It was supposed to be our one quiet day at home this week. The day when I got EVERYTHING done. The whole house clean. For not one but two home ed events this week…including her Unschool Valentine’s Dance this Friday.
But the I’m Boreds took over. At #HomeCrazzyHome, we even have an official song for them…
One myth perpetuated by the biased media about unschooling, especially radical unschooling or as we call it #RadiCoolUnschooling is that parents do it because they are lazy, don’t want to be bothered, or are neglectful. Nothing could be further from the truth.
#RadiCoolUnschooling means placing the needs of your #LittleHuman above your own. Every single day. Even your one day that week dedicated to just quietly getting work done.
Instead of cleaning, I found myself hostessing for a PanKwake playdate with two new friends. Of course, in true self-directed learning style, the Moms sat and chatted most of the time.
But there were still candles and bath bombs to make…introducing vegans to bean & rice burritos…and lots of ‘Come see this….’ to manage.
I am a huge fan of Sugata Mitra’s Hole in the Wall (appropriately called Kids Can teach Themselves in this video) and School in a Cloud. This professor of education basically discovered that given a computer children can teach themselves, put two or more children together and they can exponentially teach one another, add a friendly but non-intrusive adult figure and there is not much they cannot teach themselves.
It is a technique that began with his experiments in India and its results have been duplicated around the world. It was even trialled in the UK. The results did not hold up though…because teachers interferred too much.
But Mitra’s minimally invasive education as he calls it is a corner stone of my vision of #RadiCoolUnschooling. That is why we already have have one little friend come over twice a week. It is just that PanKwake craves more. And when possible I try to give it. Like yesterday.
Oh, and it is socialization too.
We prove Mitra’s theories every day @HomeCrazzyHome…and not all of the things that #LittleHumans teach themselves requires computers…frog ponds and common household products like oil, vinegar, and baking soda make science FUN. And that is what ALL learning should be.
Self-Directed Learning & Neurodiversity 