What Does Learning Look Like? or Learning Math and Science the Fun and Easy Way

Denver displays his prize tickets
from Chuckie Cheese's

We didn't do much that looked like learning yesterday.  If you were looking for a teacher and textbooks and worksheets, you would have been disappointed.  After a little (less than a full hour) of reading, history, and traditional math work, I treated the boys to Chuckie Cheese's for lunch.  Denver had never been.  The other boys hadn't been in over seven years.  They had a ball.

After figuring out how many tokens each person should get (out of 120 tokens), the boys played games and ate pizza.  They decided to pool their prize tickets and split them evenly (336 divided by 3).  Then they each had to decide how to spend their prize points in order to get what they wanted and use up all their tickets. No easy task.  Yet no one complained that the math was too hard.  All the boys-- even Denver-- worked tirelessly to figure out how best to maximize his winnings.  There was no teaching, just problem solving.

Learning about science "happened" last night when I wanted to go to bed, but the boys wouldn't let me turn off the television.  Cosmos was on.  So was Brain Games, and a new show called The Numbers Game.  It was nearly midnight before we all got to sleep, but it was worth it for the fascinating science (physics, math, chemistry, astronomy).  We learned what happens when you place marshmallows in a vacuum (not a vacuum cleaner).  Most importantly, we learned why.  We learned about engineering explosives (perhaps not a wise choice), statistical studies, and the chemical workings of the human brain.  We learned about black holes, the theory of relativity, and the questions asked by famous scientists throughout history.  It was more science than I ever learned in a classroom.  And it just "happened" there in our living room, with the boys and I snuggled up together and eating snacks.

At the end of our hike today-- where we
talked about unfurling ferns and
the historical origins of April Fool's Day
(among other things).

There is so much to learn-- and endless buffet of questions to put on one's plate.  I am grateful to share so much of it with my boys.  I am deeply grateful to discover in adulthood what I didn't necessarily understand as a child: learning is everywhere; and it's fun.

John Robert with Nana and Papa Dale at the Divisional
Swim Meet Finals.