River Learns Stuff

River is about to turn four. I know, I can't believe it either.

Last year when he turned three, I was thinking about school, unschool, and blogging a lot. He was the age at which a lot of kids start school, and how cool would it be to have a complete-ish record of his entire unschooling career? But then life, three-year-olds and unschooling got in the way of my blogging, and it mostly didn't happen.   

Thinking back, though, River has clearly learned a ton of stuff this year. Last year he was just really starting to get into independent play with cars and pretend animals. This year, he's been all over the place.

Unschooling and little kids is a funny thing, because for the first couple of years, everybody knows that kids just learn: walking, talking, interacting, etc. Then somehow, by the school years, it's assumed that most important things will have to be not only taught, but also in most cases directed and motivated by adults. So I think the preschool years are actually a really interesting and important period for the unschooling philosophy, because if more people would give it a low-risk shot (still plenty of time to get to Kindergarten, if necessary) they might see how well kids are able to pursue their own interests at a very early age. In River's case, I'm going to break down some of the biggest developments by approximate "subject":

English - River can name and write most letters, write and type his name, and recognize a few words by sight. He likes books (especially non-fiction), being told stories (putting in his own twists), and learning new words. Some of the concepts he's been asking a lot about recently include "no, thank you", "oh well", "fault" (as in, whose is it?), and "I don't know". Sometimes it's a real challenge to explain well using words he understands, but it's also an interesting window into his thought process. He is talking more and more about things we did in the past or plan to do in the future, too.

Math - River can count to twelve reliably, and likes to experiment with larger numbers. He also likes to add small numbers, and has a pretty good grasp on halves and quarters. He was really interested in measuring for a while, using a tape measure and the kitchen scale. He is also into clocks, and has the big hand part down pretty well.

Science - River is really, really into sciencey stuff. The Science Museum is one of his favorite places to go. He can name a whole lot of dinosaurs and other animals, sometimes with relevant details about their lives. He has a pretty good grasp of the plant life cycle and the seasons. He's really into anatomy (likes to name parts of the body, talk about digestion, nutrition, etc). Once he took off all his clothes and asked me to draw his skeleton on him with washable marker, which was fun. He likes to use a microscope and telescope to look at things. He is has also been really, really interested in appliances - reading and watching videos about how they work, and so on. James took him to home depot once to play with the washing machines and I think it was one of the highlights of his year. Oh, and I almost forgot outer space! He names the planets, draws the solar system, etc.

Social Studies - River is starting to understand concepts of distance: that we live in one city, some people live in others that are far away and take a long time to get to, etc. He can point to Pittsburgh on a world map. For a couple of months he was intensely interested in castles, so we built a lot of different types with legos and read books (that was really our first foray into history, I think).
 
Foreign Language - River knows that we speak English, notices when he hears another language being spoken, and is interested in Spanish and Chinese (mostly because of TV shows he watches). He sometimes asks us to speak Spanish or show him how to write Chinese words (yay for the internet!).

Art - River loves building with legos and drawing. He also likes to paint occasionally. We've definitely seen recognizable figures, along with plenty of other subjects this year (one of my favorites was posted in this blog before, a person riding a duck). He also likes to take pictures, including the self-portrait in this post.

Music - River likes to play hand drums, keyboard, and whistles. He dances to music, talks about how it makes him feel, sings the ABC song, and has experimented with scales and chords on the keyboard. He can also identify several genres of recorded music.

Physical - River likes to play catch, play on the playground, pillow fight, experiment with a skateboard, and recently he's been practicing hitting a ball with a bat. He'll occasionally join us for a few yoga poses, and he's getting increasingly independent in the swimming pool...not exactly swimming, but definitely interested in the concept.

Social - River has plenty of chance to play with new kids at museums, playgrounds, etc. We also try to get together regularly with his kid friends. He understands taking turns and is sometimes willing to do it. He has gotten a lot of practice finding alternatives to whacking his little sister, which could still use (lots of) improvement, but he has learned a lot of self-control since the beginning of the year. He has also started to apologize, occasionally, and show a little concern for people having problems, even including Violet.

Life skills - River can butter his toast, make a bowl of cereal, get himself water, ask to lie down when he's tired, talk about feeling sick, answer the phone, play computer games with a mouse, play a board game (Zingo), push a small cart at the grocery store, be careful near cars, list the months of the year, and probably a million other little things that are hard to think of because I'm already starting to take them for granted. He really loves being able to do things for himself. Oh! and he is finally out of diapers, which is convenient for everyone.

So, it's been an eventful year. I like to think I would be just as happy if there was less in the way of visible, traditional progress, but it's also nice to see such a clear demonstration that the natural learning process can continue, at least up to the age of four. Next up: five! And, of course, two again.