Wow! This Works
I signed on a couple of months ago. I have a young son who has type 1 diabetes, he is 9 and I have been homeschooling 11 years.
I am burt out on homeschooling. Wanted to explore the unschooling world.
Someone (don’t remember who!) from this list told me “Just enjoy your son. If by the end of May he’s learned nothing let me know, it will be a first” or something to that extent.
Well, You were Right!! In the past couple of months, the first month, nada. He played video games, watched tv, played computer games. Then I realized. He is drawing maps for his games. He is inventing “moves” using his light sabre (and various household items including taking apart my broom!) he’d spend literally hours practicing! So cute! He even named them!
Then a couple of weeks ago, he asked to learn how to make scrambled eggs. He is now a “chef of all scrambling” in our house.
He has written a couple of stories based on his tv show and his xbox game. He has also developed new characters for tv/computer games complete with pictures and details of various “powers”. He drew more maps, etc. Researched for ‘cheat’ codes (dont know quite how I feel about that one…but OK….)
Today he came out and asked how light bulbs were invented. He has spent most of the day drawing lightbulbs and researching Lightbulbs.
This is amazing!
***
When my son was home, video games taught him:
1. To use the internet for research as he searched for cheat codes so that he could advance to the next level (higher levels) of his game.
2. Copy and paste text as he needed to take the text from the web page to word for printing.
3. How to use the printer so he could print out his codes.
And then there were some cross learning that took place. Like, and I used to joke about this, he had a large vocabulary when it came to weaponry and becoming extinguished.
Maybe it’s good for them to spend LONG periods of time learning and conquering a game. Maybe later in life they will tackle a project at a job in that same manner? Maybe they learn that even a new unfamiliar game can me beaten if you just pour time and attention into it? That might be a good “carry over” lesson.
***
Yeah, DS (about to turn 7) can explain all about the various types of mines used in 007 games – proximity mines and all the rest and how they work and such. It also gave rise to an interesting discussion of mines IRL and what happens after the battles are over and the mines remain. And he knows the various other weapons (he can ID the type of gun from the silhouette) that get used as well.
***
Learning how to focus in order to accomplish a difficult goal is wonderful. Learning that you get to success by achieving repeated small victories is fantastic!! Sticking to something in spite of failures – trying again, with small variations, until something works.
