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Pat,
Pam's response was so thorough. I did want to say that the thing you might be
missing if you decide what a person should learn is this thing called
serendipity.
It's responsible for much of the learning opportunities in our house.....if I
tried to make up some lesson, we might miss out on those serindipitous
moments that I couldn't possibly plan for in my wildest dreams.

Not one radical unschooler here has ever suggested not introducing new items
or topics of interest to your child. No one has suggested not sharing
interesting things to do, places to go or people to meet.
But there is a wide world of difference between introducing these things in
an interesting way and doing a lesson.
A lesson to me, sends a message that that is how people should learn.
And that just isn't true.
When you choose a focus for a topic, you are possibly blocking truly
wonderful moments and learning opportunities that are more meaningful from
happening.
Choosing a focus might make me miss some lightbulb moment that is ten times
more important at that moment for my child than some contrived topic.
Contrived, because instead of trusting that they will learn all that they
need, I am choosing a topic and trying to get everyone in the house focused
on the same topic in the same time frame. Why?
I say it's a lack of trust in unschooling and the fact that it does work.
Don't assume that unschooling parents aren't constantly opening doors to
their children by introducing new thoughts, ideas and topics.
How it's done, however, makes all the difference.
Ren

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> I say it's a lack of trust in unschooling and the fact that it does work.
> Don't assume that unschooling parents aren't constantly opening doors to
> their children by introducing new thoughts, ideas and topics.
> How it's done, however, makes all the difference.

I keep using the word "offer" - but somehow that might seem more passive than
it really works out. I use it because I'm emphasizing that we're "inviting"
the kids to do something or share something with us, rather than insisting
that it is time to sit down and do their math or science or whatever.
Sometimes it really is just an offhand "offer" - "Hey, do you feel like going
to the science museum today?" Or, "Look at this coloring book of underwater
creatures, is this something you want?" Other times it is slightly stronger,
"Hey, I thought we'd go to the science musuem today." (See - I'm not exactly
asking, but the kids can object - "NO NONO we already had plans to build a
lego castle today.") Sometimes we make plans in advance. I say, "Hey guys, I
really want to go up to the Norton Simon Museum one of these days and so we
put that on the calendar. Again, if a kid really didn't want to go, I'd work
out an alternative for them - staying with a friend or something. But when
they were young they usually wanted to go - we always had fun no matter where
we went and it wasn't like I tortured them, making them stay longer than it
was fun.

I also used the "Leave it laying around" method a lot -- if I found something
I thought was cool for the kids, I'd just get it and leave it out. Sometimes
it would get buried in the piles of stuff and reemerge months or years later
just at the right moment (there's that serendipity again) for some child to
be interested.

--pam


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