Finding a Better Way
Riesling and Cashel managed to get in all their TV time before we left the house for Funschool this morning. They watched two episodes of Fetch! One was about finding your inner hip hop and trying to train a cat to fetch. The kids were really interested in the beat boxing and I heard them trying to replicate it through out the day.
I got an email about an hour before we needed to leave from the Leader for the month of October saying that she wasn’t going to be there so I packed up lots of board games and some blocks so that the kids had something to do besides play on the tire swing.
We arrived first and the kids pulled out Elefun and began to play with it and the Connect Four. I put out the blocks and cards for the kids to stack and sort or to do whatever they thought would be appropriate. Carol (Jordan’s Mom) asked me to be interviewed to give some advice on how to continue homeschooling when the economy is down. I asked Kara to watch Riesling, who was playing on the tire swing with Madison and Lisa to keep an eye on Cashel, who was running amok. I went downstairs for about a half an hour.
When I came back up, Carla (the visitor at SVCS yesterday) was reading to Riesling, Cashel and Sage. After the book was done, they went outside to play in the sand box and on the playground and the adults left inside got into a pretty heated discussion over whether kids learn better if they’re presented with different options or if they go and seek out what might interest them. Only Carol and I had even heard of Summerhill and A.S. Neill’s work and it seemed like we were defending Shenandoah Valley Community School and Carla and Lisa were defending the preschool cooperative that they were affiliated with in Indiana and it just wasn’t good at all. When I was getting from There to Here, I most certainly felt the same way as Lisa and Carla did. Then I read about ideas that conflicted with what I thought was how things worked best and found a better way. I try to remember that lesson and keep an open mind to new ideas.
It was time to go so I cleaned up my stuff while peaking at Riesling and Cashel on the playground. I went outside and talked with Alice and Janell while our kids played. Their version of play was Riesling and Cashel hitting Alice’s son Clint (9) in the legs with sticks. He came and asked his Mom, Alice, to ask them to stop and I couldn’t help myself from letting him know that he could ask them to stop and that if he did, they would. He decided not to and they kept on.
I asked Alice about why she “wouldn’t send her kids to SVCS”. She sounds like a devout follower of John Holt and wasn’t familiar with how a free school works as a way for children to become independent problem solvers who don’t rely on their mothers for basic assertiveness. I wonder where my head would be if I hadn’t read Summerhill and had read a John Holt book first instead. I need to read more John Holt to better understand where so many other homeschoolers (unschoolers) are coming from. Anyway, Alice explained that she believed that children learn through living and that all schools are institutions that take them away from life. I asked her what the difference was between the children being at a free school all day and being at home all day. She said that they weren’t home all day. I wish I would have asked her when her kids had time to play and interact if they are constantly on the go.
Alice’s other son, Murphy who is 4, really likes Riesling and they played together with out hitting each other at all. So as we were leaving Alice and I talked about getting the kids together to play. I joked with Clint that I bet he was excited to have my kids come over and hit him with sticks. At this point he didn’t seem upset at all and was smiling as we said our goodbyes. We were all in the van and just about ready to go and he came up to the window and asked me if the plastic toy that he found in the sand box was ours and to remind me that Riesling’s boots were sitting on the sidewalk next to the van…Ooops!
We went to get our van back after having a rental for a week. It wasn’t ready yet so we went to the Harrisonburg Children’s Museum. The kids were excited about the new ambulance exhibit and played doctor for a bit before heading over to the garden and farmer’s market area. Riesling and I played Lemonade stand while Cashel loaded his little wheelbarrow with lots of pineapples. Then Riesling gave me a grocery list and sent me shopping. I came back with the items and she counted out and tried to figure out how much each was according to a list. She is becoming more familiar with identifying coins and how many pennies they are worth. We went up to the stage area and Riesling did a Flamenco Dance while Cashel did some puzzles. They put on a puppet show and then wildly rode the lawn tractor.
While we were there, I observed a family with a little girl who appeared to be about 3, named Dani. I know her name because her Grandmother kept calling her to “come and look at this” even though Dani was heading toward or doing something that SHE thought was interesting. What does it take for folks who interact with children to see that they can think and make decisions for them selves. Why not let the child lead?
After more Flamenco Dancing and negotiations about a stick that Cashel had commandeered from the house under “construction” we went to get our van.
Cashel fell asleep on the way, which made switching car seats and finishing paperwork extra fun. By the time we got home it was about 5. The kids were sick of eating on the go granola and sandwiches and wanted something else NOW. They wanted to go to a restaurant. Since Joe wasn’t home, we went to the Smokin’ Pig alone. The kids were excited to cut up their chicken with their butter knives and to be eating somewhere else besides home.
At our house the kids played some sort of pillow throwing game with Joe and then it was off to bath and bed. Riesling washed herself up again. I read her Chapter 10 (The Spell Begins to Break) of C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and read Cashel his Tonka Truck book before they drifted off to dream land.
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