Flying Along

DD came up to me today with this picture she had drawn, and told me they were balloons. She solemnly explained that 'those ones are a long long way away, and these are closer', and that the balloons were really all the same size. I was totally blown away by her grasp of perspective, as although we've probably mentioned it to her before, I didn't really expect her to take in what I think is quite a complex concept.

Sometimes I think we defeat ourselves with our own expectations. We expect a child to be able to do certain things at a certain age, and that is all we see. If we don't listen carefully, we will miss these little moments that show us that a child's mind is amazing, and not something you should ever underestimate.

I have no idea when children normally develop this concept, DD could be right on track with it for all I know, but none the less I am amazed at how her brain develops. It's a privilege to have the experience of watching it as it happens.

And it's so obvious right now, she's jumping ahead in leaps and bounds. Along with her drawing ability (which is sketchy and intermittent!), she's really into constructing things out of blocks, boxes, paper, anything she can get her hands on. We cleaned up these 'pop-onz' the other day in one of our decluttering races (will have to post about those some day, they're fun!), and she's had a wonderful time making all sorts of structures out of them, and putting them together in ways that wouldn't even occur to me. She immediately decided one of the blocks was a window box, and has added flowers to decorate it.

It has also been amazing the last week watching her interacting with her new baby cousin. She's already besotted with her, and when she had a cuddle today, the expression on her face was akin to the expression on my sisters when she first held her too, simple wonder and love. It was beautiful to watch. And she is so gentle and patient with her too, quite different to our usual bouncy, excitable child. I am really looking forward to watching their relationship develop over the next few years.

As for formal homeschooling, we're waiting for next year, when hopefully we'll all be settled into our new home properly, to start. I have lots of plans, but right now we're so busy still, with decluttering, organising, and of course, cuddling the new baby, to really be thinking about schooling. And of course, we're learning so much every day that who has time to stop and do worksheets. Well, aside from mazes, which DD enjoyed the other day, and a few dot-to-dots...