When I started reading about homeschooling years ago ( when Primo was a toddler) I gravitated right away toward eclectic, middle of the road methods, and definitely *not* unschooling. Over the years that hasn't changed-- though some of our friends and many of our friendly acquaintances would describe themselves as unschoolers, the idea of 'child-led learning' just doesn't work for me.
But.
Even though I'm happy with so many things about the way we do 'education' in our home, I wish the boys would get more excited about learning. They tend to be cheerful and compliant when it comes time for lessons, and they are sometimes enthusiastic about particular parts of our routine (science experiments, history and science lessons that one of them reads and then teaches to the other, taking turns reading Latin stories aloud).
But.
We are avid readers in our family, and we spend a lot of time at our local library. I make good use of the 'interlibrary loan' service offered by our region's libraries, and yesterday was not unusual-- there were 10 books waiting for us at the check-out counter. Said each of the boys in turn, "Are there any fun books waiting for us?"-- meaning novels, recently published middle-grade novels about fantasy or funny situations. 8 of the 10 books were about Christopher Columbus and other explorers, and I had taken great care to choose interesting, high-quality, and in some cases beautiful books. I felt a little crushed when the boys asked about 'fun' books. After nearly 6 years of homeschooling, don't picture and activity books about explorers count as fun? What can I do to awaken in them their own thirst for knowledge?
There are glimmers of light at the end of this tunnel. Several months ago the boys chose a book called Stronger Than Steel about scientists looking to replicate the properties of spider silk. On this recent trip to the library I brought home two science-themed books, one of them called One Minute Mysteries: 65 More Short Mysteries You Solve With Science and I found Primo reading it over his dessert later that night. It wouldn't have to be science, I'd be happy with either of them taking an interest in anything that has to do with the real world-- really, almost anything at all (I'm sure there are exceptions, I just can't think of them at the moment).
I find the same kind of thing going on at our house. When we are schooling, the kids are bored until they get hooked in. Somehow they have picked up on the 'school is boring' mentality. It's those glimmers of hope (like L asking to have Psychology books, getting college texts, then telling me this and that from what he read) that keep us going and reaffirm to us that they are indeed learning and, really, enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting, Jen! It's nice to know that I'm not the only one whose kids have picked up the 'school is boring' mindset. I hope it's true that mine are secretly enjoying their learning more than I realize.
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