A friend just posted about how she is using Five in a Row as her time to connect with her kids ,who are primarily unschooling and it got me thinking about how we are approaching this thing we call learning. Because at first read I was surprised because it is a fairly laid out program, but the heart of what she is doing is her wanting to share her love of books and learning. We are doing something similar, though it isn’t so laid out. Instead Alder and I, and Kevin when he’s around, are making time three mornings a week to slow down and learn. Or project, or create.
We sat down earlier in the summer and talked about what we wanted our learning time to look like and this is what we decided. First Alder decided that he wanted a “school room” (though I call it a learning space). But basically it is supposed to be a space where we keep all the learning stuff where we can work together on things or he can work on his own. On my part I promised that on those three days a week I would completely focus on him and what ever project, research, creative thing we decide. This means not phones, no internet (unless we’re looking something up), and no chores. We agreed that unless we had a specific event these would be mornings when we stayed home (that was his request).
This is what we’ve decided.
Wake up.
Stretch.
Eat breakfast.
Go to learning space.
Read a poem (okay I asked for this one just because I haven’t had enough poetry in my life lately).
Turn on Jazz or classical music (his request).
Decide on what we are going to do.
Work together, no time limit or requirement, though we’ll try not to make any plans until after lunch those days.
And I love this idea. As a person who spend her free time focusing on writing and researching, I think that these focused mornings are something I want to share with Alder. I’m not trying to push one subject or another on him but to share with him my love of learning, the same way we’ve decided to go hiking or climbing or to the river at least once a week a well so we can share those as well. For myself I need the intention of this time together, I need this to remind me the value of my time with him.
This makes so much sense to me. I have been going back and forth on daily rhythms, and trying to make time for learning with the kids and doing housework and, of course, playing outside. It’s open, child-led and structured enough for your child to feel his life has some control. Thanks for sharing.
This plan was born out of my son’s want for more focused learning and my inability to shift my mind without some sort of setup. I wouldn’t say that we are very structured this plan is really just taking what seems to be happening normally and making it official. Honestly, if my mind wasn’t so scattered all day long we wouldn’t need the special time set apart. But at this point in my life I need the instructions that these times are for only focusing on him. I hope that this plan will help me get more used to having a focused mind when he is interested in learning, at any time, but for now this is my scaffolding that I use so that I can give him what he wants.
In terms of the child-led part of our learning/living process these mornings together will really be invented by him. We talked a few weeks ago about what he wanted to learn about and do. Since then I’ve started putting together various things we can do related to these. Some are books, games, projects, and experiments. I’ll remind him what we have and what he’s started, but if he just wants us to make music or draw building plans (which he does everyday) I am fine with that as well. At five my only real want is for him to know that I value and love this time set aside for us to focus together.
I love that! When my boys were a little younger we would do more planned time – I knew that I needed to have a plan for ME that in the mornings we would pull out stuff to play and work on. It helped me focus on how to organize my days and be ready with what we needed. We would have mornings of crafts, paints, science kits, music, books, etc. based on what they were interested in and the season. As they have gotten older our rhythm has grown and changed as they are now very independent and self led, and though we still do things together every day, they also flow with their own groove, so to speak. And clean up after themselves! ;P
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