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October 5, 2005
Watching Sophia Learn (0)
Sophia has been in her new class at daycare for about 6 weeks and the difference in what she is learning is amazingly evident. Her previous classroom environment was a loving and nurturing one, but what was being taught wasn’t terribly challenging for her. While I knew that, I was unaware how a new and more demanding curriculum would change her demeanor. Her mind is racing, and it’s fun to see her put new things together.
Sophia is constantly talking about the new things she is learning. Her class is designed to prepare her for Kindergarten, not just with the way that the kids are taught and what they are taught, but also in applying a much more structured environment. One of the fun things they do is spend time every week learning to make simple food items like No-Bake Graham Cracker Cookies (Whatever those are…all I was told was it involved lots of rolling). They also listen to different kinds of music and talk about what they hear.
In the car, we were listening to a Pink Martini song. She starts to make observations about the music: “That man is speaking in Spanish.” “There’s a piano and someone has a shaker.” “Now they’re playing the violin.” She broke the whole song down for me which in itself was exciting, but at the same time it made me enjoy and appreciate the music even more.
Yesterday I was driving Sophia to swimming lessons and she started talking about muscles…
Sometimes you make your muscles bigger
by moving your arms. And you use some
rollers attached to a line.
Oh, you’re talking about lifting weights
on a barbell.
Right, and you use them when it’s hot outside.
It’s not necessarily hot. I think that when you
lift weights you just get sweaty.
Sometimes the learning process can be hard on a parent. Karen took the girls on a walk a few weeks ago. Sophia asked Karen if she knew anything about fire drills. When they got home 45 minutes later Sophia was still talking about fire drills and fire safety. All I heard was, “Why don’t you tell daddy about fire drills?”
Fortunately I was caulking baseboards and distracted our safety queen with the task of handing me the occasional paper towel.
Posted by Rich at October 5, 2005 9:30 AM
