Stonehenge - Drawing found in the public domain
A friend of mine and I were chatting late the other evening, when she mentioned that her children were far more interested in the little WWII bunker in her town than they were in the topic she was trying to get them to do. She was a bit stressed, because she really wants to finish her chosen topic so they can be "done with school" by the end of May and she's already had to fight with the kids to get this far, and they are a good 6 weeks from finishing as it is.
OK, I get it. I really do. BUT. How much are the kids really getting from this chosen topic if it is such a battle to even get the bare minimum out of them? I suggested she consider cutting some corners on her chosen topic so they could possibly get through it quicker, as well as taking a side trip to investigate more about the WWII bunker that the kids have a current interest in.
This past week, after seeing Stonehenge being visited on one of the children's programs that they enjoy watching, my son said to me "Mom, who really built Stonehenge...and why?".
I didn't just dismiss him because it is "off topic", but rather we sat down and chatted about our thoughts on it, and then we dug out the book we have on Stonehenge along with the wooden building set that my son then constructed Stonehenge out of. We watched a couple of short videos on youtube about Stonehenge as well, and then he brought it up to his father when he got home later that evening and relayed all that he had learned.
This side-tracked us from what I had already planned to do for that day, but it indulged my son on something he was really excited to learn more about in that moment. The next day, we were back into our regular groove, and he seemed more relaxed and ready to get back into our "regularly scheduled program" after having a day of indulging a totally "off topic" subject matter.
I call that WINNING!
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I ran into the issue of "lack of interest" recently with Farmer Boy. My son, as mentioned in the past, was an early reader and his skills are really strong (both his ability to read complicated texts, but also his retention and comprehension)....but, he is not a huge fan of sitting down and reading a book. He has just started this past year picking up a book he might find interesting and reading it, and so it admittedly has been a challenge to get through the literature I've wanted to get through. My compromise has been for me to read aloud to him (which he loves), as well as "reading" these stories via audiobook (in the car as well as at home on quiet afternoons/evenings).
Well, I made the mistake of trying to get my son to want to pick up the actual paper book for Farmer Boy and read it, and so I was left with the option of having him listen to it via audiobook (available on youtube). His response was a bit....lack luster. He says he likes the Almonso character, but that the stories are just not as interesting as he'd like them to be. This revelation came after we were already about 1/4 of the way through the book, and I noticed it was becoming more of a challenge to pull him away from other things to come and listen to a couple of chapters, no matter what time of day it was.
I wrestle with such things, because I have always said that if he was truly against something, we wouldn't do it....so, I found myself asking "Do you want to continue with this book?". His answer surprised me. "Yeah, I guess so, Mom. I do like the idea of the story, and I want to find out what happens to Almonso, but I don't want to choose that over other things."
So....we put our heads together and found a better time of the day when he feels less distracted by other things (like Roblox group games, for example). This has certainly made all the difference. He still says he wishes the story were a little more exciting, but at the same time he is interested in how the story turns out. I guess we'll keep on reading listening, then.
It can be an interesting inner challenge, that of wanting to keep somewhere near the main themes you had planned out for the year and yet honoring your child's role in that curriculum. Because my son is not often moved to pick out his own books to read, I am therefore put in the position of grabbing a good handful that I think he might enjoy and bringing them home from the library, allowing him to pick through the pile at his leisure (but at the same time, expressing I'd like him to read at least one of those books that week).
He is slowly realizing that if he wants a book that will truly interest him, he should be involved in the process when we are at the library each week!
So, the choice to engage in some free reading each week, along with the choice about whether or not there will be a more structured literature component that month, really isn't there. I personally do not feel that asking him to read a personal-choice book each week (I pick out fairly short ones for him) and one book of actual literary quality once a month is asking too much of him....especially when I am happy to have the literary book be in audio format (or if I read the book aloud to him).
Riding that fine line between what I want him to be exposed to and allowing him input is certainly sometimes a challenge for me. I've made no bones about my feelings on radical unschooling (I'm not a proponent), but at the same time I think I've made the case that there does need to be some child input...in fact, I feel there should be a LOT of child input.
It's finding that delicate balance between wanting our children to be well-read and well skilled for the world ahead of them while also honoring that sometimes they just aren't "into" something, and therefore they simply will not retain information very well about things that they have zero interest in. The studies have been done and this is not just opinion, but seems to be a scientific fact.
I guess the real trick, then, is to find exciting ways to approach those subjects to (hopefully) conjure up at least enough interest to encourage retention and some basic level of skill.
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