As I sit here thinking about the day that my boys and I just enjoyed at home, I realize that without any effort, we have all learned quite a bit. There was no lesson plan, we just woke up and started the day with our usual morning routine of making breakfast. As I made breakfast, Dylan chose to stay in bed and watch Clifford. Although he was awake, he said that he still felt tired. At that point, he was learning to recognize a feeling in his body and to choose an action based upon what he felt that his body needed at the time. While he did that, I brought Blake to the kitchen with me. As I cooked, Blake learned more about standing up and holding on to things, bending down to pick things up, and how different things feel in your mouth when you chew on them.
Fast forward a few hours and Dylan was still not his usual bouncy, energetic self. He chose quiet play activities all morning and ate very little. I asked him if he felt “yucky”, and he said that he did not. Although I suspected that he did, I did not negate his statement. Instead, I suggested that perhaps he was having a quiet kind of day, and that people do have quiet days from time to time. He was learning yet again to choose the types of activities that felt right for him at the time, and I validated his experience. Blake was teething, and he was learning that I respond to him when he fusses. He learned to keep fussing until I figured out what he needed, whether it was nursing, chewing a chilled teether, gnawing a wood teether, or just being held.
In the afternoon, we went outside at Dylan’s request. I could tell that he was still not feeling well because he did not touch his shovel. He usually runs outside and starts digging as soon as he gets his shovel. Again, he was learning to tailor his activities to how he was feeling. We put Blake in the stroller and went for a very short walk. As Blake learned through quiet observation what the outdoor places near our home look like in the winter, Dylan walked along slowly beside me. He saw small boot prints in the hardened mud of the road and asked who made them. I asked him who he thought made them, and he smiled as he correctly answered that they were his. I took the opportunity to point out that the road was muddy yesterday and we made tracks, but today the road was frozen solid, so our steps did not leave any tracks. We turned around at his request and went home. Our day continued in this manner, unplanned lesson after unplanned lesson. Tomorrow, we get to do it all over again and find even more interesting things to learn about ourselves, each other, and the world around us.