Now I’m starting to truly get it. I read Lori Pickert’s Project-Based Homeschooling last year, and loved it. I gobbled up her theories about child-lead learning and immediately went about tweaking our home’s work spaces to integrate her ideas. We had a shelf built to fit in our tiny kitchen/work space so that we could put out art supplies and tools at the childrens’ level, and so they could help themselves at any time. I put up a cork board for each child, and set out jars of good quality markers and pencil crayons.
And then I stood back to see what would happen.
Esmé figured it out immediately, and went to work. She experimented with the supplies and tools and recycled boxes and tubs and built all manner of things in the first few days as she found her way around the new lay of the land with everything available to her, without restrictions. We went through a ream of paper in a couple of weeks. My beloved Prismacolour pencils were occasionally electrically sharpened to nubs. I took a deep breath as felt pens dried out, capless, and paint dried on the teak table. Esmé was learning about putting quality supplies to work, and I was learning to let go of controlling the art cupboard like some kind of third grade class monitor. Let it go, and watch what happens.
It made sense for Esmé’s first project to be about bugs. More specifically snails, but bugs too. And so I took notes as she asked questions, got library books out, did field research. She was quite sad to discover that snails hibernate, but that gave her a chance to focus on other bugs. She’s developing a keen interest in poisonous bugs (wolf spiders especially) and the naturally cool stick bug. She’s angling for a pet stick bug, and her cousin Emily has promised her one when she turns five.
We read our bug identification books while we have breakfast, and we take our magnifying glasses and travel-sized bug box whenever we leave the house. We have a chart to keep track of the bugs we see.
Most exciting to Esmé though is that her beloved snails are waking up. We have five in our snail house right now, and would have more, but Esmé came up with a rule this year. Two rules, actually; no more than five snails at a time (we had at least 20 at one time last year, in a snail “condo”) and wash your hands after handling. The last rule was made after a snail crapped spectacularly on Esmé’s hand.
The project continues. Esmé’s bug and snail knowledge is building, and her confidence as a young entymologist is blossoming too. She has a focus for her art, her photography, her writing, her research, her make-believe. It’s not all snails and bugs at our house, but it definitely is an ongoing interest that results in knowledge acquisition in just about every subject that I can think about; math, writing, biology, history, art, literature, caretaking, sharing, cooperation, physics, empathy, and more.
Interest-led learning, brought to life. Thanks for the kick in the right direction, Lori!
I’d like to point out that Esmé is using my quality technical pencil, while I’m using the cheapo she won at the Belmont Park arcade in San Diego. That is true parental sacrifice.
It’s very important to label your scientific drawings.
