Lego day!

The morning of the day I write this post, my son wrote me a note:

can you come to the m(iddle) of the f(l)oor?
He's not been writing much lately - and despite all the
wonderful Montessori materials - if he doesn't practice,
it's GONE! So spelling skills are OUT.
Every child has their thing - spelling is his.
No spelling bee champ here ;)
(do they have an "Abbreviation Bee?" hehe)

(he'd been leaving me a series of notes - I have a PILE of them next to my computer - he writes them on scrap paper, folds in half, sneaks up, drops them in my lap or on my hands and RUNS, diving behind the living room chair supposedly before I can see him!)

We LOVE these CDs - very educational and very interesting!
Each CD plays the entire song through about 3 times -
once continuous with narration
once with starting/stopping and further depth of explanation
once just straight through with no narration
And LOTS of extras in between ;) 

This was right after he wrote a note asking if we could listen to "Carnival of Animals" from Maestro Classics.

Well, it's Friday and most of his work from this week is already done - so why not? ;) 

By why the middle of the floor? Legoboy has spent the last two days' worth of free time creating a Lego game from scratch.

So we played. Who needs school? Who needs to work? We're listening to music and spending time together.

challenge cards and playing cards

Pieces to build figures and barracks within each field

I like this game. I don't care for Legos myself - I support his interest though - yet I'm winning! So I don't mind this game ;) I did need to call a break for a while so I could get on with more of my own work. We'll finish up this evening.

I love how much thought and effort he put into this game - so much so that handwriting and spelling suffered! But he is going back to make revisions - and in the playing of the game, he didn't get upset when something didn't work - he just either revised the rules in the moment because they needed to be done, or he made a quick list of items that needed adapting for future playing.

I am very proud of him for doing all this work :)




Shshshshsh! Don't tell him yet I found this blog this morning with a LEGO co-op plan - at Homegrown Learners. I am going to see if any local children want to join us for a short-term LEGO club in our home ;)

Maybe we'll combine with this 4-day LEGO lapbook at Walking by the Way.
Click here for her LEGO resources.



What would Dr. Montessori say about LEGOs? I don't know! They are plastic and she saw a much larger benefit to all-natural tools, and I'll admit I'm not always keen on the sound of them and they do GET EVERYWHERE (Legoboy usually works on a sheet which we then gather up and dump back into the big bin, after he pulls out the small pieces he wants to keep organized - that way, at least the LEGOs are partially contained and they don't make a terrible sound when he does work on tile floor).

They are really great for problem solving, engineering-type skills and just plain creativity.

Would I have them in the "school" area (whether a homeschool or a regular school)? NO! I would keep them separate from the usual learning materials, but I don't entirely consider them pure "toys" either. Much like our other "toys" they must have a strong reason to be here, in order to be allowed to take up space in our tiny home. So they are not frivolous play, but lead to creativity, imagination, problem solving and can be combined with other items.

Just my OWN two cents ;)