raised by nerds

Okay, so for Christmas, Lucy got a globe and maps, and a big hanging wall calendar with removable numbers.
I feel bad for the poor child. She was quite happy with her take, but still. When you can do most of your Christmas shopping from Creative Teaching Supplies, you know you don't qualify as the most toy-friendly parent.

However.

Oh, it's all been so cool. Like the super-injection of learning in a really fun way in our daily routine. I'm amazed by calendars. From this one little wall-charty thing, we get:

1. Math. Number recognition, decimal places, putting numbers in order, reading a chart.
2. History. Do you know how many books on Abe Lincoln I sorted through today? Because President's day is coming up! (People, before yesterday, I didn't even remember what month President's day was in)
   
3. Zoology. What is a groundhog, anyway? What does it look like? What does it eat?
4. Relationships: Whose birthday comes when? What card should we make for them? How can we celebrate them?
   
5. Crafts: When it's on the calendar and we talk about it, I actually make the effort to do holiday specific crafts. Imagine.
6. Religion: Our religion, like for Christmas. Others' religions, for Hanakkah and Kwaanza. Why we don't celebrate those holidays, why others do, what we believe, and don't believe about God.
   
7. Geography: Where is the groundhog for Groundhog's day? Where was Washington born? Where does your Aunt Katie live whose birthday is in April?

Note: I haven't even started talking about the ostensible purpose of calendars! And we already did a full month's worth of subjects.

I might sound like I'm bragging here, but I'm not. Because besides purchasing a calendar, I'm not doing much except trying to find library books about holidays. I'm excited about what we're learning, but mostly, I'm just excited by how easily all this stuff flows. I ask a few questions, Lucy adds some more, and pretty soon we're watching videos about Punxsutawney Phil and learning that groundhogs eat almonds, fruit and rabbit pellets (not bugs). I don't purchase curriculum, or think about grade level, I just get to explore and watch my child learn about the world.

Today, Julia was walking to the drugstore with me, and she bent over, and started examining some corrugation in the sidewalk. It had a few wisps of dried grass in it, and she was fascinated.

May that kind of fascination with the world never get lost. May I figure out how to nurture it and help it grow.