Why should I do all the work?

C loves fetching things. He loves matching. He loves the flags in our classroom. So it's not much of a jump to assume that he loves fetching the different flags and matching them to the pictures in the book.

So today he helped me solve the problem of checking that our flags on the stand, actually matched those in the little flip book. We started at the beginning; I pointed to the picture, read the name of the flag and asked him to go and fetch it for me. He'd hurry off, find it in the pile of flags on the mat and then lay it on top of the picture in the book. C even caught the subtle difference between El Salvador and Nicaragua, which I didn't even notice the first time.

El Salvador

Nicaragua

If we ran into a picture we couldn't match I took it out of the book so the children wouldn't be looking for it in the future. At the end we actually had two flags that didn't have a match in the book and I promised C that I would make some new cards for them so they could be a part of the matching.

The funny part about all this? I've been meaning to check this material for a while, C just made it easier and more purposeful for me to complete the task. Sure it took a little bit longer (well maybe not, he was pretty fast) but instead of just making sure the book was accurate I helped pass along some of the country names to C at the same time. Two for the price of one!