life is full of learning

• 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.

Comments

• Feb. 16, 2006 - Welcome to Homeschool Blogger!

Posted by tn3jcarter

What a great post about unschooling. I think John Holt's philosophy about the importance of real learning which comes when the child is self directed is on target, but I also agree that some of the unschooling expectations are a bit rigid. We do, well most of us, have to cope with what those around us say.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

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• Feb. 19, 2006 - Thanks

Posted by lvg4him

Thanks for sharing! We are incorporating a lot of unschooling ideas, but not all of them (mostly for the reasons you listed in your post). We are doing more like relaxed schooling (a combo of unschooling, Mason, Moore). It was a good read. :) And I am sure your son will do fine and outgrow his Bionicle phase. Some unschooling mom wrote about "strewing" where they continuously put out different things to grab the child's interest. If they don't, the thing goes away and they try again later. If the child does show an interest, then they run with it. You might try searching for the word strewing.

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