School and fun on the run

I like to say we're homeschooling, but truth is we're mostly unschooling. Learning while going about our normal lives. Learning on the go. Today has been one of those day. While to the untrained eye it might seem like we've wasted a couple of hours at the mall, we've been doing reading, maths, economics and personal finance.

First stop – the bookstore.

The little one seems to be enjoying the newly-discovered Humphrey series, so mommy wants to make sure he has the second book waiting when he is done with the first one. He's reading it on his own so I have no idea if it's good or bad, but it might just be the kind of book I've been looking for. A real book, a big kid book, with almost no pictures in it, which would pave the way to reading other stuff than the endless 'Wimpy kid' type. Those were fun and served their purpose, but there are so many books out there waiting to be read. (Fingers crossed!)
Actually, I remember reading an article that raised this issue. Many children, like 5-8 graders, are reluctant to let go of the comic-book format they've been used to, as it required little effort.

Highway robbery

While browsing through the bookstore, the kid inevitably wanders off to the toy section and comes back with some Minecraft key-ring. Some small thingy, he was sure mommy won't object to. But mommy knows this is a fancy bookstore selling a lot of overpriced stuff.
Poor child was aghast to discover the bloody key-ring costs way more than the book.
'Probably they put such a price on it, because they're selling it to kids and kids don't check'
'No, honey, because kids don't have money. Parents do. But kids have big mouths that can start wailing and big eyes that can well up with tears, so parents cannot resist and pay for the stupid toy'.

Off to the supermarket

Where we continued our lesson in economics and financial responsibility.
There's cheap cute toys

And quite expensive toys (that' like $100)

Spending a lot of time online, my little one likes to figure out how much everything is in dollars or euros. He has no problem whatsoever doing multiplications or divisions in his head if it comes to money, whereas when we sit down to do some math on Khan Academy there's an audible sigh whenever such operations are required.
By the way, can anyone explain why are kids required to learn rounding up numbers. I mean, if something is $5.25 you don't hear the cashier: “Oh, let's round it up to $5!”
The kid did not ask for any toy, not even the blue teddy mommy was ready to put in her cart (we have a thing with teddy-bears, but that's another story.)

Mommy sets a good example (sort of)

Now it's mommy's turn to give a lesson in financial responsibility. The kid doesn't know the difference between the various bottles, but he can check prices.
So, rather than spend money on whiskey

Mommy decides to settle for a bottle of French wine (and some French cheese to go with it)

(Off-topic – how comes you never see those 'Buy 3, pay2' signs on hard-liquor shelves?)

Shopping done, we end up in the food court, where the little boy gets his reward for being so patient.

I almost forgot – the unexpected lesson in physics. Did you know it is almost impossible to go up to the first floor using the escalators that are coming down? We tried that today... very embarrassing experience!

(The little boy wishes you all the best, because as long as mommy is busy on Steemit she won't be bothering him with absurd ideas like 'let's do some math'!)

Fun fact – while writing this, the OpenOffice editor kept bothering me whether I'd like to replace the word 'unschooling' with 'schooling'. Thanks, but no, thanks!

Thanks for reading