Danielle Conger

Robyn wrote:
They talk about how they did "The Food Pyramid" (as if there were only one)
> so that they could explain why their parental food controls were right.
They
> genuinely delight in how much fun the kids had cutting out little pictures
> of fruit etc and sticking them on some chart they downloaded. (Jayn has
not
> shown the slightest interest in this type of activity so far - she likes
to
> cut out paper dolls, snowflakes or geometric shapes for use in collages.)
==================

I'm jumping off on another tangent again...

I've been wondering the past day or so whether kids "like" these kinds of
activities generally/ developmentally or whether they like them because it's
better than the other stuff they have to do in a controlled environment.

In my 4-H post, I was saying how 4-H was pushing a Clover Curriculum on me,
which I got at the leader's meeting last night. These are mini-lessons with
several different activities like Robyn describes, complete with cheezy
crafts and circle songs, that are supposed to be for kids 5-7 years old.
These activities seem so incredibly lame to me--something far more geared
towards preschool 2 and 3 year olds. I can't imagine trying to get the
unschooled kids I know to sit down and do these things, nor would I try. My
idea of developmentally ready learning is that kids will take what they find
interesting from life, without an artificial separation of age-specific
topics, and run with it, leaving what's not interesting or too advanced
behind to maybe come back to later.

Emily (6) *loves* PBS historical documentaries. I can't imagine saying to
her, "Oh, honey, you don't want to watch this boring, advanced documentary
on Abraham Lincoln. Why don't you sit in the corner and learn about doggies
and make some doggie ears out of these styrofoam cups." These contrived
activities are turning the kind of learning, creating and imagining that
young kids do spontaneously all throughout their day into a curriculum.
Curriculum has to build this kind of learning into kids' days precisely
because the act of controlling children and their time strips kids of the
opportunity to do the same learning on their own in a far more meaningful
way. I realize I'm probably stating the obvious, but it's been brought home
to me again as I bumped, unwillingly, into the curriculum world. It's just
amazing to me.

--Danielle

http://www.danielleconger.com/Homeschool/Welcomehome.html

arcarpenter2003

--- In [email protected], "Danielle Conger"
<danielle.conger@c...> wrote:
> Robyn wrote:
> >They
> > genuinely delight in how much fun the kids had cutting out
>>little pictures <snip>
>Why don't you sit in the corner and learn about doggies
> and make some doggie ears out of these styrofoam cups."

I remember doing these activities as a child -- at Vacation Bible
School and my neighbor's church, and at Brownies (that lasted half a
year). I hated them, always. I did them because I was there (often
with a friend -- I wanted to see the friend, not do the stupid
craft) and there wasn't anything else to do. I did them sloppily
because I didn't care, BUT then I felt bad that mine weren't as neat
and pretty as some of the other kids'. Double whammy.

The other day Fisher (almost 7) wanted to get out the finger paints.
His preschool did a lot of fingerpainting. But I think this was the
first time he had real fun doing it. We built up slowly, then ended
up gooshing together all the colors and covering the whole paper,
and he was laughing his head off. We discovered a lot of things
about color and feel and texture -- we ended up creating the actual
pictures by scraping them into the backdrop of paint, instead of
drawing them with the paint itself.

And no one said he was too old or that he needed to do a certain
technique or that art time was over. We did it until we were done.

I really like unschooling.

Peace,
Amy

Jon and Rue Kream

>>we ended up creating the actual
pictures by scraping them into the backdrop of paint, instead of
drawing them with the paint itself.

**Dagny loves to do this. She uses all sorts of things as scrapers - toy
car wheels, combs, etc. - and makes really neat designs. ~Rue


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