[email protected]

I was hoping someone could help me...on another list I am on, I was trying to explain to the group what unschooling is. I received another question from the group and I was hoping someone here could help me find the best way to answer her questions. I mean, I know my children are learning and I personally don't care if they do want to "play" all day (in fact I hope they do!), but I have a hard time putting it into the right words. Any advice on what to answer to the following would be *greatly* appreciated!

{beginning}
Question. Do you ever have a problem with motivating your child to
get interested in "learning" about something? I purchase
curriculum from a charter-like school. I'm really interested in
unschooling but I'm afraid my kids would want to play all day. I know
children learn through "play" but I don't think playing with their
action-figure toys all day would benefit their extended learning.
What do you do about this?
{end}


«¤º·.Brandie.·º¤»

A hubby loving, attachment parenting,
homeschooling, child care providing,
scrapbooking woman!
My Blog: http://scraphappymom.blogspot.com




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Pam Hartley

> Question. Do you ever have a problem with motivating your child to
> get interested in "learning" about something? I purchase
> curriculum from a charter-like school. I'm really interested in
> unschooling but I'm afraid my kids would want to play all day. I know
> children learn through "play" but I don't think playing with their
> action-figure toys all day would benefit their extended learning.
> What do you do about this?


Well, there are two points:

One is that playing with their action-figure toys *would* benefit their
extended learning -- I know I'm continually amazed when listening in on the
adventures of my daughters' action figures and stuffed animals how much they
are working out different complex things -- interpersonal relationships,
storytelling which is just verbal writing, grammar, syntax, public speaking
-- all this without even talking about the various "subjects" that come up
in such play ranging from science to history to arithmetic.

The second is that no child plays with their action figures all day every
day unless they are given no other choices of things to do. Unschooling is
all about paying attention to their interests and helping them (whether
that's finding new action figures for them on eBay, helping them build
Action Figure Swim World in the back yard with an old rubbermaid bin, taking
pictures of the action figures doing various action figure things so they
can keep them in a scrapbook, etc.) and also in bringing bits of the world
that you think *they* might find interesting to them (trips to the zoo, or a
factory that makes jelly beans, or videos or books or websites about otters
or Pokemon or bananas).

Unschooling is the pursuit of happiness. In that pursuit, learning cannot
help but happen. Humans are just like that.

Pam

rebecca delong

> Question. Do you ever have a problem with motivating your child to
> get interested in "learning" about something? I purchase
> curriculum from a charter-like school. I'm really interested in
> unschooling but I'm afraid my kids would want to play all day. I know
> children learn through "play" but I don't think playing with their
> action-figure toys all day would benefit their extended learning.
> What do you do about this?



How old are your kids? Have you ever played "action figures" with them? Or even just listened in on their game? I'm often amazed at the complexity of the games that Jaiden(4) makes up. I firmly belive that playing is really the most important thing that kids do, they absorb, think about, digest, come to amazing conclusions about tons of things while they are playing, ever had your little one pipe up with an observation of their world while playing something that seems completly unrelated to what they are playing? learning happens all the time, even with action-figures.

My advise, put the cirriculum up, let them play. They will learn what they need to, when they need to.

Rebecca



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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Lisa Hardiman

My children are gifted at playing, and they are so advanced in many
areas because I allow them to. Lisa wpp

-----Original Message-----
From: rebecca delong [mailto:elfmama92104@...]
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 12:50 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] How would you answer this?



> Question. Do you ever have a problem with motivating your child to
> get interested in "learning" about something? I purchase
> curriculum from a charter-like school. I'm really interested in
> unschooling but I'm afraid my kids would want to play all day. I know
> children learn through "play" but I don't think playing with their
> action-figure toys all day would benefit their extended learning.
> What do you do about this?



How old are your kids? Have you ever played "action figures" with them?
Or even just listened in on their game? I'm often amazed at the
complexity of the games that Jaiden(4) makes up. I firmly belive that
playing is really the most important thing that kids do, they absorb,
think about, digest, come to amazing conclusions about tons of things
while they are playing, ever had your little one pipe up with an
observation of their world while playing something that seems completly
unrelated to what they are playing? learning happens all the time, even
with action-figures.

