I know this sounds like an entry on dieting or weight loss, but I promise it’s not! It’s just about a quick, spontaneous moment of learning. ~
Now on most weekday mornings, I have the most rushed showers. Either I am hurrying to get one in before the kids wake up, or they are up and are anxiously waiting for me to emerge. And once I do come out, it’s always a free for all in my bathroom. Lucy constantly wants to get my make-up and try to convince me to let her put it on her face. And Theo likes to get into my make-up drawer and empty the contents one by one onto the bedroom floor. So, weekday showers are the rushed kind in combination with a mess to clean up afterward.
But, this day was not a weekday, it was that anxiously awaited weekend shower! (The kind where I can take a real shower since my husband is home with the kids). I had just gotten out of that nice, relaxing, real shower and was getting ready for the day. Lucy decided to join me because, although we have a house full of toys and books, it’s just much more fun to be in the bathroom with Mom where there’s make-up to get into!
As I was brushing my hair, Lucy decided to bypass the make-up drawer and play instead on the bathroom scale. “Look, Mom. I weigh ‘3’ ‘1’ ‘2’.” (Which I know is probably really 31.2 pounds.) Although, even that number shocked me. I thought she weighed around 37 pounds? How has she lost 6 pounds in a week?! Then I realized she may have confused the ‘7’ with a ‘1’. So, I looked down at the scale with her. I pointed to the 7, “Do you think that’s a 7 or a 1?” Lucy- “I don’t know. It’s a line with another line on top.” So we talked about how it’s actually a 7. And I also showed her the decimal point and how to read the scale correctly by paying attention to it. So, there you go, a quick morning lesson on number recognition and decimals!
But the real fun part was what she did next! She picked up her blankie (a peach blanket I knitted for her when she was a baby, that is aptly named Peachy) and got back on the scale with it. The conversation that followed went like this~
Lucy: “I wonder what it will say when I’m holding Peachy? Look! It’s 40.4!”
Me: “I wonder if that number is bigger or smaller than 37.2?”
Lucy: “Bigger, Mom!” (With some slight eye rolling- Isn’t 4 a bit young for that?!)
Me: “I wonder why it’s bigger?”
Lucy: “Because I’m holding Peachy!”
She then went on to weigh herself with other items and observed how the weight was always more than her weight alone. She loved it! She then got off the scale and just pushed on it with her hands. We talked about how the number was lower because all of her body wasn’t on it anymore. She then went on to measure various items on the scale. She wondered why it wouldn’t measure the rubberband. We were able to talk about how it was too light for this scale. We would need to find one that could measure lighter items.
So, within a 8-9 minute period of time, we were able to talk about numbers, greater than and less than and weight. I love moments like this where there’s a wonderful mini-lesson created from the interest of a child. And what was especially nice about it, I didn’t have to pick up all my make-up from the bedroom floor at the end!