Unschooling river of life

Last night my son (6) was asking me what the biggest number on earth was, and I explained that there is no such thing, because you can always add on to any number and make it bigger. So I mentioned the concept of infinity and he just stopped still. I could almost see him just turning that concept over and around in his brain and after a few minutes of silence (unusual for him) he said "Wow mom, that idea's just too big."

We talked about it some more and I could see the idea starting to take real shape in his brain. Then I mentioned that there was a symbol for infinity and he surprised me by saying "It's a sideways '8' isn't it?"

I have no idea where he got that from—some random unschooling connection in his brain to somewhere else. I love seeing that kind of spark happen. So he drew the symbol, and then I showed him how to make a Möbius strip which came to mind while thinking of the infinity symbol. We had this long interesting discussion about numbers, infinity, the universe, etc. that went on as we got ready for bed and right up until the second he fell asleep, mid-sentence.

Just a couple of cool moments from the unschooling river of life.

Blue Skies,

-Robin-
Slightly edited from SandraDodd.com/day/robin
photo by Sandra Dodd
(coming from the desert, the ocean looks like infinity to me)