Playful studyful Sunday

As I lean back from studying Australian Sign Language: an introduction to sign language linguistics courtesy of UB's ebook service from Ebook Library, I noticed that the scene at our computers is not as "same everyday" as I had recently begun to imagine.

When I shared my thoughts with the boys they pointed out that it isn't unusual really, we each have a huge variety of occupations at the computers and away from them. Tonight it just happens to be that Fish is playing Combat Arms and Cricket: Star Trek Legacy, although since I began posting Fish has moved on to Star Trek Legacy and Cricket to watching Star Trek Voyager on DVD.

Earlier today I practiced at the violin, entered dockets into our budget, posted notes about my last placement shift to the unit's Blackboard discussion forum; Cricket bought new bowling shoes and practiced at TenPin thanks to his aunt playing chauffeur; Fish played with his cousin, the kitten and a double handful of internet games.

Learn Nothing Day!

To play it safe, Cricket spent the first 12 hours of Learn Nothing Day in bed.

Both boys swore that they would endeavour to do only the same old quests, using the same strategies and not try anything new.

Reflecting on Late Night Learning

Sandra Dodd recently enhanced a few of her pages, including: Late Night Learning.

I've noticed the article before, and often reflected that a lot of our learning happens late at night.

Last night Fish requested a bout of Dance chasey - the night before I had tried to teach the boys the basic modern waltz steps... they weren't really interested and for some reason I began to chase them with a constant forward waltz step - the next second they began laughing and encouraging me to continue chasing them... I got a work out and we all had a laugh.

Tonight we watched At Five in the Afternoon; last night it was A Rake's Progress. I wish I'd made note of all the other movies that have caught our curiosity at different times - but who thinks about making a note when one is enjoying the movie?

Other home educators ... 1

Someone new joined the autonomous education network at mc2, and diving into the web from his blog (Living in a Deschooling Madhouse) I surfed to Diary of Home Education Nobody. Entry 001 triggered my own awareness of the challenge to provide evidence of Cricket's & Fish's learning. I don't actually 'have' to provide evidence to anyone just now, so the challenge is partly seeing it for myself. I don't want to spoil the boys' enjoyment of their life-learning, so why do I ask them to write about it?

• At the very least, says one of my justifications, some brief note by which they can practice handwriting.
• In the process may be practice at generating written words from thoughts (I'd be content with personal spelling)
• Habits can be helpful: and I am thinking that this kind of writing can help them develop habits of:
  
• reflection on performance/development/process
  
• documenting either objective data of their exploration (like Daniel does in Star Gate) or
  
• deliberate thinking (I'm thinking of showing them deBono's CoRT or at least starting with PMI or Thinking hats)
  
• sometimes writing can help reinforce learning
• Maybe it will help them become aware of what they are learning so that when asked they can answer with more than "I've been playing the computer and watching DVDs"
  
• I feel a need for some sort of documentation, and I don't want to spend my days following them around with notepad and pen.
  

Still, I need to keep requirement to a minimum (to be consistent with my philosophy of autonomy) ... yet I am the guide so maybe for now I need to focus on:

• pointing out the use and practice of various forms of documentation in their areas of interest
• finding reasons that have meaning to them.
  

Gestalt learning

Thanks to the contributors at UnschoolingDiscussion, I have some reasonable descriptions of the way Fish & Cricket learn:

"One way you can put this idea across, is to borrow some teacher jargon to stun the next person who tries this {examining & criticising children's knowledge}. Say "My kids are whole-to-part learners, not part-to-whole learners." Or if you want it to be more understandable you could say that they are "holistic" learners. When I want to be LESS understandable, I toss in the world "gestalt", even though I'm not completely clear on the meaning."

{to which another unschooler added:}

From Dictionary.com

Gestalt:

"A physical, biological, psychological, or symbolic configuration or pattern of elements so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be derived from a simple summation of its parts."

Sounds like a perfect way to describe a learner, and also Unschooling.

I have also heard the definition that the "whole is greater than the sum of its parts"

So, Fish and Cricket are pursuing a gestalt education.

I like "Blog This"

I was here when I discovered the thrill of Blogging This.

How did I get there? A link in a post to Always Learning that I explored for ideas for the chemistry set I want to compile for Fish's birthday.

I was curious about the What type of homeschooler are you?
quiz - while Marlette & Guisseppe's mum is apparently a Mr Potato Head (eclectic), the quiz results told me:

Salvador Dali Melting clocks are not a problem in your reality. You are an unschooler. You will tolerate a textbook, but only as a last resort. Mud is your friend. You prefer hands-on everything. If your school had an anthem, it would be Dont Worry, Be Happy.