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.
Cindi says
I’ve been perusing your site today reading about workboxes. So I’m wondering…does your u-turn mean you’re abandoning the workbox system (at least with Elijah?)
Vashti says
I’m only just starting out on my own homeschool/totschool path. I’ve read a lot about unschooling and while it seems so much more natural for the child I worry about missing things that are important or even required by my state. I don’t know how those unschoolers do it, but sometimes I’m a bit jealous of that freedom that they have. I think I’ll do what rebecca recommends above and concentrate on the three Rs and then let most of everything else fall into place naturally. If I see a gap, I’ll fill it in gently and try to work it into whatever they happen to be interested in at the time. Crossing my fingers…