Entries from November 2009 ↓

It’s been slow going around here lately.  We’ve started a couple new books — The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling and The Marvelous Land of Oz by Baum — but Gamma couldn’t get into either of them.  I don’t think it’s the reading material that’s the issue.  Both are books I think he’d normally really enjoy.  But right now, his mind is 100% focused on…?  Yes, you got it!  Bionicles.  He can’t stop talking about them, from first waking til saying goodnight.  He doesn’t want to read books, or play games, or go exploring, or or or… If he’s not playing with his Bionicles, he’s looking at homemade videos about them on YouTube.  Either that or playing the game on the Wii.

I am being driven slowly insane.

Today, Gamma and I played Mario Kart Wii until I thought my eyeballs would bleed.  Or maybe just during Epsilon’s nap.  But still, for a long, LONG time.  (I should add that I am a FAR better driver in real life than I am on the Wii.  Truly.  I’ve yet to drive off a cliff, or over a banana, or smash repeatedly into a guard-rail in an effort to turn around and move in the right direction.) Gamma has played this much more than I have, and loves to impart special tips that I have yet to discover.

So… there we are, laughing, having a great time (although I may or may not have swore at the ink blobs, and Gamma may or may not have repeated what I said), and Gamma pauses the game and says, “Know what?”  You’re playing and having fun,” here he leans over and taps me repeatedly on the temple, “and you’re learning at the same time.  And didn’t even know it!”  then he resumes the game.

Huh… wonder where he learned that?  Surely I’m not that pedantic?!

We waved goodbye to Alpha, who was heading off to work, then Gamma matter-of-factly explained to me, “You know some numbers are perfect numbers and some numbers aren’t.  4 is a perfect number.  So is 2. So are 8 and 6.  But 1, and 3, and 5, and 7 aren’t.”

Aha… I asked him what he meant by “perfect,” and he explained that you could double some other number and come up with them.  Aha…  I explained that those were even numbers, and the “not perfect” numbers were odd.  I didn’t get into what perfect numbers really are, as my math memories are somewhat sketchy and mixed up.

But it impressed me greatly to see him stumble across this on his own.  No pushing from me, no contrived games to make him “get it.”  He’s gone around for the last couple days, labeling every number he comes to as either odd or even.  Playing games in which, whatever he does, he must do it an even number of steps.  Counting the bites in his lunch to assure he takes an even number of bites.  This reminded me of one of Rollfe Schmidt’s posts, and it was very gratifying to see happen in my own child.

I’ve read somewhere that you will see it when you believe it.  I’m starting to see the truth of that statement.

…I have many thoughts, most not fully developed, rambling about in my head right now.  I think the end result, should I ever reason it out, will be an epiphany (for me, at least).  So forgive me for pouring my ramblings out here…

I often read accounts of home/unschooling projects in which everyone is involved, learning is happening on multiple levels, connections are being made, and there’s just a warm fuzzy glow encompassing everyone.  But somehow, I didn’t see that as being real.  Not that I thought learning and projects would necessitate a “chore” mentality — just that I couldn’t see it working for and involving every one of us.  For example, I figured that if we decided to… say, learn to play chess, I would read about it before hand, find some good sites, and then impart my knowledge to Gamma.  He’d be suitably grateful and enthralled with the knowledge, and we’d both become expert chess players as a result.  So yes, we’d all be learning, but I’d be learning in advance, and then teaching.

Gamma has a long-standing obsession with Bionicles.  He loves to put them together.  He scours the Lego site for information on them.  He has discovered the wonders of YouTube and homemade movies starring Bionicles.  He plays the game on the Wii, and he watches the movie as often as we allow can stand to listen to it.  He asks me what Bionicles I would like for my birthday, and which action figure I like best, and who I want to be when we play make-believe games together.  It doesn’t stop.  Ever.  All…day…long.

