Let it be

I have terrible trouble coming up with post names. This one is because I have been too concerned about doing unschooling right and transitioning from deschooling that I know more deschooling is necessary. My kids are young, and even though I get the very occasional heart-stopping, breath-taking, wide-eyed “am I doing the right thing” moments, I know this works for Alex right now. And the very nature of the work I do in schools and with students reinforces this daily. My kids are living and learning through life. Every second, every day. They don’t have subjects. Realising they are tired and irritable is as valuable as any academic lesson when they know they can stop whatever they’re doing anytime. No pressure. Of course I fall short on these moments too often, but I’m still learning. And I’m the one with the most deschooling to do. So for now I’m going to stop looking for learning, and learning opportunities (especially if they look like lessons!) and just lay more. I was always good at playing with Alex, it got hard at some point. So what next? Build a fort…

And one we hadn’t done for ages… making a mess with bicarb soda and vinegar. Oh, and of course – food dye!

Alex has been asking me to make him a real iron man suit. We’ve watched the cartoon sporadically. Then I printed a colouring image for him as requested and we did it together. Then he found someone making an iron man suit on youtube. I don’t know how he finds these things – I think they come up as ‘things you may like’. But now he wants me to build him one for real. Oh and I have a deadline – his 6th birthday (first it was his 10th but as all managers do he tightened the schedule).

Alex has this affinity for mental maths. He just seems to be able to do multiplication. I’m not sure how, I don’t question him on it as I don’t want to interrogate him! I like that he’s making meaning with numbers. For instance when we passed the school of his friends, he asked a few things and I got on to tell him that there are 5 classes of preps with 20 kids in each. he worked out that there were 100 students! Another time he asked how many more days he needed to go to karate to get his 100 badge. I told him 6. He then said he needed 12 more times… he’d assumed I meant weeks and since he goes twice per week then 12 times! I told him that he actually needed 6 days, therefore 3 weeks. I hope he gets it at next presentation, then more sewing no doubt!

Daniel has been really cute lately – he is very capable of communicating, though not using many words. He’s being very playful, copying everything Alex does. Alex has noticed as much and is intentionally showing Daniel cheeky things!