I'm reading this book I mention in the title and it is really interesting and I agree with much of it. I'm not an unschooler, but I love a lot of the philosophies of it and use some of it. It has encouraged me to stand back more in some areas so the kids can have more freedom to learn on their own and in their own time-frame. Here's something from the book that we are doing:
!n regards to the multiplication tables:
(these are his words and I'm paraphrasing some)
It's important to think in terms of "knowing" the tables, not "learning" them and the best way to know them is NOT to sit down and try to memorize them one at a time like words in a strange language, but to become familiar with them, see how they work and to USE them.
He says after awhile we find we know them without having consciously learned them-just like we know the thousands of words in our native language without having "learned" any of them.
Without becoming aware of the actual process, we have become friends with them.
Then he gives an example of a way to become "friends" with them by using a grid, which I set up for Jonah.
It's a 10 by 10 grid- 10 rows of squares across and down, 10 squares in each row. Number the top 1 thru 10 and number the side 1 thru 10. To fill out the grid, you put in each empty square the answer of the 2 numbers that meet at that square.
For example, 2 times 8-put 16 in that empty square where those 2 numbers meet.
But, here's the thing-you put the grid up somewhere visible (ours is on the fridge) and you leave it empty. The child fills it in whenever they want in whatever amount of time it takes-even months. When it's filled out, you put up another blank one.
There's no pressure, you don't allot time for it in the schedule to get done. (that part is a little hard for me not to do)
I explained it to Jonah and told him it was his chart to fill out whenever he wants. It's about half filled now(it's been 2 weeks since it went up).
And, he refers to it when he's doing his math lessons-which the books says to let them do.
John Holt also says not to correct the wrong answers. Have them write it in pencil and when they realize they wrote the wrong answer in one of the boxes, they'll fix it. As they become more familiar with the tables and the patterns they make, they'll see that something looks wrong, doesn't fit or there's a contradiction somewhere. They'll internally learn that numbers behave in an orderly and sensible way.
Even if the child gets the idea to use a calculator, let them-they'll still notice patterns.
Anyway, I thought this was very interesting and don't know how well it works actually, but thought I'd try this grid out. So far it seems to be going along exactly the way he said in the book.
Jonah already has noticed mistakes he made and fixed them. I had to tell Pat not to mention the mistakes, though, because he asked me what kind of times tables were these here?
Here's a few links my friend, Tracy, sent as I was making grids by hand (silly me):
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/mult/mult.html (this is an online game)
And I'll end with two very thought-provoking quotes:
"What is most important and valuable about the home as a base for
children's growth into the world is not that it is a better school than the
schools, but that it isn't a school at all." -- John Holt
children's growth into the world is not that it is a better school than the
schools, but that it isn't a school at all." -- John Holt
"To control and sort young people for the sake of institutional efficiency is to
crush the human spirit." ~~ Ron Miller
crush the human spirit." ~~ Ron Miller
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