(this has a point… I swear it… at least I think it does… I’m not sure where this will end up…)

I really don’t like Bionicles very much.  The storyline has too much fighting for my taste.  But knowing how infatuated he is with these right now, I tried to look at them objectively and figure out how we could use this as a learning experience.  Not turning it into schoolwork, but extracting learning from it, if you follow me.

But I couldn’t see it.  Sure, he was following sometimes 20- or 30-step instructions, intended for kids three-to-five years older than he is.  But he’s just playing. Sure, he’s correctly typing in words like “Mata Nui” and “Rahkshi” and “Vahki,” and finding videos and instruction manuals.  But these aren’t “real” words and he’s just fooling around. Sure, he’s reading things like “do you want to purchase this hint for 500?”  But this isn’t a phonics program, it’s just a video game.

I kept looking for how I could connect this to history, or literature, or something I saw as meaningful.  I just couldn’t see it.

A week or so ago, Alpha bid on and won a huge lot of Bionicle sets and spare pieces.  When he called me from work and told me about it, I admit I was less than thrilled.  Gamma had just been digging in his heels and ignoring some of the “organic” learning I was trying to make him joyously discover.  Instead, he wanted to be playing with his stinking Bionicles.  I was ready to ban them from the house!  But despite my opposition to the war-mentality, and despite the education battles, I really just want my kids to have fun and be happy, and so, when Alpha came home Friday afternoon with a load of Bionicles, I was grinning along with him while we watched Gamma’s ever-increasing joy as he discovered each new set.

Thus began a two day marathon Bionicle session.  For all of us.  Gamma was the lead builder, as he knew the most about the sets.  Some did not have instructions — Alpha and Gamma figured those out together.  Then came the huge bag of assorted parts.  A strange helmet, an unusual weapon or disk or shield.  I’d  use these clues to look them up on the internet, find the correct name/species (???) of Bionicle, and locate a scanned instruction booklet so they could piece them together.  Epsilon… he is the only two year old on earth, I’d dare say, that can say “Bionicle”, let alone name individual characters.

And it was an absolutely awesome, warm-fuzzy-glow weekend.  Alpha is almost as infatuated with Bionicles as Gamma now.  He loves to build and construct, and figure things out with no blueprint, only to find a blueprint later and realize he was dead-on balls accurate (it’s an industry term).  Gamma was in his element, and I think being the resident expert gave him a level of confidence and assured-ness about himself he’d not realized before.  I loved finding that I’m a valued part of the team — that being research assistant/librarian is just as valuable  (if not more)  as being hands on/go-to-girl.  Epsilon enjoyed getting to play with spare parts and simply not being brushed aside in the interest of real learning, as opposed to play.  And both kids got to see that both Dad’s and Mom’s skills (although vastly different) have great value.

Sigh… if I’d taken the time to write this all out in the midst of the epiphany, it might have made so much more sense… but then I’d have missed most of the moments…

I can’t equate all learning to the Bionicle universe.  I still can’t fathom how our history can be traced through this alternative universe.  Or how most math, or history, or science, can spring from this.  But I am beginning to get the picture of how the learning can happen, and the possibilities are enticing.  I still have a long way to go, but I think I’m becoming more open to the possibilities.

And I think that – getting how the learning can happen – will be the most important step of all.

Can you find a familiar face amongst the legion?

A few days ago the boys and I spent the day at a local attraction called Parc Paradisio.  Initially, this was a bird park and garden, but over the years has grown to be quite a zoo.  The site is built on the grounds and building remains of a magnificent abbey. With crowds milling about and a temperamental camera, I cannot do the parc justice.  But here are some shots from our day for you, nonetheless.

a portion of the Chinese gardens

mysterious rat/deer/kangaroo hybrid -- any suggestions?

the biggest maple I've ever seen... you have to be there to understand how huge these trees are.

elephant totem

Borobudur model?

Hindu temple on-site -- to be opened next season.

images of Ganesha abound

does he dare?

The pink building seen behind Gamma in this last shot today houses the aquarium.  Go here to see some of the fantastic animal life to be found at Parc Paradisio, as well as a few of the monuments.