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.We saw that most of the mothers thought play was important, andspent at least a brief period in the afternoon playing with their children.Imaginative play was a vehicle for giving large amounts of generalknowledge, and for an insistence on logical and coherent thinking.Games with rules tended to be more overtly linked with the beginningsof literacy and numeracy.Stories, and the questions they gave rise to,introduced much general knowledge, gave the child an opportunity toclarify what was puzzling her, and allowed her to express her anxietiesand to obtain reassurance.Some mothers introduced their children towriting in a formal way.In this chapter we have quoted conversations from fourteen differenthomes.Of course, none of the mothers introduced topics to the childrenin all the contexts we have described.In two and a half hours we sawonly a brief glimpse of their total time with their children.Nevertheless,it seems likely that these examples give a good representation of therange of topics and learning contexts found in most of the homes. 4Learning at home:living and talking togetherIn Chapter 3 we showed how some mothers turned play, games andstories to educational advantage, while a few gave their children formal lessons.But in most families these occasions were relatively rare.A fewmothers devoted most of the afternoon to the child, but generally theyhad housework to do or younger children to care for.In their freemoments they often preferred to drink coffee and smoke, while chattingto their child, rather than play with her.This did not mean that the children were missing out on learningopportunities.One of our strongest impressions from this study was ofthe amount which children learnt from simply being around with theirmothers: discussing what each was doing, or had done, what they woulddo next, arguing with each other, and, above all, endlessly asking andanswering questions.In this chapter we will describe some of thesecontexts of everyday life, and discuss what the children were learning inthem.An everyday learning context:making a shopping listMaking a shopping list is a good illustration of the learning potentiali-ties of an ordinary household event.In the example we quote below,Pauline and her mother had been drinking coffee, and intermittentlydiscussing what shopping was needed.Pauline s mother picked up hershopping list, and started to alter it and add it up.She certainly didnot embark on this activity for educational reasons, but she did use the Learning at home: living and talking together 55occasion to try to get over to Pauline the message that the contents ofa shopping list have to be related to the amount of money available.Pauline was initially curious about what her mother was writing, andassumed it was a note to their friend and neighbour, Irene, who livedupstairs:child: What you gonna write? Irene?mother: No.child: Who?mother: Adding up.child: Padding up?mother: To see how much my shopping comes to.child: Packing up?mother: Adding up.child: I think you said padding up.Later Irene called round and offered to do some shopping for her in thelocal Vivo s.The offer was accepted.Irene left, and Pauline s motherstarted to cross off from her shopping list the items Irene was going tobuy for them:mother: We ve only got that little bit of shopping to get now[shows Pauline the list].child: Mummy? Can I have one of them drinks? Can I?mother: Get some more drink?child: Yeah.Can write it down on there [points to where shewants it written on the list].Up here.mother: I ll get you some when I go tomorrow.child: Aw! [Disappointed]mother: All right? Cause I m not getting it today.child: No.In in the Vivo s ?mother: Haven t got Daddy s money yet.child: I ve got no money.Pauline seems to have misheard her mother at this point.Her mothercorrects her:mother: No, I haven t got enough to get my shopping.All of it.child: Not all of it?mother: Irene s just taken five pounds.She ll bring some change 56 Learning at home: living and talking togetherback.If she s got some, she ll bring some change back.It s notenough to get all that.Is it? [Points to the shopping list]child: No.mother: See? So when Daddy gets paid I ll get some more moneyand then I ll go and get the rest.child: Yeah.That s nice, isn t it, Mum?mother: Mm.I got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,nine, ten, eleven, twelve [counts items on list].child: [Joins in counting] Nine, ten, eleven.mother: Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen bits.child: Mum, let s have a look! [Mother shows child the list] Do itagain.mother: We gotta get rice, tea, braising steak, cheese, pickle,carrots, fish, chicken, bread, eggs, bacon, beefburgers, beans.Oh, Irene s gone to get them [crosses off beans].peas, ham,corned beef.child: And what s that [points to a word on the list]?mother: That s lemon drink [crosses off lemon drink ].She s justgone down to get that one.See?What might Pauline have learned from this conversation? If asked,her mother would probably have singled out the counting activity; wheninterviewed later, she mentioned that she was teaching Pauline to count
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