Monday, April 4, 2011

Unschool Monday: It Really Works!

The past couple of weeks we have had the joy of seeing traditionally-defined "success" in our daughter's learning. Proof that unschooling works. This week, out of nowhere Harriet has started writing and identifying colours.

One afternoon she announced to her Dad that she had "done a H" while she was drawing in chalk on the driveway. We were amazed to find that she had indeed drawn the letter H. Since then she has been spotting H's wherever she goes. One day she saw a sign that said "Healthy" and announced "A H! 1, 2! 2 H." Counting and the alphabet, with no worksheets or flashcards, simply through engaging with the world everyday.

For years Harri has spoken about colours but not truly understood what colours are or been able to correctly identify a colour. Blue and purple were adjectives for a long time. We didn't feel the need to correct her, we trusted she would learn for herself (and also I wondered what I might say if I corrected her only to be met with "why?" or "what's purple?" LOL). Last week she tugged at my jumper, stopped to share her observations: "Brown and soft!" I had not been aware that "soft" was a word in her vocabularly, but there it was, being used correctly, along with the colour brown.

Our family loves the unschooling life. The theory fits our family well. To see the practical results in action is a thrilling cherry on top to our way of life/learning.

I'm joining in with Owlet's Unschool Monday.

1 comment:

shae said...

I love how it happens!
We were in an elevator recently when it became apparent that Tannah can read the numbers 1-6!