Unschooling the Creative Child

For the sake of my Unschooling friends, occasionally I feel the need to remind everyone that this is my unschooling blog. I type this with a big smile on my face, because even though I write little about "unschooling", it really is all about unschooling. And I'll prove it.

This week I was involved in an exchange on a yahoo list for those who homeschool "right-brained" children, or creative little tykes. I was sharing a frustration that arose because I got inspired one day to have my son and I set a goal about some learning we'd been doing. The long and short of it was my excitement led me to want to work really hard with him, and this scared the joy, interest, and confidence straight out of my son. This is the mulberry bush that we went around that led me to unschooling in the first place.

So I shared my frustration with this list, and people's suggestions led me right back to the things I normally do with him, and the things I already have observed, but really, to be honest, have not honored in him enough. Sometimes I see what I do in negative terms: letting him off the hook, not demanding too much of him. If roles were reversed I would probably think that letting him go off and read and do workbooks would be accommodating his weakness, and I'd worry whether he was ever going to master a single visual art. The fact of the matter is, he takes in an enormous amount of learning. He just does it much differently than I.

Anyway, one of the homeschooling moms on this list shared what she has come up with as the timeline of her creative, right-brained learners. One helpful note in what she shared was what she considered the parents' job and key resources at the various stages of a child's development. For my son's age, she noted that needed resources were primarily for her, to free herself from the cultural educational value system, and to develop a more fitting value system.

This spoke volumes to me. I have told other people that my key task for my children's education right now is for me to change as a person. And sometimes when I forget that, or get tired of it or scared for a moment, I try to force something in. And I am propelled back out to where I belong.

I laugh to myself when I hear comments like "Your son is so smart; your homeschooling him is really paying off!" I gauge how well homeschooling is going by what I am bringing to the confessional!

(The helpful information shared with me is on Apple Stars, especially this post.)