• Feb. 16, 2006 - Unschooling & letting go of expectations
My son is a sculptural whiz. His passion for Legos, and especially, Bionicles, is astounding. In fact, it is somewhat unnerving, at times.
John Holt really summed up my perspective on education, "Trust children."
It is harder than it sounds, though.
I know that my son is learning incredible things through his passion. He has an intuitive understanding of mechanics- gears & axles, ball & socket joints, & structural integrity. Of course, he doesn't necessarily use these words- but the understanding is definitely there. He is also creating his own characters, with their own powers, names, and stories. He wants me to help him to put all of this into a comic book.
I am excited to help him create fiction. This is a wonderful step in the direction of creative writing, and storytelling, and I am thrilled that he wants to pursue it. He wants my help in putting it together.
And this is where the idealism & the reality of unschooling don't quite match up. In my dreams of child-led learning, I envisioned all sorts of activities that we could do together (most likely based on the unmet needs of my own inner child). However, obsessing about one type of commercial toy was not in my picture.
Now, I admit, the Bionicles are pretty cool. I mean, hey- he could be into action figures based on TV shows, right? There are Bionicle movies, and books, and a whole universe & storyline- but their very nature as Legos encourages one to take them apart and create their own figures. This is a good thing.
The tough part is that he doesn't seem to have any other interests. All he wants to do is play Bionicles, and occasionally a computer game or two. He loves when I read to him, or we listen to audiobooks together. He is also developing his handwriting, as I have made a house rule about writing thank you cards for gifts received. (Considering Christmas is shortly followed by his birthday, and he even received cash for Valentine's Day, there is plenty for him to write about!). These are all my ideas, though, and therefore are in a bit of conflict with my Holtian ideals.
We do keep an open communication about why I think certain things are important to work on. Sure, I know that he can learn to read & write later. Plenty of kids do just that. However, he is aware that some people don't really trust our homeschooling efforts, and that if he keeps at or beyond grade level for these things, there will be no cause for complaint. He is also aware that by learning to read & write (at which he is progressing very nicely), he is opening himself to a whole new world in which he can learn about anything that he chooses.
And so, meanwhile, I am riding the Bionicle train. I am trying to stay focused on all of the things he is learning from this adventure. I will bring with it what I can, about how to construct a story that holds the reader/listener's attention, help with spelling, layout ideas, etc. And I will try and keep in mind that I played RPG's for years as a young adult, thoroughly immersing myself in completely ficitonal realities, and I survived.
I daresay that I even learned a thing or two from it.
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• Jan. 20, 2006 -
I think that I am going to use this blog as less of a record of our families homeschool adventure, and more of a journal of my own experiences as a homeschool mom. I have another blog at blogspot, which I have been using to track our various activities. I have given that address to my various family members, and now feel that I am less able to be candid due to their readership.
I have (as so many here do, I am sure) quite a bit of resistance from various family members about our educational choices. The perspective that all of my problems would be solved if I would just put my son in school is not one I want to invite. This means that I just don't share the trials with certain non-supportive people.
It is unfortunate, as the reality is that all paths have their blessings & their difficulties. I need a space where I can write about our challenges, without inviting even more commentary from the peanut gallery about what a wonderful experience that my son is missing out on by not attending public school.
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• Nov. 12, 2005 - another adventure in blogging
I already have a homeschool blog. I
am not certain that I want to go through all of the rigamarole involved
in transferring my blog over here.... but hey, this is a real, live
homeschooling community, and it might be worth it.
I am going to poke around a bit & decide what sort of approach I am going to take.
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