Learning. Without Any Help From Me.

Iggy (6) has an Eyeball Animation drawing book – creature edition. A little gem he found at the Goodwill one day a couple years ago. Its a neat book with two giant googly eyes permanently fixed to the last page of the book and then sheets of blank paper that fit over and around the eyes…so the stuff you draw has googly eyes. He filled up all the pages with his own lovely creations and then the book was forgotten about. He recently found the book again and discovered that in the margins, there are little facts written by the author…mostly about greek mythology. Medusa, Centaur, etc.

Well, Iggy has suddenly decided that Greek Mythology is the coolest thing ever. He keeps going back to that book and plugging away at the reading (because he wants to know the facts, no one told him to know the facts) and then coming out and saying “Hey, did you know…”

This morning was the best though. He sits down to watch “Scooby Doo, Where Are You”, and apparently the mystery machine gang was dressed up for some party. And Iggy is in the living room and starts talking to whoever is within earshot, telling them who all the Scooby Doo people are dressed up as. They happen to be characters from Greek Mythology. Iggy identified them as: Daphne is Medusa, Shaggy was Cyclops, and Scooby was Cerberus “the three headed dog who guards the gates of the underworld, Mom.”

I had to smile. He’s all into exploring this subject. He wants to go to the library and get some books and he heard of an old movie that has lots of greek mythology characters in it.

The best thing about it though, is it has nothing to do with me. He’s all into it, and its his own thing. Which just goes to prove they are perfectly capable of learning billions of things without me having to hover over or make up lessons on certain things. Can you imagine someone saying they were actively teaching their kids Greek Mythology in kindergarten? They’d put you in the nuthouse.

It’s amazing what kids can come up with. All by themselves.