Cool little unschooling moments
Robin Clevenger
There are times when unschooling just happens and life goes by and (while we
really enjoy it and do a lot of fun things) it doesn't strike me how cool it
all is, and then there's these little moments that stand out (perhaps
because they're so different than what I'd do as a child) that make me
realize what a great gift it is to be living and learning this way. Just
thought I'd share a couple:
My son had a friend over this week for a sleepover playdate (the first time
we've done this). My son is 6, his friend is 10 and also an unschooler. My
son still needs me to lie down with him to go to sleep, so when I was
getting tired, I told the boys that I was going to bed and that they could
stay up but please don't step on dd (who insisted on giving the friend her
bed to sleep in and she slept on the floor). My son wanted to go to bed then
so that he could snuggle to sleep with me. His older friend didn't blink an
eye and certainly never teased him or made an issue of it (from my
experiences as a kid with school friends, that would be a prime opportunity
for teasing). The boys popped out of bed at 5:45 and excitedly rushed
downstairs to fire up the computer and use the chess tutorial. They had only
made it through half of the tutorial lessons the night before and they
really wanted to go through all of them. So that was one of those funny
unschooling moments I'm just momentarily blown away by the things they do. I
can't imagine as a schooled child ever rushing out of bed before the sun
came up in order to do a chess tutorial!
The other cool thing was last night my son was asking me what the biggest
number on earth was, and I explained that there is no such thing, because
you can always add on to any number and make it bigger. So I mentioned the
concept of infinity and he just stopped still. I could almost see him just
turning that concept over and around in his brain and after a few minutes of
silence (unusual for him) he said "Wow mom, that idea's just too big." We
talked about it some more and I could see the idea starting to take real
shape in his brain. Then I mentioned that there was a symbol for infinity
and he surprised me by saying "It's a sideways '8' isn't it?" I have no idea
where he got that from--some random unschooling connection in his brain to
somewhere else. I love seeing that kind of spark happen. So he drew the
symbol, and then I showed him how to make a moebius strip
(http://mathforum.org/sum95/math_and/moebius/moebius.html if you don't
remember that one from school) which came to mind while thinking of the
infinity symbol. We had this long interesting discussion about numbers,
infinity, the universe, etc. that went on as we got ready for bed and right
up until the second he fell asleep, mid-sentence.
Just a couple of cool moments from the unschooling river of life. Anyone
else care to share theirs today?
Blue Skies,
-Robin-
really enjoy it and do a lot of fun things) it doesn't strike me how cool it
all is, and then there's these little moments that stand out (perhaps
because they're so different than what I'd do as a child) that make me
realize what a great gift it is to be living and learning this way. Just
thought I'd share a couple:
My son had a friend over this week for a sleepover playdate (the first time
we've done this). My son is 6, his friend is 10 and also an unschooler. My
son still needs me to lie down with him to go to sleep, so when I was
getting tired, I told the boys that I was going to bed and that they could
stay up but please don't step on dd (who insisted on giving the friend her
bed to sleep in and she slept on the floor). My son wanted to go to bed then
so that he could snuggle to sleep with me. His older friend didn't blink an
eye and certainly never teased him or made an issue of it (from my
experiences as a kid with school friends, that would be a prime opportunity
for teasing). The boys popped out of bed at 5:45 and excitedly rushed
downstairs to fire up the computer and use the chess tutorial. They had only
made it through half of the tutorial lessons the night before and they
really wanted to go through all of them. So that was one of those funny
unschooling moments I'm just momentarily blown away by the things they do. I
can't imagine as a schooled child ever rushing out of bed before the sun
came up in order to do a chess tutorial!
The other cool thing was last night my son was asking me what the biggest
number on earth was, and I explained that there is no such thing, because
you can always add on to any number and make it bigger. So I mentioned the
concept of infinity and he just stopped still. I could almost see him just
turning that concept over and around in his brain and after a few minutes of
silence (unusual for him) he said "Wow mom, that idea's just too big." We
talked about it some more and I could see the idea starting to take real
shape in his brain. Then I mentioned that there was a symbol for infinity
and he surprised me by saying "It's a sideways '8' isn't it?" I have no idea
where he got that from--some random unschooling connection in his brain to
somewhere else. I love seeing that kind of spark happen. So he drew the
symbol, and then I showed him how to make a moebius strip
(http://mathforum.org/sum95/math_and/moebius/moebius.html if you don't
remember that one from school) which came to mind while thinking of the
infinity symbol. We had this long interesting discussion about numbers,
infinity, the universe, etc. that went on as we got ready for bed and right
up until the second he fell asleep, mid-sentence.
Just a couple of cool moments from the unschooling river of life. Anyone
else care to share theirs today?
Blue Skies,
-Robin-