02 November 2006

Three is a magic number

Years ago, we bought the Schoolhouse Rock DVD when it came out. Our eldest was fascinated by it, and as Gen Xers who grew up with it, we thought it was beyond cool.

After multiple watchings and a move from IL to here, we packed it away and didn't bother pulling it out. There's only so much Conjunction Junction one can stand.

I pulled it back out about a month ago, and our eldest rediscovered it, and our four-year-old son was mesmerized by it. He has favorites. He can sing entire songs. This from a kid who previously had zlich, zip, nada interest in anything educational.

We took all three to a local production of Schoolhouse Rock Live! recently. That's when I learned that "Three is a magic number" is my son's favorite episode.

He's now fascinated by it. He looks around the house for combinations of three. He's learned subtraction this week, just by figuring out how to get to 3, or 6, or 9. Basic multiplication: He's got it, at least when it's the 3s.

I'm blown over. It's like a switch flipped on in his head, and now he's learning by leaps and bounds. Math. Reading. He now spends hours with this phonics computer game we bought his older sister years ago. He spelled ANT last night, out of the blue.

Incredible.

It's inspired my little hyperkenetic kid to learn, more than 30 years after it was created to teach me (and the rest of us) to learn during Saturday morning cartoons.

1 comment:

Carmel said...

That's absolutely cool. It's amazing to see kids turn into these little sponges when it comes to learning.