He is so brilliant and is learning so much on his own. Yesterday he was figuring out how many minutes in a day and how many seconds in a day etc. He made up a game where he would get Daddy to help him print letters on papers that made up a secret sentence. He hid the letters around the house. I had to find them and make the sentence. When I was finished we switched turns. Today since we've had illness here for the past few days, he decided that he'd figure out what percentage we were. We tend to say that someone is still not 100% when they still show signs of being ill. He is rating us by percentage of health. LOL!
I know he is doing fine, but I crave structure and curriculum outlines somedays. I really feel, however that this is the right style for him right now. He seems so sensitive to being told when to learn what no matter how gently it's done. I see his brilliance and feel that I'm mocking him by dictating when, how, and what to learn. So for the past few months I've eased off ALOT. I've researched a bit and I see that it's worked out for him.
Tonight before he went to bed he saw our history books and decided that we could print off the hieroglyphics and cut them out so he can make words at the table while eating his night time snack. He got a kick out of that and noticed that some of the letters were almost the same. After much needed reassurance from other homeschool moms and some of these observations I feel more at ease.
The image above (that is smaller than I thought) is a chart to help me track what they do each day for each subject (Thanks to Neely at Unschooling..Let the earth be our classroom). I plan on getting curriculum and letting them do what they like. I still suggest and feel the waters for interest, but if there isn't any, why push it. They don't learn it that way anyway. This way they are interested, learn it, and retain it much better. Isn't homeschooling great!!!
Here is Neely's page that I used as a guide for our tracking sheet. She posted this last year.
http://shomeiscool.blogspot.com/2009/05/charting.html
Here is a quote I read tonight in a book I'm reading. The book I'm finally finishing is You'll See It When You Believe It; The Way To Your Personal Transformation by Wayne W. Dyer.
"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you."
~ Kahlil Gibtan (in the Profet)
(I really love the Eastern ways of thinking. They really have things right compared to how we raise kids in our society. It's just a reminder that we don't own our kids. They aren't a representation of us in life. They have their own path. Happy Parenting All!)
3 comments:
It sounds like you're all doing just fine. Tracking Austyn's achievements sounds like a great idea; you know he's learning, and sometimes it is nice to commit it to paper.
"I really feel, however that this is the right style for him right now. He seems so sensitive to being told when to learn what no matter how gently it's done."
Ditto! That's why it works for us too :) I use a weekly sheet that's similar to yours - it helps me see the learning that's taking place and helps in my recording as well.
they do have their own path-unschooling allows for them to follow that path. glad this style is working for you and yours. :)
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