Monday, April 04, 2011

Creativity

The beasties haven't been getting much in terms of formal education but as always they blow me away with what they do on their own. So often they just need a nudge from me. I am still not an unschooling convert but I get closer. I don't think I'll ever be a radical unschooler but I do think that when you give children a nudge and work on their own interest they are quite capable of doing things on their own.

So here's a taste of the girls' beasties projects of late.


A couple of friends recommended "My Neighbor Tortoro" which was a big hit with the beasties (and us!). Camille and Piper were immediately inspired to make lots of drawings. The top cat is Camille's work and the bottom two pictures are Piper's drawings. They also spent lots of time thinking about what it would be like to have Tortoro as a neighbor.

And as noted in my last post, we've been reading "Little House on the Prairie" and the girls spent most of Sunday morning playing covered wagon. They turned their bunk into a wagon, and Rowena into "Baby Carrie." They gathered all their toy pots and were cooking up mush and prairie hen hash before too long.




Umberto is still a hard one to please. But I did come up with a good idea, and H with another one. Between the two of us we might be able to get him more excited about slightly more intellectual pursuits. I'm going to introduce him to fan fiction to feed on his interest in all things Halo. H suggested that when he plays games that have a historical bent to push learning that era. So he got a game on the "Wild West" and sure enough is now super excited to learn more about Westward expansion. I'll keep everyone update on this all pans out.

2 comments:

The Fearless Freak said...

We just haven't found much of anything that inspires WF to want to learn. He enjoyed the Civil War that they covered in school but refused to seek anymore knowledge about it (or any other war). WF is hands on and enjoys building and other creative pursuits but shows zero interested in actually learning anything concrete. I've basically resigned myself to the fact that he is simply not going to be interested in academic pursuits and that a C average is likely the best we can hope for from him. He is currently sitting at the dining room table doing his writing homework since he has been in his room for over an hour and managed to type "5 facts about sharks 1.Hammerhead Sharks"

MF is totally curious and can't seem to get enough information about anything. She is so much easier to teach because she wants to learn. She has a solid A average, across the board and is above grade level on reading (math drags the average down, just like her mom LOL).

Unknown said...

Sounds like our household Carrie. Umberto really doesn't seem to be very academic orientated at all. He did seem interested when we talked him to about the West so we'll see. And now that he can read very well, he's discovered gaming magazines, comics, and scifi. This has been a huge motivation for him.

Now Camille loves to research things. She's always looking things up on the computer and getting books out at the library.