I am writing this one a day early…because today I am busy hosting a group of #HomeEd families at #HomeCrazzyHome. We…Big Humans especially…are learning about politics and government…the hard way.
But it was yesterday…I mean today…oh, now I’m more confused than ever…Wednesday…when I realized…PanKwake is not the only one we home educate…
#RadiCoolUnschooling is a way of life for us!
For instance, I made chicken korma for lunch (a marked deviation from our usual Domino’s pizza on Wednesday). You see Wednesdays are even more Crazzy than usual around here. In addition to us…and one of PanKwake’s best friend who has a standing playdate then…our au pair Ernie…and the occasional builder…for the past few months we have ‘hired’ one of our older home ed friends to do a few odd jobs around #HomeCrazzyHome…a paid internship. And, of course, I absolutely MUST feed all those people…like I said usually Domino’s. Not this time though.
It was a first for both our au pair and young home ed friend. Neither of whom had ever had chicken korma. It ended up being not just a culinary lesson though…but also about cultures, religions (sacred cows), geography, history…and I am sure I am forgetting a couple of them.
That is how #RadiCoolUnschooling works though. It is about the School of Life…lesson plans not necessary.
That is how we all learn before we go to school…and once we leave. Think about all the things that we learn before we ever set foot in a school…
- Rolling over
- Crawling
- Walking
- Talking
- Dressing ourselves
- Going to the potty
- Sharing
We don’t need to sit at a desk or have someone specially trained to teach us any of that. All it takes is our natural curiosity, imagination, lots of trying/hard work, loads of mistakes, and a caring Big Human to keep us from the worst dangers.
Same is true once we leave school too. The best Big Humans are the ones that keep learning throughout their lives…that never stop.
And while some of us have the time and money to go back to university or to take even FREE online courses (highly recommend FutureLearn and Coursera), for many of us, we continue to teach ourselves through…
- Internet
- Books
- Television
- Social Media
- Passionate conversations/debates with others
So let me ask ya’ll…
Why do we think that between the age of three and eighteen #LittleHumans are incapable to self-directing their learning?
I highly recommend Free to Learn by Dr Peter Gray for a thorough discussion of the matter.
Oh, and yeah…both of them liked chicken korma.
Self-Directed Learning & Neurodiversity 