Simply Mother

It’s always a dilemma to me, whether to interrupt my kids when they’re doing something so interesting to them, just to say it’s time to get ready for bed. I mean, yes, they need sleep, and sometimes they need subtle guidance to get them there before they melt or crash (and so they’re not a puddle of tears the next day, as they seem to get up at the same time no matter when they go to bed!) But?

When they’re so involved in an activity, I hate to interrupt. Here’s what Sarah was working on the other night when I went in to let her know what time it was so she could get ready for bed. (She asks me to tell her this, by the way. The times I haven’t told her–because I didn’t want to interrupt her–she’s asked, “Why didn’t you tell me?!” Apparently she really wants to get to bed in time to have enough sleep to feel good in the morning.)

She’s been listening to Lemony Snicket’s books on cd in her room lately, but she doesn’t just sit there doing nothing else the whole time. She either reads along with the cd, reads other books (Or, I don’t know, I couldn’t read a book and listen to another book at the same time. She’s definitely getting the story line of the Snicket books because every time she comes out of her room she gives me updates on what’s happening, so I think she may be just looking at the other books and trying to figure out new words or something.), writes, or plays some other game of her own invention.

This night, before she put the cd on she ran to the bookshelf to pull out that little write on/wipe off activity book my mom sent for Christmas but hasn’t been used much since, got her puzzle of the United States (which we’ve had for years) and started working on this page.

It was so random, but also very deliberate. I don’t know what inspires her.

But that is how she is with everything. And why I guess it’s not so bad when I do need to interrupt her–because it’s not like it’s just a once-in-a-lifetime fluke that she suddenly became interested in writing the names of the states (or anything else she may be doing). The more I watch this child, the more my thinking aligns with the branch of educational philosophy labeled variously “student-directed learning,” “child-led learning,” “natural learning,” “interest-driven learning,” and “unschooling.”

The answer to my post title, I think, is this: I can’t!

Sure, I can interrupt her temporarily, let her know it’s time for bed, ask her to help me with something, remind her that we need to go somewhere. But none of those things are going to stop her from doing what she needs to do and learning what she needs to know. She’s going to do that no matter what I do.

Well . . . now maybe if I put her in school . . .

Haha, just kidding.

I mean, I do think schools–with all their sticker charts bribes, threats, and other measures of coerced learning–tend to kill interest, unintentionally impeding the learning of many a child in the process . . .

But really, school is soooo not for this kid! It just seems so unnecessary. (And if you know me at all, you know I try to avoid any “unnecessary interventions.”)

(Click through to Flickr for more details on her learning to write–and my questions on the process.)

Filed in: family • home education • parenting | February 25, 2009