My advise, put the cirriculum up, let them play. They will learn what
they need to, when they need to.

Rebecca



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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Bill and Diane

Children learn, not through "play" but through real genuine PLAY! I
think the quote marks here are really significant. As some of you know,
we've been doing trains here for the past year. What ON EARTH can be
learned by trains? Oh, sure, Thomas and Friends trains have numbers
painted on their sides, and I'm assured by the promotional material that
children can learn the colors of them. C'mon on! Who really cares?

Earlier this evening my son (5) came in and was talking about Big Sky
Country. I mentioned that was Colorado--no, New Mex--no, anyway, it's
somewhere--go ask Dad, and he informed me "Montana." Where did he GET
that?! Train magazine. From playing with trains, and being supported to
follow his interest in trains. No motivation required to "learn," he
just comes up with stuff.

:-) Diane

scraphappymom@... wrote:

>I was hoping someone could help me...on another list I am on, I was trying to explain to the group what unschooling is. I received another question from the group and I was hoping someone here could help me find the best way to answer her questions. I mean, I know my children are learning and I personally don't care if they do want to "play" all day (in fact I hope they do!), but I have a hard time putting it into the right words. Any advice on what to answer to the following would be *greatly* appreciated!
>
>{beginning}
>Question. Do you ever have a problem with motivating your child to
>get interested in "learning" about something? I purchase
>curriculum from a charter-like school. I'm really interested in
>unschooling but I'm afraid my kids would want to play all day. I know
>children learn through "play" but I don't think playing with their
>action-figure toys all day would benefit their extended learning.
>What do you do about this?
>{end}
>
>
>

Fetteroll

on 2/27/03 2:13 PM, scraphappymom@... at scraphappymom@...
wrote:

> Question. Do you ever have a problem with motivating your child to
> get interested in "learning" about something? I purchase
> curriculum from a charter-like school. I'm really interested in
> unschooling but I'm afraid my kids would want to play all day. I know
> children learn through "play" but I don't think playing with their
> action-figure toys all day would benefit their extended learning.
> What do you do about this?

How's this:

How would your husband get you interested in rebuilding carburetors?

Answer: He probably couldn't! Motivation comes from inside. It comes from
someone wanting to pull the information in because they need it, not from
someone else persuading them that something is interesting enough to learn.

How did they learn English? What kind of words did they use as 2 yos? Did
you worry that cup and red and owwie and juice weren't preparing them to be
corporate executives? They lived one day at a time, reaching out for what
they needed for the moment. And day by day, living for each day, they got to
be where they are today.

Preparing someone for an unknown future is hard boring work. It takes years.
But if a child pursues what interests him, he's already preparing for his
future. Even if it's actions figures.

Play is how children are *designed* to explore the world and learn. That's
their natural state. That is until adults come along and mess it up trying
to impose unnatural learning ways on them. And because those ways are
unnatural, they are *hard* for kids. We assume because kids find it
difficult that what they're learning is difficult. But it isn't the what
that's difficult. It's the how that's difficult. The difference between
being made to learn something someone else wants you to and playing is the
difference between climbing up the side of a really steep mountain that
someone else decided you need to climb, and rambling all over the
mountainside exploring and playing and having fun. One is work and if you
don't like where you ended up, you'll probably never climb another mountain.
The second is fun and where you end up isn't nearly as important as what you
discovered along the way.

Joyce

Nancy Wooton

on 2/28/03 4:09 AM, Fetteroll at fetteroll@... wrote:

To quote Ron Weasley: "That was bloody brilliant!"

Mind if I pass it on to another list?

