A couple days ago I made a trip to the library and I got a half-dozen books about pigs. That’s my boy’s favorite new topic: pigs. This was inspired by Wilbur for Charlotte’s Web. He was very excited when he saw these, and we sat down and read almost all of them in a single sitting. He’s also highly interested in model railroads lately. That’s what we’ll be getting a bunch more books on next…
I’ve been reading books myself lately, about home schooling. I lean a little more toward the classical education camp, but with the unschoolers I agree on one thing: it is really a great thing to feed your child’s interest in whatever he happens to be interested in–be it cars, trains, dinosaurs, horses…or pigs.
Anyway, I thought I’d say that, not that it’s great news to anybody, but mainly to formulate my own thoughts so I can remember it better myself. The very most “teachable moment” happens when your child is very interested in a topic. Then you go to town on that topic.
I have always been on the fence with unschooling. I was never brave enough to step into it entirely, but I see it with my own children, when they enjoy something, it’s not work. They will spend countless hours on subjects and projects that fascinate them. I have read several books on unschooling as well as Home Education Magazine. I really love that magazine. The stories are about children who do all these amazing things because they want to, not because any told them that they have to.
It is so important to keep that in mind when we are leading our children. It fits with what Doman teaches. Expose your children to all kinds of things and let them decide what interests them.
I was thinking about that–whether unschooling fits with Doman’s methods. I don’t see why you say so, though. I mean, the methods are mostly used with very small children, who are fascinated with everything you put in front of them, if they’re interested in anything you put in front of them. But by the time they get to be my boy’s age, 3, they can be impatient with anything other than what they’re interested in learning about or doing…
Part of the glory of the Doman method is that you’ve got a captive audience. Basically, you shove a whole bunch of facts into the little skulls before they decide that some things are fascinating and other things are boring.
Now, don’t get me wrong–at least as far as my own son is concerned, I still think that making presentations of the sort I make, and even going over simpler presentations when he’s interested in the topic (he can’t get enough of heavy machinery), is a great idea. I just think that the Doman glory days are over are just about the same time that the main principle of unschooling (let your child decide what to study) begins to be relevant.
The reason I say so is because the whole concept of teaching them anything, and the premise behind unschooling, is that it is fun for the child. If your baby hates to see bits or look at words, then we don’t do it. Ultimately they do decide if and what we show them.
Sure, that makes sense. They’re similar to that extent…tiny kids are “easy” though, or at least mine was. As mine is getting older, he doesn’t want to do or read certain things simply because he has his own specific idea about what he wants to do (lately, play Candyland endlessly…groan).
Yes, the way I see is that we have an opportunity to take advantage of what they are interested in to get them to learn, even beyond what they’re strictly interested in.
For example, Felicity is sooo into dinosaurs right now, so I bought her a bunch of dinosaur books and she’s devouring it (therefore reading more). I also typed in all the long dinosaur names into LR using split mode (like “ty/ran/no/sau/rus”) to practice her syllabicating skills. I would imagine that we could use areas of interest to enhance many other subjects too, like colors for example, and general knowledge. Eg., she now knows the concepts of being carnivorous, herbivorous, omnivorous, etc.