Ren Allen

"If I didn't come up with something, he'd just sit and
lie around..unless he played something."

But that's a schooling problem Sandy, not an unschooling one. I
really believe that if you think he'd just sit or lie around,
there's a lot of healing that needs to happen and you need to shift
how you see your child.

This list is to help people get to unschooling. Yes, I will tell
people that a happy home with some school is much better than an
unhappy one without school, but at the same time, this list is to
give unschooling advice.

So, I would tell you to STOP schooling him. To trust him fully and
to not look at his interests as future career material. He's a kid
still!! He doesn't need to think about his future. He needs to live
in today.
Passions and interests DO build wonderful futures, but not by trying
to figure out how to turn an interest into a career until that time
comes. He's young. He needs to play video games because he loves
them, that's all.

It sounds like the video games are only valid if he is thinking
about a career plan. No, they're valid because it makes him happy.
If he never has anything to do with technology or gaming in the
future, it is valid because he loves it TODAY. He's learning more
from that than all the contrived schoolwork, but you're still
trusting the schoolwork more.

A joyful, passionate life is tough to find when you are required to
do things you don't care for. He still can, but it's just harder. In
order to truly support his interests, they need to be enough. They
aren't a side thing, or a distraction from more important things,
they ARE the important things. Get into his world, see what he loves
about them. Ask him a few questions and try to play with him if
possible. His future belongs to him.

Ren
learninginfreedom.com

Donald and Sandra Winn

Thanks Ren, you are right, it is a schooling problem.


Would you all on this list mind helping me for a
couple of weeks or so if I write down what we did and
how to best put it into terms that DH may appreciate?
I would be so thankful.

~Sandy

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