The drawbacks of Unschooling

Ok, not really, because it all evens out in the end, but some days I do find myself watching my children do (from my point of view) pointless playing all day and I just want to yell "learn something!!!" Sometimes I need a reminder that they spend their day learning whether I appreciate what they're learning or not.

Transformers reign supreme in The Berry Patch, and dontcha know that every toy company and kids' television channel out there has some kind of website to go with their products so that kids can get even more marketing shoved into their little brains. I was, however, pleasantly surprised to see that the Hasbro Transformers websites do have a couple of interesting games: one teaches keyboard familiarity by challenging kids to type a "secret code" in a time-sensitive situation, and the other uses a very kid-friendly program to help them put together a "video" of transforming bots and transition shots, corresponding sound effects and dialogue, and background music. It looks a LOT like the software DaddyO used to use when he would edit audio as the producer of a morning radio talk show. In fact DaddyO showed me Windows MovieMaker, which is a legit next step for Tex and Noodle after they outgrow the Transformers video or actually want to go further with their current filming jag. (Note: the kids are also getting an underwater video camera for Christmas this year, which I'm betting will lead to plenty of opportunities to learn editing.)

Table Time has continued. Tex worked some more on his dinosaur code book and is doing really well. He wanted me there to help but the only thing I did was point out when he was trying to read that he'd filled a letter in incorrectly. Oh, and I helped him sound out the word "sturdy". His reading has come along very well and I can see he's becoming more confident. Need to get his glasses fixed after Monkeygirl decided they'd make a good pretzel, though. We continued our table time with an experiment from Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman; identifying the marker used in a crime by the way the ink bleeds when wet. Tex took one piece of paper towel as his control and wrote a message on it without me being able to see which marker he used. Then he took that marker and two others of the same color, but different brands, and made three experimental swatches. He then got each one wet, allowed the water to bleed fully, and it was my job to match the correct marker to the control. I was surprised how really obvious the different inks were!

Our other fun, yesterday, was to identify the giant flying bug that I killed in the kitchen. As I scooped it up into a napkin Tex noted that it looked like a really big fly and must be a horsefly. We looked in our insect/spider book and sure enough it was an American horsefly, identifiable by its green eyes.