WOW!!!
Just Wow!
THAT was what RADICAL UNSCHOOLING is all about…
PanKwake is slipping back around the clock. So she was not up until lunch time…but she hardly woke me at all last night. In fact, I thought she had gone to sleep when I got up to use the bathroom…until I heard her laughing at a YouTube video.
But the moment she got up…it was food and GO!
She had seen a video on YouTube about a kid’s science experiment using Skettles. She told us about it yesterday…and I had ordered some online. But while he was out this morning Cookie Monster found some. The moment he told her she just HAD to try it out…while my groceries were being delivered no less.
She did it ALL BY HERSELF…right down to taking this photo to document it.
She tried another experiment too…but we need to get some more stuff. Then I will share that one too.
She was not done though…
It was off to Minecraft.
She needed to find ice…so she pulled up the search screen…and called for me to spell it. I began by asking what letter she thought it began with. She got that one right. But missed the C…she thought it was an S. So we talked about soft and hard sounds. And about how hard English really is. How sometimes it does not make any sense.
Oh…and it keeps getting better…
While she was in Minecraft she built this thingy…I have no idea what. It looked like a garden/fountain type something. But here’s the thing…she spelled out Hi PanKwake (actually not PanKwake but her real name). But she typed…she wrote words that she knew.
But the best was yet to come!!!
She let me read Fox in Socks to her!!!!
Now that may seem silly to you. Being so excited about reading a Dr Seuss book TO an eleven year old…when most of them are reading chapter to themselves. And while I used to read several, i.e. a dozen, books to her every night, for over a year now she has wanted NOTHING to do with books. If I even mentioned reading one to her…it was meltdown time.
And it was all my fault. Because I had pushed her too hard. Back when I still did not get it…when I worried about what other people…’experts’…thought. I went through a phase where I bought every ‘baby’s first’ cardboard book I could get my hands on. I figured if I could just get her to begin to connect the pictures with letters on the page it would be a first step. I tricked her into reading them to Billy, her favorite doll, at bedtime…after I had read ALL those others to her.
And it worked too…for a couple of weeks. But then not only did she rebel and stop ‘reading’ to Billy…she would not even allow me to read books to her anymore. After a lifetime of enjoying it…I had spoiled it all with ‘demands’. In a couple of weeks! After that the only ‘reading’ that remotely interested her was on the iPad or computer. No more BOOKS.
When I took the online course on helping children with reading difficulties, I learned that it was called…COGNITIVE DEATH. A situation where the learner has lost any motivation for learning. It is common with dyslexia and other special needs.
Honestly, my adult son with special needs…the one that we turned over to the schools and ‘experts’ has it much worse than PanKwake. I think that is because I have always focused on the things she CAN do…science, art, IT, design, physical stuff and logic/critical thinking. I have allowed her to progress to her level…often well beyond others her age.
So Fox in Socks was a major WIN for us.
Of course, I did not let her know that. In fact, just the opposite. I told her I would NOT read it anymore…because it made me look silly. I told her not to tell Cookie about it. Of course the very first thing she did was…tell Cookie. Now she wants us to tag time read it to her. Me as Fox with all the tongue twisters…and him as Knox. I’ll let you know how that one goes.
Even now…ever few minutes she is screaming for me. She is getting jokes off of her Echo.
What do you call a bear that only attacks men named Paul?
A Paul-o bear.
It can at moments be irritating to run up the stairs every five minutes for a new joke…especially ones that bad. BUT the thing is…as she says…she wants to see my face. And for someone with an autistic spectrum disorder that is especially important. It too is education…perhaps even more important to read facial expressions than books. So I drag my old, tired butt up them yet again. Of course, I can always look at it as good exercise?
All in all…it has been a great day! And a wonderful opportunity to share with you the REALities of RADICAL UNSCHOOLING.
OK…time to go clean up all that mess…and fingers crossed we get to do it all over again tomorrow.
Self-Directed Learning & Neurodiversity 