Penmanship

What my kids can do always amazes me. I think that being the one who is here all of the time and the fact that I'm their mother may have something to do with that. They AMAZE me! Literally! Both of them! I don't think that the overwhelmed teacher on teacher night would say that about each child that he/she is teaching. And that's understandable, I guess. Being the mother of my students, I have a personal investment in them. I love them and find their lives to be so much more important than my own.  This makes me a great candidate to be their teacher, coach, facilitator, or whatever other name you would prefer to use. 

Even when things don't go quite like they should when comparing to my own school experience, I still find moments where I'm in aw of them. Austyn really never enjoyed printing letters, drawing, or even colouring. To see him with any kind of pencil, pen, or crayon was rare. The interesting thing is that with very little practice with penmanship, he does so well! He is so neat and careful and not that slow either. He amazes me! This is one of the things that proves to me that the societal belief about having to making your kids practice something makes them better at it isn't always so. I didn't make him practice it. Well, I think I may have once or twice but when I saw it wasn't working I stopped.

One thing that could be contributing to his fine motor skills could be playing with Lego. He plays with Lego just about everyday. I think it's one of his favourite things to do. So, just because he didn't practice penmanship everyday he may have gained fine motor skills from somewhere else.  

Now that I know about unschooling I've really stepped back and after leaving these papers out on his desk and not pushing him he picked them up, all on his own, and decided, on his own, to do them. I think I even recognized a little bit of enjoyment in his face while doing this! It may have helped because the sheet was full of numbers and Austyn loves math.

I'm feeling more at ease now about Austyn and his penmanship and reading. I read to him all the time. He hasn't decided to pick up books on his own much yet, but I believe that time will come. He enjoys learning games to do with reading so we are doing that. I think that in his own time he'll start to read. He may not be as into reading as he is into other interests like building things or math. I need to respect this about  him. This is who he is. And I love him just the way he is. The skills will come. I am feeling much more confident of it now.

Zoe is a different child altogether. She reads books to herself and makes up the words since she can't actually read all of the words yet. She makes her own little books and reads them to herself. The words are scribble lines across each page, but the short stories that she reads aloud to herself through her own improvisation are amazing! She prints her name on anything she can and when she has the space she prints Austyn's name and any other words she asks me to spell out for her. Unlike Austyn's early years, I did very little with Zoe. She knows all of her sounds, letters and is going to be a reader before long. She practices penmanship, reading and art. 

In this picture I had put sight words all over the board from a really cute book series we got for learning our site words. She would look at the word, wipe it off, and print out the letters from memory. After each word she had me look and was so proud of herself. She'd ask me what the words were again and again and I just kept telling her. Oh, and did I mention just how much she AMAZES me! 

These two children couldn't be more different from each other.  They have their own interests, skills, and personalities. I love them both so much and am amazed by each of them. By relaxing and observing instead of scheduling subjects, I'm able to be more of an observer and a facilitator. These kids do what they do naturally. I'm also really learning how to accept them even more for who they are. I feel that by allowing them to lead their own path in learning I have developed a loving respect for them and a trust that I could never have imagined before. We are conditioned, in our society to not trust our kids. I never really saw this before. Not really. 

I'm so proud of myself for doing what I'm doing. I was all torn up inside when I was deciding to look more into unschooling because I was afraid of what it meant for my kids. I wasn't sure that I'd have the courage. Now that I am starting to see results so soon, I know that it's right for us. This may change one day, but right now it's working. 

I have a friend to thank for discussing the possibility of unschooling to me. I'm not sure where we'd be today if I didn't have that conversation with her a little less than a year ago. Thank you!  : )