Every once in a while my mainstream schooling propaganda mind gets hold of me and I try “schooling” the kids by asking what certain numbers are etc… Xavier hates it with a passion and not only will he not tell me, he gets uninterested and almost gets upset and just says that he doesn’t know… I learned my lesson and don’t do it anymore, but then my brain starts asking if he is really learning…

then out of the blue he surprises me… he can do simple math… addition and subtraction… he knows that 2+1=3… though he doesn’t know that he knows it yet and would never admit it…

I got a game installed on the computer a few days ago that I didn’t know if it would interest him or not… it is an older game… I think 2001 but it is not really dated… “The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions”… pretty much the goal of the goal is to do “something”… it can be to get a mouse to his cheese or a bowling ball into a basket… to do what you have to do, you have to build a contraption… you use ropes and pulleys, springs and generators, gravity etc… it teaches you how gears work, how ropes and pulleys can work, how somethings are heavier than others…

logic…physics….

I started to play the game and naturally Xavier sat down next to me and watched… then while I was up and doing something he decided to play and was really good… we went back and started his own game and now he is advancing though the levels… today as Simon sat down next to him and he started a new level he pointed out how many of each thing that he had for that levels contraption… (eta… it is shown by having a small number next to each picture)
He is learning without knowing it and applying what he is learning seamlessly and unconsciously… this is the way that he learns best… It makes me proud that we can provide that environment for him…