About 3 weeks ago I started to get a little flustered at the lack of "progress" Mr9 and I were making with Math, Social Science and Computer Science. We seemed to be suffering from some sort of block. I have heard writers talk about "writers block" and it felt very similar to this except in our case it was "subject block"..lol..anyway, this was not the first time that we had hit a wall and I knew from previous experience that the way to beat the block was to go around it, not through it. This meant a little out the box thinking on our part. So after much discussion and brain picking with more experienced unschooling/natural learner parents, we decided to take the bold leap into unschooling/natural learning, okay we decided to do natural learning for a trial period of one month instead of taking a midterm break..hahaha...so maybe not so bold after all.
Either way, here we are almost one month on and although one would need to do natural learning for many more months in order to actually see the real benefits of natural learning I can honestly say that in the 3 weeks we have done it two astounding leaps in Mr9's literacy ability have taken place completely child initiated. The first has been his sudden willingness to read a fiction book, actually he has completed a series of 3 fiction books(156pg each) and is already onto a new series with one book completed in the series and he is well on his way through the next book. The second, Mr9 started his own project in word on his current favourite game. When I say project I mean complete character breakdown, back story information, pictures, statistics as well as a small blurb on its creators, all of this done without me even knowing he had started it. Over and above that we have had some amazingly deep discussions about various documentaries he has chosen to watch and we have spent a lot more time out and about interacting with all varied age groups and walks of life.
Looking back on the past 3 weeks I realised something that now makes me realise just how out of sync we are with the ways of a child. From conception, a fetus develops exactly the same as any other fetus up until the about the 12th week, after that there will be small changes that will differ from other fetuses. Once baby is born we start measuring milestones and to a new mom this can be a nerve wracking time, for some reason we expect baby to be on time or even earlier than the rest when it comes to reaching these milestones, the more seasoned moms are not too fussed and realise that baby will get there sooner or later. I think the seasoned mom's have thrown away the handbook (or baby no 1 chewed it up) and they now mother more on instinct. Sometimes our babies are way ahead of the pack and sometimes they lag behind but in general they all end up getting there. We as parents muddle along in this fashion until our kids reach school age and then BAM! Suddenly, we expect them to all revert back to a 1st trimester fetus. Suddenly they need to learn at the same time as the others and on command, they need to develop in unison, they need to be switched on and ready for all subjects at all times. They need to progress across board consistently and their progress is measured weekly. It is absolute madness! It is not logical! It is not bloody natural! The past 3 weeks have shown me how stifled Mr9 has been in his progress. Instead of me teaching him in term 2, I have held him back. I have pushed and prodded trying to get him to comply with a schedule that I created at the beginning of the year. While I was focused on ticking off the tasks I was wasting crucial moments in Mr9's development, crucial moments where Mr9's brain was ready to jump out of that particular box and storm ahead. Sure his brain was only willing to storm ahead in one subject, Literacy, but it has stormed ahead gloriously! We have completed about 3 terms of reading and writing, in a public schools eyes, and then some. Not to mention the quantum physics, singularity and universe documentaries along with questions and more research on those topics. All of this generated by one little 9 year old brain left to its own devices. When did we lose faith in our children’s ability to learn, to be in awe of the world? When did we start believing that without our insistence our children would end up with empty heads and blank stares?
Looking back on the past 3 weeks I realised something that now makes me realise just how out of sync we are with the ways of a child. From conception, a fetus develops exactly the same as any other fetus up until the about the 12th week, after that there will be small changes that will differ from other fetuses. Once baby is born we start measuring milestones and to a new mom this can be a nerve wracking time, for some reason we expect baby to be on time or even earlier than the rest when it comes to reaching these milestones, the more seasoned moms are not too fussed and realise that baby will get there sooner or later. I think the seasoned mom's have thrown away the handbook (or baby no 1 chewed it up) and they now mother more on instinct. Sometimes our babies are way ahead of the pack and sometimes they lag behind but in general they all end up getting there. We as parents muddle along in this fashion until our kids reach school age and then BAM! Suddenly, we expect them to all revert back to a 1st trimester fetus. Suddenly they need to learn at the same time as the others and on command, they need to develop in unison, they need to be switched on and ready for all subjects at all times. They need to progress across board consistently and their progress is measured weekly. It is absolute madness! It is not logical! It is not bloody natural! The past 3 weeks have shown me how stifled Mr9 has been in his progress. Instead of me teaching him in term 2, I have held him back. I have pushed and prodded trying to get him to comply with a schedule that I created at the beginning of the year. While I was focused on ticking off the tasks I was wasting crucial moments in Mr9's development, crucial moments where Mr9's brain was ready to jump out of that particular box and storm ahead. Sure his brain was only willing to storm ahead in one subject, Literacy, but it has stormed ahead gloriously! We have completed about 3 terms of reading and writing, in a public schools eyes, and then some. Not to mention the quantum physics, singularity and universe documentaries along with questions and more research on those topics. All of this generated by one little 9 year old brain left to its own devices. When did we lose faith in our children’s ability to learn, to be in awe of the world? When did we start believing that without our insistence our children would end up with empty heads and blank stares?
The past 3 weeks have been more of a lesson to me than to him, and I can honestly say that my views on teaching are forever changed. I will be more open to his interests. I will no longer lead, I will support, I will enable and I will uplift but I will no longer hold him back with my conservative plans and stifling subjects.
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