Today, an interesting thing happened today in the reading career of six year-old No. Two. First, I should point out that Two doesn’t read yet. He’s not really interested in it. At least, he’s not passionate about it, (to say the least). While he did express a desire to learn to read several months ago, since then, he’s worked at it only haltingly. He’ll memorize a letter or two here and there, but really? It’s just not his thing yet.
So, getting back to today’s surprise. I’m working on a programming project with the kids using the REST API to Google mail. There’s been a call in our homeschooling group for parents to submit lists of playgrounds they’d like the group to attend for park days in the coming year. The kids and I have frankly enjoyed almost every playground we’ve visited in the city, (there are dozens of them), so we didn't feel the need to be original, but we do need a list of all the playgrounds we have visit. We were in luck since the playground of the week is announced every Saturday morning via email.
Even with the emails though, we still had our work cut out for us. We wer going ot have to cut and paste the location of each playground day out of the 60 or so emails. Did I mention that the six year-old doesn’t read yet? Neither does the four year-old. That left the eight year-old and i to do all the work. “But wait!” I thought. “What if we wrote a program to pull the information out instead?
Since ethe kids have been working on learning programming using Google CS First lately, this seemed like it might just work out. The biggest kid has ben learning how to program outright (she can read and write which helps), but the other two have been helping her architect software—watching the videos for each new module, and then helping got make decisions about what their resulting program should do.
So, this morning when I got ready to label all the playground emails so they’d be easier for our program to find, I included Two in the process. He and I watched a video about how to label emails, Left to my own devices I wouldn’t have even looked for a video, (I learn best by reading), but Two likes them.
He and I began to diligently follow the video’s step. In the second step we were supposed to find the tab labeled ‘Filters and Blocked Addresses’. There was a picture of the tab in the video. As I found the tab in gmail, I noticed that Two was pointing in its general direction. It seemed weird, but since it wa in approximately the same place as in the video, I could believe Two could ‘find’ the tab without reading the words.
Next, we had to fill out a dialog and click a few boxes. I thought I was almost done when Two said, “Don’t forget to click the box to apply the filter to existing emails.” He pointed again. This time, he pointed in a different place than the video had shown the box.
I quickly scanned the screen and didn’t see the box Two had mentioned or its accompanying text label. I remembered the step being in the video also, so we watched again. Then, I looked at the dialog screen in gmail again. I still didn’t see the box. I navigated around a bit before returning to the dialog one last time. It was then, upon a closer reading, I saw it. The box was exactly where Two had pointed. Bless his heart! He was so incredibly patient with me. He’d known, correctly mind you, where the box was all along!
Was he reading letters, or sight reading? Who cares! Two, a kid I can barely get to look at letters, identified an entire phrase in a different window with virtually no thought! Once he had a reason to give a damn—we were doing something he was actually interested in—he just read!
As an unschooling parent, I believe in self directed learning. It’s how I’ve learned best all my life. I’m still somehow, stunned and surprised though when I see it in action! It’s so, so nice!
So, getting back to today’s surprise. I’m working on a programming project with the kids using the REST API to Google mail. There’s been a call in our homeschooling group for parents to submit lists of playgrounds they’d like the group to attend for park days in the coming year. The kids and I have frankly enjoyed almost every playground we’ve visited in the city, (there are dozens of them), so we didn't feel the need to be original, but we do need a list of all the playgrounds we have visit. We were in luck since the playground of the week is announced every Saturday morning via email.
Even with the emails though, we still had our work cut out for us. We wer going ot have to cut and paste the location of each playground day out of the 60 or so emails. Did I mention that the six year-old doesn’t read yet? Neither does the four year-old. That left the eight year-old and i to do all the work. “But wait!” I thought. “What if we wrote a program to pull the information out instead?
Since ethe kids have been working on learning programming using Google CS First lately, this seemed like it might just work out. The biggest kid has ben learning how to program outright (she can read and write which helps), but the other two have been helping her architect software—watching the videos for each new module, and then helping got make decisions about what their resulting program should do.
So, this morning when I got ready to label all the playground emails so they’d be easier for our program to find, I included Two in the process. He and I watched a video about how to label emails, Left to my own devices I wouldn’t have even looked for a video, (I learn best by reading), but Two likes them.
He and I began to diligently follow the video’s step. In the second step we were supposed to find the tab labeled ‘Filters and Blocked Addresses’. There was a picture of the tab in the video. As I found the tab in gmail, I noticed that Two was pointing in its general direction. It seemed weird, but since it wa in approximately the same place as in the video, I could believe Two could ‘find’ the tab without reading the words.
Next, we had to fill out a dialog and click a few boxes. I thought I was almost done when Two said, “Don’t forget to click the box to apply the filter to existing emails.” He pointed again. This time, he pointed in a different place than the video had shown the box.
I quickly scanned the screen and didn’t see the box Two had mentioned or its accompanying text label. I remembered the step being in the video also, so we watched again. Then, I looked at the dialog screen in gmail again. I still didn’t see the box. I navigated around a bit before returning to the dialog one last time. It was then, upon a closer reading, I saw it. The box was exactly where Two had pointed. Bless his heart! He was so incredibly patient with me. He’d known, correctly mind you, where the box was all along!
Was he reading letters, or sight reading? Who cares! Two, a kid I can barely get to look at letters, identified an entire phrase in a different window with virtually no thought! Once he had a reason to give a damn—we were doing something he was actually interested in—he just read!
As an unschooling parent, I believe in self directed learning. It’s how I’ve learned best all my life. I’m still somehow, stunned and surprised though when I see it in action! It’s so, so nice!
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