Tag archives for it will come when they’re ready
I am always ready to learn, but I do not always like being taught.
The best thing about unschooling.
I posted recently about what, in my opinion, is the hardest thing about unschooling. Today, I wanted to share a snapshot of the best thing: joyful learning. Learning that changes and expands horizons. Learning that sticks. This little 9-year-old wants to build things. Ever since she saw Handy Manny at age 4, she has wanted…
Little children love the world. That is why they are so good at learning about it. For it is love, not tricks and techniques of thought, that lies at the heart of all true learning. Can we bring ourselves to let children learn and grow through that love?
— John Holt
Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.
— Socrates
We can best help children learn, not by deciding what we think they should learn and thinking of ingenious ways to teach it to them, but by making the world, as far as we can, accessible to them, paying serious attention to what they do, answering their questions — if they have any — and…
Learning at their own pace
This article on a ten-year old math prodigy, Esther Okade, was shared with me recently. I loved it, but not for the “prodigy” reason. When the child showed great aptitude in math, her parents enrolled her in a private school. Her mom said, “One day we were coming back home and she burst out in tears…
Nobody grew taller by being measured.
— Roland Meighan
Finding their own way
A little over a year ago, my daughters attended Yoga for Congo for the first time. They had helped me prepare for the event many times, and we had discussed the subject matter and the seriousness of the issue. Nothing could have prepared me, though, for what it was like to have them in that…
Wait for the right questions to come up
(By the way, I am really bummed that I haven’t posted much this summer. We’ve just been having so much fun, that really, I have had no time for blogging. It’s been an amazing summer, but I do have a lot I want to talk about in this space, so I am hoping to be…
Time to become
If there is anything that Yellowstone has taught us, it is patience. Quiet, pleasant patience. That things take time, and sometimes the time is long and that rushing does no good. Last week, it rained and rained. And rained. It was wonderful. I am grateful for ponchos and sweatshirts. The chilly weather gave us a…
As an unschooling mom, I hate all things involving drills. Though I know it is a commonly used technique to master math facts, I prefer to look for other ways to get my kids familiar with math. Two things seem to be prevalent when successful learning takes place in our home: a no-stress environment, and…
Some great thoughts on socialization
Socialization is something that is so bizarrely over-worried for our children now. I feel that children are so forced into unnatural socialization that they’ve forgotten how to let it naturally evolve. But enough about what I think for today. Nicole Shiffler recently published two great blog posts (here and here) about socialization and her children.…