Hema A. Bharadwaj

Hello!
We started unschooling about 4 months ago. Obviously we are deschooling
ourselves big time. My ds, 5 years, never went to school... he wants to do
what he wants... not what some one else wants :-) clue to mama... there has
got to be a better way... so here we are.

My dd is 2 years old. My son is big on lego and privacy... he mostly wants
at least 8-10 hours of time alone in a room with his lego per week! And
this is new to us... and while we were moving house and country twice over
in the past year....a easy to fix child proof gate was my solution until
now....

My 2 year old is almost as tall as a 4 year old and has that kind of
strength as well... so she does not take kindly to the gate any more... so
we now let ds close the room door when he needs to. And i made sure that i
would stay with my 2 year old during her sadness of being kept out. Slowly
she has come to accept her brother's need for time... adn has found her own
ways to play then. Also... we plan to give her a child's gate for our room
(a sleep only room with some toys).. so she can control entry to that
room:-) I think thats the least we can do..so she feels like she can
control access to a space like her brother can.

And interestingly ds will some times come out after 10 minutes.. and play
with dd till she seems past her sadness and then go back in again! how
glorious to see them empathize and connect... i'm so glad we started
unschooling.... and parenting in an unconditional way... it allows for the
child to always feel safe :-) and hence empowers them.

Also.... when dd wants to go into ds's room... i accompany her... and show
her how to handle lego creations or some other delicate sculpture that ds
has made. Usually she is satisfied to pick up some blocks and a few lego
pieces from there and bring them into the kitchen or front room with me.
(She has enough toys outside ds's room but is constantly thinking there must
be a spotted dinosaur or something in there we're hiding from her :-)

Hope you find something that works for both of them.
Hema








--
Hema A. Bharadwaj
Pune, India


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