I stumbled on a trick of late. The easiest way for me to teach Douglas something (either building on his existing interests or exposing him to something new that may catch his imagination) is to place it in the bookmarks bar of Chrome and show him where it is and what it does. I leave him with it and he figures out how to work with it. Now, I don't want to make myself obsolete - I do feel that I help by giving him tips (and helping him use them until he does so himself - a bit of vygotsky scaffolding) e.g. listen to/read the activity instructions, check the picture in the puzzle, finish what you start is a tough one for a 2.5 year old, etc. that make his involvement more productive. Similarly, this works with toys, which I have started trying to arrange workbox style for him. It works with reading, I see him sounding out more and more things in his natural environment (I see why labelling is a good idea though I never got round to it). I am planning to try this with learning to play the piano too (hoping to try with Soft Mozart and My First Piano Adventures).
So what's my problem? Well we've been talking a lot about Robinson style self teaching, and on the one hand I was pleased to stumble across a way of doing this at home with my toddler. I see that it is the Montessorian way (set up the environment with self correcting learning tools, adults should basically stay out of the child's way) and Charlotte Mason way (do not get in between the author's words and the child) and a bit of unschooling (children will feed deeply on their passion, just give them the best tools/materials and stand back) BUT ...
1) It annoys me a bit that Douglas wants to learn his way because when I want him to follow a certain path so I can measure his progress, he wants to jump around the material and seems to be trying to gain mastery over it. But because a lot of our learning is done on computer, this means some activities are based on his mouse handling skill, and I do not want want to wait around for him to perfect this before getting on with learning the content.
2) It feels like my involvement frustrates him and makes him walk away from the task to go play puzzles by himself or something. I have to admit that he probably starts to pick up on my own frustration and, in truth I was forgeting to be playful (I've had a few sleep-challenged nights and was too tired to be playful, which so doesn't work for my son right now
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3) Part of the point of "teaching" is to feel good that I "taught" him things. Now I find myself in a position where I assess educational materials on how easy it is for him to self teach with it, because if it involves me doing too much, I will get in his way. I have to think of ways to give him opportunities to practice things (e.g. using a pencil/colours, and then spark his interest in using that skill in a certain way (e.g. completing kumon workbooks or pre-writing exercises.) I feel more like a supporter, an encourager and provider of learning materials, than a teacher and that makes me feel a bit left out. And a bit like, I won't be able to take much credit for what he achieves - because it will have been HIS own hard work - and selfish or not that kindda sucks!
4) I feel less in control. I cannot just move him along a set path indefinitely. He controls the pace and area of learning as much, if not more than I do. Annoying for progress reporting and feel good factor of knowing what exactly he knows (probably an unrealistic expectation I know).
Does anyone else find this to be the case with children around this age (2.5 years)? It is making me think about what age I can realistically expect to formally start homeschool, if this is a developmental thing. I was hoping we'd be ready for Saxon at around 4years, as I reckon I need him to be mature enough to do as he's told. Everyone knows you can't make a toddler do anything he really doesn't want to! He's learning bag loads on his own, so I don't mind too much (inspite of reasons above) but would like to know when I might expect him to get a bit more flexible. Even when he does what he's told with work he seems to look at me like 'what is wrong with this woman? let me just make her happy this time, but if she wants to make a habit out of harassing me that's a different matter!'
I'm telling you I see it in his eyes!!
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