Hi Everyone,
We've had an exciting development in our house, Jay has spontaneously started writing words! A couple of days ago I was in another room and Jay called me to the kitchen table and said
Look what I've done. I can write now.
He had taken the readers he and Freida like to use as story books and copied the sight words. Since then, he's been up early several mornings in a row practicing his writing and asking me to spell out words for him.
I believe he is so motivated because he became curious about writing by himself and because he wanted to. It's just clicked for him and he's very pleased with himself indeed :)
I'm excited because I love seeing my kids passionate with learning and it is more reassurance for me that we are on the right track with our eclectic/free range learning style.
A while ago I attempted to share a phonics programme with Jay and he was bored senseless with the repetition. Thank goodness I didn't force him to persist, I could have ruined this whole process of exploration for him, and be going through the motions every day to get those lines of letters written in the little phonics booklet....not much fun for either of us.
This experience puts me in mind of a theme that keeps repeating in the books I've read on homeschooling. The theme is Trust your child to want to learn. It's a natural process and it will happen without pushing.
Two books I have found particularly reassuring are John Holt's Teach Your Own, and Laura Grace Weldon's Free Range Learning (I will review both books on the blog over the next few posts).
I'll leave you with a quote that says it all.....
Every truth has four corners: as a teacher I give you one corner, and it is for you to find the other three.
Talk Soon, Cynthia xConfucius
