Left to his own devices . . .

On our road trip, we read aloud the book "God's Adventurer" by Phyllis Thompson. It's a 'novelized' biography of Hudson Taylor. The whole family really enjoyed it and highly recommends it, btw.

So, yesterday morning I discover Sly sewing together some folded sheets of paper to make a notebook. He said, "I got the idea from Hudson Taylor!" And yes, in the book, Hudson Taylor sews together some sheets of paper to make a notebook because he doesn't have the extra money to go to the stationery store to buy one premade.

Anyway, it once again brought me back to considering how we homeschool. Clearly Sly was listening to the family read aloud. The story has also spawned several conversations, both when we were still reading it and since we've finished. In some cases, we've had the natural opportunities to compare and contrast events and perspectives presented in the story to events and perspectives we've encountered in real life. I was thinking about it and realized that life itself has presented more than enough 'comprehension questions' for what we've read, and with his self-initiated project, Sly also demonstrated that life can present some great related 'hands-on' projects as well.

The thought crossed my mind when I found Sly sewing that there were other things I could have him doing at that time. But far be it from me to interrupt initiative and creativity and learning! Instead, I patiently listened as he explained (in more detail than I was interested in) what he was doing, how, and why. I bit my tongue about giving him some basic sewing advice (his thread was knotting up on him in part because he cut it WAY too long!). When, a very short while later, he asked if we had a thimble, I hid my pleasure and went digging around for the lone red plastic thimble I've had since I was a litty bitty kid. I told him, "I want this back when you're done!" and the boy who never puts ANYTHING away did indeed promptly return it to me when he was finished. Throughout the day he was proud of his good work on his project and was excited to show it to Habeeb when he got home from work, after already telling him all about it over lunch earlier in the day.

So, here's to some unschooling. He's listened, he's discussed, he's applied what he's learned to real life situations, he's thought of a related project, he's prepped and completed and cleaned up said project (awesome organization for his disorganized self!), and he's shared his enthusiam with others. I'm pretty sure that he will never forget the story of Hudson Taylor, despite the fact that there was no assigned reading, or required vocabulary lessons, or comprehension questions, or book reports, or other created tools of instruction. I could have stopped him and had him doing something more 'schooly,' but that would have seriously interfered with his learning and development!