I think that one of the great things about unschooling is that there is no activity or learning considered to be more valuable than something else. In school, literacy and numeracy take priority with every other subject touched on lightly. There is no value given inter and intra personal learning, and the curriculum lists those two strands as being achieved when children perform well as a group when working on something else, or doing something token on bullying or cyber safety.
My kids are learning about themselves all of the time. At the zoo the other day we met some friends. After a few hours Alex decided he did not want to head to the monkeys with them but go to the seals. So that’s what we did. We sent a long time there. At first he sat quietly and watched the seals which was very relaxing! Then he chased some light projection of sea creatures around. I’m not sure whether this happened because he was wanting to follow his own interest at the time, but I think it was more probable that he needed to fly solo. He’d had enough of group play and all that comes with it. I’m grateful that he can recognise this and we are able to make it happen for him. I think he would be so overwhelmed and stressed at school being with people all the time and having little freedom. His self-awareness is showing in other ways too. He has not resisted bed for a long time, and we have never had a set bedtime. We are just not a schedule driven family!
A few days ago I found the wooden pattern block and board (assorted shapes and images to recreate). I got them out for Alex, and even Daniel joined in. Daniel liked the yellow hexagons, I think because of the size and shape to hold in his hand. So then after Daniel messed up Alex’s picture, he decided to make a snake (of course, lol). And after that he noticed that 2 trapeziums put together make a hexagon. This connection continued with 6 triangles and 3 rhombus. So I tried to put the white diamonds together but it looked like a flower, so Alex added a yellow hexagon to make the pollen. And then our image started to grow. As it changed, Alex told a story. There were lots of suns so it was very hot, then clouds formed and it rained.
A little later I mentioned getting rid of some workbooks given to us as ‘presents’ (I wonder if that would have happened had we not been homeschooling??). I found our montessori sand paper letters and thought I’d sell them but Alex said we should keep them, and then went through identifying the sound and name. I must say that I was rather amazed that he could recall the same 15 that I had ‘taught’ him the previous year when I had started considering homeschooling and methods, prior to unschooling of course. I had ditched that when Alex was clearly not wanting lessons and I did not like the idea of coercing him. But it seems he did actually learn them afterall. I know he’s not bothered about knowing more as he had a pile that he did not know. He was pleased that he knew more than not, but he did not ask what any of the letters were.