the responsibility to protect all universes, both known and unknown, and then a long discussion about about war and problem solutions and finally ended up with a rhyming session with the word ray.

The suns' ray

Is the color of clay

During the day

As we play

Rachael Ray

Hooray

All is not lost when Mom is ill, much is gained.