RE: Unschooling 101 Part 2: Freedom of Activity
Great article! My oldest started reading at 3 and to this day is still a voracious reader. My 2nd daughter is 8 and is interested, but doesn't have the patience so I don't push and she is naturally progressing and sometimes surprises herself at how much she is passively learning!
As for the conspiracy rabbit hole, I feel like the term "conspiracy theorist" has such a negative connotation, but when I really think about the term itself, without the agenda attached to it, I love it! What do scientists do? Theorize! You come up with a theory and then you go to work studying it in or even trying to disprove it! I wish we approached more things this way. I often struggle with researching because I get so frustrated by the bias I see in both directions. This is no way directed at any one group since I'm so left I'm right or so right I'm left, depending on the topic at hand. Bottomline is I love that by unschooling, our kids are free to investigate whatever rabbitholes they wish and to the depths they desire.
Lastly, we unschool with a Waldorfish flair and very limited screentime because I do have one child with SPD and transitions of any kind are a challenge, but specifically those surrounding screens of any type, whether it's TV, video games, tablets, even Pandora on an ipad! Just wondering if anyone else out there has faced this issue. I end up having to limit screentime for the whole family in an attempt at fairness and any time we do have a family movie night, I feel like I'm walking on eggshells when it's over.
Thank you so much! They do learn in totally different ways and on totally different timelines. It's so good to hear you're letting her go at her own pace. It always makes my stomach turn to see kids pressured.
I feel you on the conspiracy theories. They're only referred to in that way by people who disagree with them, but you're right. Making a theory and then researching to determine the truth is always good. And it's true that bias and inaccurate information abound. This weekend has been a fine example of that - and like you said both left and right.
I wish I could help you on the screen time with the SPD. I have my suspicions that my 3rd child might have it, but we've never had it diagnosed, and it's probably a mild case. I don't think our situations are really similar, but I'll share my story in hopes that there will be at least something helpful. With my first two I used to limit screen time, and I slowly decided to let them decide. I was internally resisting it, though, so they sensed the unspoken power struggle. Their dad was also totally not on board. So their response, of course, was to spend a lot of time on screens. Eventually I let it go, and eventually they balanced out. With the younger two, I haven't had any restrictions or any internal conflict about it, and they naturally balance themselves. We live in Belize, so it's nice enough to go out almost all the time, and that's often so much more interesting. So, even my one who struggles with transitions and tantrums and anything out of his routine, chooses to walk from the screens after a little while. He does get crazy mad at his video games, but he'll even step away from those after a while. I feel for you. I hate the eggshells feeling. We deal with it any time we have to sleep away from home for the night. We have to make sure he's really comfortable and has loads of distractions. Anyway, I'm pretty sure your situation is different, but I hope there was a nugget in there for you.