There has been a really refreshing conversation going on on the Catholic Unschoolers facebook page. I hadn't really been thinking in unschooling terms lately because we are so caught up in more schooly things. But even so I see unschooling swirling just beneath the surface a lot of times. For instance, Sean and Rick have been really into building this arcade, though I do think the ardor died down a little bit this week, just because other things took over. But they both have been learning a ton of stuff while doing this project. And then another incident: Rick and Sean read the book Of Mice and Men, assigned to Sean in his English class. Well, they both loved it. So Sean in his unschooling fashion, started researching about it on the internet. He found out 4 movies were made of the book. He watched two of them on line to compare the scene where (spoilers!) George shoots Lenny. Then he went into a detailed critique about how they filmed it and how the actors played the characters and whether he agreed with their interpretation. Next, he is going to read the play, which was adapted from the book in the 1940s. Rabbit trail!
For Becky even though we are mostly doing Aquinas Learning, she's off doing her own thing too. She's gotten back to making videos. She also has requested she take the National Mythology Exam just to see how much she knows (she's a walking encyclopedia on the subject). And she now has this great idea where she wants to start a student newspaper at Aquinas.
You just can't keep unschooling down! And that is because if given freedom, children enjoy learning. I am glad I was so relaxed when the kids were younger. It keeps them fresh and intellectually curious.
No comments:
Post a Comment