Eclectic Parent

We were doing anatomy during dinner last night. It’s easy to make age appropriate. “B what’s this?” Leg. “C what’s this?” Ankle, knee. “D what’s this?” Calf, thigh, shin.  General to more specific or just plain old who’s better at body parts. 2 yo’s know the basics: arms, fingers, legs, feet, toes, head, mouth, eyes, nose, ears, and of course, butt. 4 yo’s start heading into slightly more specifics: ankles, knees, chest, arm knees (aka elbows), shoulders. 6 yos are starting to know some names of bones or more specific parts: skull, sternum, throat, nostril. Lots of things are easy to do with the same questions having different levels of interest.

Our favorite dinner games is story rounds. We do it at home periodically and it comes in very handy at restaurants. Great way to pass the time while waiting for your food. One person starts and says a sentence or two and then the next person does another sentence or two. We usually go around two or three times. They are always to crazy and convoluted to remember accurately enough to type afterward. One of these days I’m going to have to videotape one of the stories. They usually involve dragons and butterflies and daring rescues and horrible tragedies - mind you, they usually involve all of these in turns as each person get their chance to direct the story.

I’d really like to brush up on my educational lingo. Every once in a while I wonder what standards we’re meeting. Beyond just saying story rounds is Language Arts or encourages creativity. I’d just love to see the jargon of what we do all day wondering around and living our lives. Something like Utilizing co-operative learning in a multi-aged environment,  students must demonstrate proficiency of creative thinking, problems solving in order to demonstrate the verbal mastery of Language Arts. Or something like that!