Monday 16 January 2012
Trip to Warminster and New Forest
We just got back from a very nice break, I took the boys to see relatives and friends for a few days. We stayed in a very picturesque village just outside Warminster, lots of great woodland and things for the boys to do, we will probably go back and camp in the Summer. We also went on a day trip to Lymington and greatly enjoyed the drive through the New Forest, sheep in the road being the high point! Reuben was very upset there wasn't a proper beach with sand there so we didn't do much exploring but were spoilt rotten by our lovely friend instead!
Wednesday 4 January 2012
What is unschooling?
There has been some controversy these last two days on my UK Unschooling Network group about "letting children do as they please" as if this was worse than (and possibly leading to...) dealing drugs or setting fire to the neighbour's dog...
So I would like to post part of an article by Pat Farenga, friend and colleague of the late John Holt and editor, on the subject of unschooling. Clearly I agree with it all!
When pressed, I define unschooling as allowing children as much freedom to learn in the world, as their parents can comfortably bear. The advantage of this method is that it doesn't require you, the parent, to become someone else, i.e. a professional teacher pouring knowledge into child-vessels on a planned basis. Instead you live and learn together, pursuing questions and interests as they arise and using conventional schooling on an on-demand basis, if at all. This is the way we learn before going to school and the way we learn when we leave school and enter the world of work. So, for in...stance, a young child's interest in hot rods can lead him to a study of how the engine works (science), how and when the car was built (history and business), who built and designed the car (biography), etc. Certainly these interests can lead to reading texts, taking courses, or doing projects, but the important difference is that these activities were chosen and engaged in freely by the learner. They were not dictated to the learner through curricular mandate to be done at a specific time and place, though parents with a more hands-on approach to unschooling certainly can influence and guide their children's choices.
Unschooling, for lack of a better term (until people start to accept living as part and parcel of learning), is the natural way to learn. However, this does not mean unschoolers do not take traditional classes or use curricular materials when the student, or parents and children together, decide that this is how they want to do it. Learning to read or do quadratic equations are not "natural" processes, but unschoolers nonetheless learn them when it makes sense to them to do so, not because they have reached a certain age or are compelled to do so by arbitrary authority. Therefore it isn't unusual to find unschoolers who are barely eight-years-old studying astronomy or who are ten-years-old and just learning to read."
So I would like to post part of an article by Pat Farenga, friend and colleague of the late John Holt and editor, on the subject of unschooling. Clearly I agree with it all!
When pressed, I define unschooling as allowing children as much freedom to learn in the world, as their parents can comfortably bear. The advantage of this method is that it doesn't require you, the parent, to become someone else, i.e. a professional teacher pouring knowledge into child-vessels on a planned basis. Instead you live and learn together, pursuing questions and interests as they arise and using conventional schooling on an on-demand basis, if at all. This is the way we learn before going to school and the way we learn when we leave school and enter the world of work. So, for in...stance, a young child's interest in hot rods can lead him to a study of how the engine works (science), how and when the car was built (history and business), who built and designed the car (biography), etc. Certainly these interests can lead to reading texts, taking courses, or doing projects, but the important difference is that these activities were chosen and engaged in freely by the learner. They were not dictated to the learner through curricular mandate to be done at a specific time and place, though parents with a more hands-on approach to unschooling certainly can influence and guide their children's choices.
Unschooling, for lack of a better term (until people start to accept living as part and parcel of learning), is the natural way to learn. However, this does not mean unschoolers do not take traditional classes or use curricular materials when the student, or parents and children together, decide that this is how they want to do it. Learning to read or do quadratic equations are not "natural" processes, but unschoolers nonetheless learn them when it makes sense to them to do so, not because they have reached a certain age or are compelled to do so by arbitrary authority. Therefore it isn't unusual to find unschoolers who are barely eight-years-old studying astronomy or who are ten-years-old and just learning to read."
And Isaac?
I'm sorry, I do go on about Reuben a lot as he's at the forefront of our Home Education experience. But of course Isaac learns all the time, his vocabulary is huge and he is happily speaking in long sentences, he seems attracted by numbers and is trying to count as well as understanding that letters are connected to that catchy ABC song Reuben sings. But the biggest learning experience is trying to make sense of the whole world around him and he is so cute while doing it!!!
Happy New Year
So here we are back in blogland after nearly a month's break. As usual I don't know where to start...
Christmas was nice, in a sort of non-denominational way, the boys think Santa is a sort of postman as they saw me buying presents and worked out that we buy them and Santa delivers them... I hate to lie but don't have the heart to take Santa away, I tried to get the whole family involved in a historical research of what Christmas is and how it has been celebrated over the ages but no one was interested (yet! I have high hopes of at least one of them being interested in history).
Reuben is going through a Tinkerbell stage (don't ask...), we have the films, the dressing up, the website... You name it! In the picture he is doing a fairy dance.
We are also trying to keep up our woodland outings, even if it is cold and miserable, we like the Swithland area, Beacon Hill, the Outwoods, with not an artificial playground in sight.
This is Reuben with his dear friends Joe and Emily in Bradgate Park over Christmas
Reuben has also developed a love of posing for his dad's pictures, here is one he made me take a few days ago (edited by Martin)
And he has decided that he wants to write (as well as sorting out some basics like left and right, Martin was astounded when he realised Reuben knows directions) so he uses pens, pencils, sticks in the mud, and the ipad. Notice how often he has the Tinkerbell costume on...
Christmas was nice, in a sort of non-denominational way, the boys think Santa is a sort of postman as they saw me buying presents and worked out that we buy them and Santa delivers them... I hate to lie but don't have the heart to take Santa away, I tried to get the whole family involved in a historical research of what Christmas is and how it has been celebrated over the ages but no one was interested (yet! I have high hopes of at least one of them being interested in history).
We are also trying to keep up our woodland outings, even if it is cold and miserable, we like the Swithland area, Beacon Hill, the Outwoods, with not an artificial playground in sight.
Reuben has also developed a love of posing for his dad's pictures, here is one he made me take a few days ago (edited by Martin)
And he has decided that he wants to write (as well as sorting out some basics like left and right, Martin was astounded when he realised Reuben knows directions) so he uses pens, pencils, sticks in the mud, and the ipad. Notice how often he has the Tinkerbell costume on...
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