Worksheets

I thought about titling this post "the best laid plans" and still think it is probably the more likely title. When we embarked on our homeschooling journey about a year ago, it was with the particular purpose of not schooling at all in the strict sense of the word; we consider ourselves unschoolers. A large part of homeschooling, however, specifically of home unschooling, is the ability to be flexible and to let the child lead the way.

After reading several books by David Elkind, and my favorite education book, Emile, I felt very at ease with the idea of reading and writing could and should wait. I had no qualms about Calvin eventually becoming a reader—he is surrounded by books, people who loves books, and people who love reading to him, not to mention that he, himself absolutely loves to be read to and to "read" to himself and his friends and toys. We'll get there eventually, I figured, and until then, no pressure.

So what happens when the kid starts pressuring you? When he first wrote his name by himself over a week ago it was really just the start down a slippery slope of sorts. I dragged my feet. Sure he could write his name, but I didn't think that meant open season the the first two of the three Rs. It was the very next day, though, that he started asking me to help him learn how to make other letters by writing them out so he could trace them. I grudgingly complied. Then I started to write my letters out in dots and dashes so he could truly trace over them, and then, as he was asking for more and more letters while I was trying to make lunch, I gave in fully and found a few preschool letter worksheets online and printed them. He seemed to find them almost as exciting as his train, and I had to convince him to put them aside to eat lunch.

It was then that I had to remind myself of my original goal: to let the kid lead the way. Well, here he was, leading the way while pulling me along behind him, my feet dragging all the while. Sure I'd set out to save him from rigid educational structures and from being a slave to worksheets such as these, but enjoying them wholeheartedly at his own pace was far from being enslaved. You could say that I'd missed the forest for the trees, or perhaps the learning for the worksheet, but I'm back on track...for now.