Child-led education

Not infrequently, Elena has some idea of what she'd like to learn about for the day. Recently, she said that she wanted to learn "what ten tens makes" (she's been on a multiplying kick lately, but normally with smaller numbers, usually just multiplying by two). In response to the question about ten tens, I tried to get out some materials to allow her to visually see and count ten tens, but was struck as we got going that she still has some trouble counting in her teens! (She counts accurately to 15, then jumps to 19, then 21, then is pretty accurate in the 20s. But this leads, obviously, to her ending up with the wrong final number when trying to count things numbered more than 15.) So it ended up being a lesson on counting in the teens instead--I didn't worry about getting all the way to a hundred, and she didn't seem too fussed that we didn't get there either.

A couple of months ago, when Erich asked her what she wanted to learn about today, she answered "clowns." In addition to answering her questions based on his current knowledge, they also looked up information about different types of clowns, how one goes about becoming a clown, etc. Later, when I came home from work, we painted each other's faces like clowns.

Today, without being asked, Elena requested to learn about 1. Elephants and 2. x-rays. Our typical way of doing this is to do our best to share what knowledge we do have (if any) about the topic in discussions (these conversations often happen in the car...). Then we also look up things online (the National Geographic website is great for learning about animals), finding descriptions, photos, and videos. I hope to start incorporating these interests of hers into our (planned-to-be-more-regular) trips to the library. So maybe tomorrow (if I'm feeling better; I've been rather sick lately) we can pick up a book on Elephants (or x-rays?) at the library to augment what we've got so far.

When possible, I like to be able to take advantage of her interests this way. I think this is actually at the heart of both Montessori and unschooling: kids learn (and retain) stuff best when it's self-driven and "presented" (or "discovered") when they're actively exploring it. The challenge for us is to provide the resources and guidance to help her in this exploration.