Validation, Everyone Needs It

Are they learning?  A question teachers

 and home schooling parents everywhere ask

themselves all of the time.

One of the questions most asked by the "unschooling" family.

One I've been asking myself for the past three weeks that

we've tried schooling test free.

Are they learning.

Then, I saw this,

my daughter building a castle in the snow.

Not just a mound of snow, but with all of the things

we'd been learning about while learning about

castles.  Then, she was Joan of Arc.

Not only did she lead her troops into battle,

she wrote a poem about herself 

"Joan of Arc" to accompany

herself into battle.

And so I ask, are they learning

anything?

I think they might be.

I think, that without the tests,

without the worksheets,

without all of the traditional measurements that I've

been using, I can safely say they are learning.

Today, we worked on division.

We used a game called "Leftovers".

The kids worked and worked on their division problems.

Not so that they could turn out yet another

math worksheet, but so that they could have the largest

remainder.

The child with the greatest "leftovers" could

move the most around the board.

They were having so much fun that the Big K.

kept saying again and again,

"This is fun".

They were having so much fun that P. only wanted to sit

at the table with them, watch them play, and cheer them on.

So, are they learning?

I think they are.