Friday, January 8, 2010

Austyn is distracted




Austyn is still so distracted by his Christmas gifts. Much of what he got was educational, so I've let him be, but I'd really like to get into more activities instead of just reading. I'll have to try some tactics to gain his interest next week. I think I'll get everything ready to do some activities and lay out what we need so he can see for himself how much fun and how interesting it will be. This week was mostly reading with a little bit of math (his idea). I've been doing a good job of letting him be to learn and getting in there when there are learning moments. Unschooling seems to be working but I do feel anxious at times worrying that everything is going as it should be. It's so hard to change my view from that of mainstream society and deschool myself. It's also hard to let go of control (which I love to have). I read somewhere that deschooling could take a lifetime.

One point to be had is that he is mostly interested in building things with lego and with the project fair coming up there is no shortage of lego builds to share. He does need to get started on his display for the project fair soon though.

“The most important thing any teacher has to learn, not to be learned in any school of education I ever heard of, can be expressed in seven words: Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners.” ~ John Holt

2 comments:

l said...

Try not to worry too much...maybe he would enjoy learning more about building? I know that with Adrienne loving legos too, doing a unit study on architecture is something I will be doing in the spring. The library has a few kids books on the subject, and the David Macaulay books (and movies) might interest him too...
Just my thought!

Anonymous said...

I understand too. My son would rather enjoy his new video games and Lego Pirate Ship than homeschool these days.

However, I admit to being at fault when he watches too much TV or plays video games for too long (of course, each family has to define their own "too", right?).

So I'm making a conscientous effort to ensure that he is engaged in fun activitites with me throughout the day, while still getting plenty of time to do his own thing.

I hope you figure out the best way for all of you to do things.