Ok, so I'm kind of new to this whole concept of unschool so I'm not sure how to handle this (or if I even need to).
Ds has always been fascinated with dinos. Last year for K I had all this wonderful (I thought) curriculum that he balked at and we spent the whole year doing an extended unit on dinos. Now when I say unit, I mean he picked books from the library and movies from Netflix and I planned activities like dino digs and making fossils and such, then after awhile I wrote up all the stuff we did and called it a unit
It was pretty much just stuff he wanted to do and I called it school so I could put it in his portfolio. So anyway....I decided *I* had spent enough time on dinosaurs
and encouraged a few shoot offs. We did some learning about sharks and oceans and volcanoes (all of which came in some forms from his dinosaur books or movies). So far so good right? I am following his interests and he is learning all kinds of new and interesting things. Thing is, he always goes right back to the dinosaurs!
WE just got back from the library and he took out three books on dinosaurs and a dinosaur movie and he requested a Dinosaur Planet movie when we return Harry Potter to Netflix. I am really glad we are homeshooling so he can get so into this interest of his, but I am starting to wonder if we need to steer him away from it just a bit? I mean, I am trying to honor his autonomy and all, but isn't 14m a bit long to spend on one subject? I'm kind of worried he won't ever want to learn about anything else, or at least not enough of something else.
Anyone KWIM? Am I worrying about nothing? Any ideas for another dino related jumping off point?
On a related note......the other day he was driving me rather batty with his dino facts, dino play acting, play by play of *Alpha's Egg* (Dinosaur Planet episode) and I said to him in a joking way *Ben, if you learn anymore about dinosaurs I'll have to stop hsing you and send you to palaeontology school!* :LOL . Well, he turned and looked at me with an awed expression, his eyes shining and said *They actually HAVE palaeontology school?* I hated to break it to the guy that he's got awhile to go until they'll let him in
Ds has always been fascinated with dinos. Last year for K I had all this wonderful (I thought) curriculum that he balked at and we spent the whole year doing an extended unit on dinos. Now when I say unit, I mean he picked books from the library and movies from Netflix and I planned activities like dino digs and making fossils and such, then after awhile I wrote up all the stuff we did and called it a unit
WE just got back from the library and he took out three books on dinosaurs and a dinosaur movie and he requested a Dinosaur Planet movie when we return Harry Potter to Netflix. I am really glad we are homeshooling so he can get so into this interest of his, but I am starting to wonder if we need to steer him away from it just a bit? I mean, I am trying to honor his autonomy and all, but isn't 14m a bit long to spend on one subject? I'm kind of worried he won't ever want to learn about anything else, or at least not enough of something else.
On a related note......the other day he was driving me rather batty with his dino facts, dino play acting, play by play of *Alpha's Egg* (Dinosaur Planet episode) and I said to him in a joking way *Ben, if you learn anymore about dinosaurs I'll have to stop hsing you and send you to palaeontology school!* :LOL . Well, he turned and looked at me with an awed expression, his eyes shining and said *They actually HAVE palaeontology school?* I hated to break it to the guy that he's got awhile to go until they'll let him in