PART
TWO
So what is “Natural
Education”? John Holt said “Learning is as natural as
breathing”. But somewhere along the way learning became a chore, a
task, a drudgery – and for a child who is on the autism spectrum,
or quirky, or gifted, or a bit different, learning can be either
joyfully easy in some areas, and at the same time painfully tiring in
others.
To learn something new
requires a certain amount of energy. If one is excited about the
learning, motivated in some way, then the energy expended is hardly
noticed. But if the learning is hard, slow, confusing – more
energy is expended and often the learning is forgotten.
For me Natural Home
Education means finding each child’s comfortable place with how
they learn using just the right amount of “energy units” (which I
will explain about later), and figuring out how I can facilitate and
celebrate that learning appropriately.
Natural education starts for a baby at birth, well,
probably before birth, but we can see it start at birth. There is
so much gentle and unrushed learning that happens for a loved and
nurtured baby. At this stage I would encourage the use of natural
materials for clothes, bedding and toys. As a baby grows older try
and keep them away from electronic and harsh toys. In fact anything
labelled “educational toy” can probably be avoided. Everything
is “educational” and items from nature are the best toys –
sticks, pine cones, mud, sand etc. I don’t agree that every child
benefits from preschool or kindergarten, it is something we decided
against. Apparently, from what I have been hearing in America, and I
guess it’s filtering down here, preschool teachers are becoming
more and more despondent about the “academics”and testing
required of the children, and the increased paperwork. A
play-based, natural childhood is getting further and further away
from these precious little ones who are put into the system.
Speaking of little ones - I’ve noticed a trend to
create “sensory tubs” which look fun. They are themed large
plastic containers – for instance an undersea sensory tub may
contain marbles to represent water, and some plastic fish hiding,
shells, little bucket and space - or a dinosaur sensory tub might
have kinetic sand, plastic dinosaur figures and some farm set trees
and bushes. Yes, Sensory tubs look wonderful, and a child could
indeed enjoy playing with them, but I am concerned that they’re
part of a www movement to trip mummys up and make them feel guilty
for not providing such wonderful goodies for their children. If you
pick the Sensory Tub idea apart basically you have to spend money on
the plastic tub and the boys, put time into making it, get upset when
it is scattered or lost or not played with nicely, store it all
somewhere and then end up throwing it out or recycling the toys in a
different game. I don’t have the time or energy for something like
this, and when I see lovely ideas like this I can be inclined to feel
guilty that the children are missing out on something - until I talk
it over with a friend and I come back to what is important, what is
natural, and the reason why I’m doing things this way.
So, our house is not completely void of toys - and
after collecting and using them for over 20 years we’ve worked out
which are the ones most appreciated by our children. Our toys are
considered to be “resources” because the children still have to
DO something all day, and as much as I’d like to spend most of the
day outside, it just doesn’t happen. I’ve put a list of our
favourite and most appreciated resources on the handout you have.
Just recently I saw a beautifully photographed blog post
where the mother had made a “Maths Investigation Area” for her
children. There was a lovely little wooden table holding a small
blackboard with the numbers from 0 to 50 written on it, some nesting
dolls, a basket of shells, one of smooth rocks, handmade maths gnomes
with felt rainbow hats, a basket of plastic shapes ... lots of lovely
things. It LOOKED lovely, but it made me a little cross as I thought
about all the mums may feel guilty because they couldn’t provide
that for their children, and I was cross about another thing –
which I’ll explain in a minute.
I wondered if I was just getting a little cantankerous
and intolerant in my old age, so I asked my daughter what she thought
of the picture.
“Well” she said “It looks nice,
but it would all be scattered in a minute” (remember she has four
little brothers, she knows about things getting scattered) “and”
she continued, still looking at the picture “I wouldn’t want to
play with the things afterwards because knowing they were there for
maths would spoilt them for afterwards.”
Wise girl.
And so, my additional cross thoughts
that I said I’d explain later were that a mother could get quite
upset if a child won’t play with the items presented in
the prescribed way
– in a maths sort of a way – putting the sea shells from smallest
to largest, making patterns from the plastic shapes. It’s a pretty
sure thing that a quirky child with good play-skills will probably do
something like bring four small cars to the maths investigation area,
make a road out of the shells, pile the pattern pieces on top of each
other to make a tall tower and then run the cars into them. The
dolls will be ignored, the blackboard might be rubbed out to get rid
of all those pesky numbers so a target can be drawn on, and the
rainbow hatted gnomes will be lined up and have the marbles rolled at
them.
And why do I think this? My first
lesson in this sort of disappointment came when Michael was 3, I know
because I’ve written it into my homeschool mumblings book. I wrote
“Today is the 1st
day of REAL realisation that I HAVE TO DO WHAT THE CHILDREN WANT TO
DO if I want them to be learning and happy. Have been reading the
Glen Doman books on Teach Your Baby To Read etc. Thought it sounded
SO GOOD. *I* wanted to do it. Spent $10 on a thick red marker pen,
Steve cut some cardboard into giant flashcards. I figured out a good
list of words, wrote out quite a few flashcards, tried to get
Michael’s attention. Failed. Felt like I might not be able to
cope, picked myself up, decided to leave it for a while. Michael
just wanted to play with the bits of cardboard, running cars up them,
and taking the one with “SAW” written on it and using it as a
saw. “No” says me getting a little frustrated– it’s not
supposed to be that way. Lesson = listen to your child. Later
wanted to make biscuits with Michael, he just wanted to play in the
sink with the water. Ordered info on the ACE pre-school programme as
I think earlier is better, but they say don’t start reading till at
least SIX! Then I realised that I don’t want to do the programme.
LISTEN TO MY INSTINCTS! Talked to Steve about it and it became clear
that I really wasn’t happy about the way it seems to be too
structured for what I want. Then I found a book called ‘Homeschool
Burnout’ and YIPEE it’s great. NO CURRICULUM is best. Leave
learning till a child is ready! Stuff I had read and heard before
but now I really believe it. So the deal now – leave any “formal”
learning till Michael shows his readiness. Reading, maths etc could
be 6 or 7 – even 10. Hope I don’t waver when the time comes. I
know there will be plenty of doubters but hopefully my support
network will be strong.”
Well, I wish over the years I had returned to those
thoughts more often. I wish I had heard a talk like this at the
beginning of my journey. I did waver, I did push the older boys, I
guess I got worried that I was failing them by allowing them so much
freedom. I am blessed that we came through it relatively
unscathed, and I am also blessed that I am so passionate about
natural education now that these next children are benefiting from
that passion.
End
of Part Two
**
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