I don’t know who learned more yesterday.
While Elijah was building robots, I was in the background.
I listened to my not-so-little-boy work through some problems.
He had to decide which way to cross the belt.
He had to figure out why the birds weren’t dancing.
He had to learn new commands with the computer program.
And he did it.
And he did it without me.
And he was learning. A lot.
I had to stop him so that I could teach him other things. We worked through my prescribed list—mapping out New England states, creating eight vocab cards, and a few other things. It felt contrived. Because it was.
I’m making a U-turn.
Sometimes they are dangerous and illegal, but I don’t think the homeschool police will chase after me. For over a year I’ve been tossing around the idea of tossing out my agenda and letting Elijah lead the way. I’m overdue. It’s time to let this boy devote some serious energy to what he wants to learn about.
I’m unplanned. I’m unprepared. I feel like I’m in the Emerald City and I’ve been given not the green glasses but super blurry ones. I want to click home to Kansas because Oz scares me, but I know that Kansas is not what my not-so-little-boy needs.
I thought I had come to this place before, but I never really made it. This time I am on that yellow brick road.
It’s a brand new adventure– destination: delight-directed.
So excited for you and Elijah! I can’t wait to see how this goes. This is the direction I am ultimately going with Parker. He does quite a bit on his own already, but I do still offer up lots of learning possibilities to expand his options. But one day I hope to just let him completely direct his eductation.
Wow. That’s got to be scary. But your confidence that it is RIGHT will give you strength.
My son is absolutely Robot-crazy. He make robots out of Legos, empty boxes, playdough, and anything else he can get his hands on. If you have a chance, stop by and look at the Robot he made here:
http://mybilingualboys.blogspot.com/2009/11/art-box.html
I agree that we should let them explore their own interests as much as possible. I think that we are raising creative little boys that will be able to think for themselves.
YOu might enjoy the book Christian Unschooling. Even if you aren’t going to go whole hog with the unschooling….it is very encouraging and helps to inspire the delight directed approach.
I have decided to pretty much school the 3 Rs and unschool the rest. The thing i unschool the most is science b/c my boy’s whole life is a sicence experiment.
He’s 7.
I am hoping everything is ok on your end. I frequent your blog and have seen no new entries. Just thinking about you. Please let us know how things are.