Nancy

> on 2/27/03 2:13 PM, scraphappymom@... at scraphappymom@...
> wrote:
>
>> Question. Do you ever have a problem with motivating your child to
>> get interested in "learning" about something? I purchase
>> curriculum from a charter-like school. I'm really interested in
>> unschooling but I'm afraid my kids would want to play all day. I know
>> children learn through "play" but I don't think playing with their
>> action-figure toys all day would benefit their extended learning.
>> What do you do about this?
>
> How's this:
>
> How would your husband get you interested in rebuilding carburetors?
>
> Answer: He probably couldn't! Motivation comes from inside. It comes from
> someone wanting to pull the information in because they need it, not from
> someone else persuading them that something is interesting enough to learn.
>
> How did they learn English? What kind of words did they use as 2 yos? Did
> you worry that cup and red and owwie and juice weren't preparing them to be
> corporate executives? They lived one day at a time, reaching out for what
> they needed for the moment. And day by day, living for each day, they got to
> be where they are today.
>
> Preparing someone for an unknown future is hard boring work. It takes years.
> But if a child pursues what interests him, he's already preparing for his
> future. Even if it's actions figures.
>
> Play is how children are *designed* to explore the world and learn. That's
> their natural state. That is until adults come along and mess it up trying
> to impose unnatural learning ways on them. And because those ways are
> unnatural, they are *hard* for kids. We assume because kids find it
> difficult that what they're learning is difficult. But it isn't the what
> that's difficult. It's the how that's difficult. The difference between
> being made to learn something someone else wants you to and playing is the
> difference between climbing up the side of a really steep mountain that
> someone else decided you need to climb, and rambling all over the
> mountainside exploring and playing and having fun. One is work and if you
> don't like where you ended up, you'll probably never climb another mountain.
> The second is fun and where you end up isn't nearly as important as what you
> discovered along the way.
>
> Joyce
>
>

[email protected]

In a message dated 2/28/03 9:44:40 AM Central Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:

<< What ON EARTH can be
learned by trains? >>

Yeah, what a waste of time!! LOL
Have you read the book "Colouring outside the lines" ?
He talks about his sons passion, TRAINS (and subways etc..) and how this
intense fascination all of his childhood ended up becoming a career in subway
engineering.
The ways that the Dad honored this childs unique interest were amazing. He
trusted, he gave access to information and it was exactly what that child was
meant for.
How cool.

Ren
"The sun is shining--the sun is shining. That is the magic. The flowers are
growing--the roots are stirring. That is the magic. Being alive is the
magic--being strong is the magic The magic is in me--the magic is in
me....It's in every one of us."

----Frances Hodgson Burnett

[email protected]

In a message dated 2/27/03 11:18:24 AM Pacific Standard Time,
scraphappymom@... writes:


> {beginning}
> Question. Do you ever have a problem with motivating your child to
> get interested in "learning" about something? I purchase
> curriculum from a charter-like school. I'm really interested in
> unschooling but I'm afraid my kids would want to play all day. I know
> children learn through "play" but I don't think playing with their
> action-figure toys all day would benefit their extended learning.
> What do you do about this?
> {end}
>

Unschooling, for the parents, requires a shift in how they see their children
and learning. They need to trust their children's innate desire to learn and
understand how learning happens, quickly and permanently knowledge is
absorbed when it's gathered while pursuing a passion rather than through rote
memorization.

Steer this person to read John Holt and Unschooling.com to start. Unless
they are willing change their ideas about school and learning they probably
won't succeed at unschooling.

Kris


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Fetteroll

on 2/28/03 11:38 AM, Nancy Wooton at ikonstitcher@... wrote:

> To quote Ron Weasley: "That was bloody brilliant!"
>
> Mind if I pass it on to another list?
>
> Nancy

Wow, cool, I've never been called bloody briliant before! :-)

Sure, feel free to pass along anything anyone thinks is bloody brilliant ;-)

Joyce

Kelli Traaseth

Fetteroll <fetteroll@...> wrote:

**Wow, cool, I've never been called bloody briliant before! :-)**



Yeah ya have, you just didn't know it! :-)



Kelli








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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Fetteroll

on 3/1/03 7:03 AM, Kelli Traaseth at kellitraas@... wrote:

> **Wow, cool, I've never been called bloody briliant before! :-)**
>
> Yeah ya have, you just didn't know it! :-)

Thank you ! :-)

Joyce