I have been reading Free to Learn by Peter Gray and it has truly been flipping my mind upside-down and all around. I cannot stress enough how important and thought-provoking this book has been to my educator mind and I urge my fellow teachers/educators to read it. (love you xxxo)
There are so many page corners turned down and lots of underlining with !! written in the margins, but to cut to the chase this quote in particular -
"We have here a terrible irony. In the name of education, we have increasingly deprived children of the time and freedom they need to educate themselves through their own means. And in the name of safety, we have deprived children of the freedom they need to develop the understanding, courage, and confidence required to face life's dangers and challenges with equanimity. We are in a crisis that continues to grow more serious with every passing year. We have lost sight of the natural way to raise children. We have...lost sight of children's competence." - Free to Learn by Peter Gray pg.19
Besides my current read, I have also been listening to the 1000 Hours Outside podcast (highly recommend) and following Teacher Tom's blog. Teacher Tom is from the Woodland Park Co-op school in Seattle. I've been casually stalking all kinds of school alternatives like Woodland Park Co-op, Sudbury Valley schools (like this one in Ireland and this one in Baltimore), and learning about unschooling.
So, taking into account all I've been listening, reading, and learning about just getting out of the way and letting the learning happen - for the month of January, that's what I did. It was all about Free Play. We still did lots of read alouds (just because that's normal for us) and Rust helped in the kitchen when he wanted, did his chores, but mostly he got to decide how he passed the day (with some screen restrictions to keep it balanced).
Focus: Free Play!
Books we've read:
Strega Nona
Maria had a little llama /María tenía una llamita
Ninjabread Man
XO, OX
The Snowy Day
That's Where I Like to Curl Up in a Ball
The Perfect Hug
Llama Llama, I Love You
Incredible & random learning that has accidentally came up that I recognized:
Light dispersion - accidentally then on purpose making rainbows from light
Flip book animation - questioning: how do animators make the cartoons move if they are drawings?
Liquid expands when frozen - collecting cracked eggs from the coop
Static Electricity - playing behind cheer mats at his sister's basketball game
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One thing that has stuck with me from the 1000 Hours Outside podcast with Teacher Tom was something he said about quantifying kids' learning. About how it's so crucial to schools/educators to connect the learning to the standard. He tells this great story about a teacher trying to force the kids to learn in an outdoor setting during the fall with leaves and how it all went to crap because the kids were already having fun before she tried to "make learning fun."
The big thing is - I don't know what Rusty is learning all the time - I shouldn't be focused on pointing to a standard all the time like...'with this activity he is practicing standard 1.1 PKC (rhyming words)' just because he started singing a song at the breakfast table in which the lyrics he made up are "I'm so smart and I have to fart. I love you, my little Livy Heart!"
the point is - every time he is playing, he is learning. I don't need to know what he's learning, I don't need to 'teach it' until the learning is no longer playing. I just need to give him space, resources, and time and he will take care of the learning part all on his curious-brained five year old self!
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So, moving forward through May, we will be doing more Free Play but have a 'focus' to help guide our Read Alouds and give us opportunities to research interesting people, historical events, movies, etc. But for the most part - for his last 7 months as a kid not in public school...I'm just going let Rusty play and be a kid.
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if you are local to me and you have small children - how interested would you be in creating a co-op school similar to Woodland park here at the Studerbabies farm? but like for real for real? Do some research and then get back to me - okay, not kidding.
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