I was fortunate to have a mother that was a schoolteacher because she subconsciously educated me from the moment I could learn. She didn’t use a formal learning center or some electronic playing device, nor did I consider it formal learning. It was just fun!

Colors

Learning colors was easy. Mother would tell me to go get my brothers down the street in the blue house with white trim. I didn’t know my colors, let alone pay attention to the color of the house trim, but I DID know at which house my brothers were playing with their friends. So I headed off in that direction! It only took a few times of her using that technique before I learned the color blue and recognized white too. Sometimes she would only use the color of the trim on the house for instructions, or maybe the color of the car parked outside the house. She always used color descriptions as she talked to me. Instructions like, the green dress, the brown shoes, or the blue basket were just common conversation.

When she was cooking, she’d say things like, “Can you get me a couple of orange carrots out of the refrigerator?” or while we folded laundry, “Find the matching pink sock and pair it with this one!” It was those moments of interaction with her that I cherished. Sure, it was usually helping her do chores around the house, but that didn’t matter, she was feeding my brain and I was sponging it up. I quickly began asking the color of more objects. She was a smart woman and used more than the basic colors such as turquoise, burgundy, maroon, cream, tan, and peach. It wasn’t long before I knew and could identify many colors. Children will learn easily and quickly when they ask questions, so jump on the chance to answer a child’s question regardless of how silly it might sound.

Numbers

Mother also used numbers in our everyday conversations. Instead of using the color descriptions, she might say, “Go three houses down and tell your brothers to come home!” Again, I don’t remember understanding the numbers, but I knew where my brothers were playing, which gave me the chance to obey her. I learned quickly that matching socks or pairing them meant 2 socks. She would ask me to count the items on the grocery list so we didn’t forget anything, then she would ask me to count the items in our cart before we checked out. There were so many ways that she taught me to use basic numbers that I can’t remember them all, but it was usually within our every day conversations, so it wasn’t hard to learn my numbers and recognize them.

Mother multitasked even before that was considered a talent. She would drill me to count by 2’s or 5’s to the rhythm of her clicking fingers while driving. That was challenging and fun, especially when I could stay up with her rhythm. I remember begging her to create the rhythm with her clicking when we were bored at home.

We played learning games all the time. I’m not sure if Mother intended to actually teach us or if she was merely pacifying us, but nonetheless, it worked.

I learned to read when we were driving to and from places. Mother would ask me to read the street signs, traffic signs, and the store signs. Now of course, many of those signs I couldn’t read until after she told me what the words were, but I had a sharp memory and didn’t miss that answer the next time she asked.

Whenever the family drove somewhere, we played games in the car. We would each pick a different color of car and count as many of them as we saw on our way. Sometimes we picked the same color and would all count together. I learned to count passed one hundred by playing this version. There were several versions of the game to keep it fun.

Our favorite game was The Alphabet Naming Game. We would choose an animal or a girl’s name, or a boy’s name, or a flower for the main object. One person started the game by saying out loud the name of the item that started with an A. The next person used the letter B to name the object. The third person used the letter C and so on through the entire alphabet. “Q’s” were the hardest. We loved this game and had memorized the kinds of animals for each letter of the alphabet before long. We had to change the game a little just to keep it interesting, as we got older, by letting EVERY person in the car provide a name for the same letter. This game taught the sequencing of the alphabet, the sounds each letter made, and the patience of waiting our turn.

Most people are familiar with the game “I Spy.” We played that, too. Each person in the car got one chance to be the spy and we didn’t really keep score. It was just pure fun to have everyone playing. Our descriptions became more colorful and harder to guess, as we grew older.

Another game we played regularly around the house was the Rhyming Game. She would start with an easy word and we would take turns with rhyming words until we were “rhymed-out,” which usually ended with tons of silly laughter.