Learning from Each Other

Labor day weekend and many children are going back to school next week.  My boys are in a year round school and they have been in session since the week after the Fourth of July.  It is amazing to see the changing dynamics of their relationship, now that they are both in school.

My second grader loves to quiz his Kindergartner brother as we drive around in the car. 

"What's 2+2?" "What's 4+4?"

"4" and "8"

"Right... What's 20+20?" "What's 40+40?"  

He goes through all the addition facts coaching his brother about how to add by tens.

The other day I noticed them sitting together at the kitchen table and my older son was doing alphabetizing of his spelling words and he was showing his brother how you look to the second letter if two words start with the same letter- (like acrobat, applause).

He seems to love to be in the expert teaching mode... and then the tables turned.

I had put them to bed and my older son called to me.

"Mom, my brother learned something at school and I don't know if it's true or not."

His kindergartner brother had learned in a book that a baby fish is called a fry. 

"Let's look it up," I said.  

We found a table on the internet that listed all the animal names and what their babies are called. We found out that a fish is called a fry, or a fingerling.

My kindergartner was beaming because he had taught his older brother a fact that he didn't know.

The next morning at the breakfast table, my second grader was practicing his spelling words and he was having a little trouble getting "appreciate" right.  

His kindergartner brother piped up, "You just need to stretch it out A-P-P-R-E-C-I-A-T-E."    

"Take the attitude of a student, never too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new"  Og Mandino

Photo Story Friday here.