February 11, 2009

Okay, so.



This last picture is blurry but you can read it. "END OF PT I" This a game Henry wrote even though he's never heard of "creative writing," he's never taken a handwriting class, and no one has ever given him a spelling test. He is 10 years old. The game involves math, is complicated, and comes with a set of sub notes on every character that may, or may not, appear. This is a project Henry created for himself because it interested him, he was probably a bit bored, and he had time to spare. No one will grade him on it. There was no time by which it had to be finished. And, I'm told, it is a lot of fun to play. Truthfully, I've never even read all of these pages. They belong to Henry. All of his work, at this age, belongs to him.

6 comments:

candyn said...

This is AMAZING!

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh. I'm here with Kirsten, age 22, and we are laughing. What an imagination! Oh, wow. love, V

rae said...

What a treasure!

Anonymous said...

My daughter does this too. She's written her own trilogy, created games, etc. No spelling instruction, no handwriting, no "assignment".

Her most recent project was to catalog our chickens. BTW, she's 9.

So why is it we have to pay all these taxes for public school?

K said...

Thanks Kristin, because that is really all I mean to say. Not, look at my special son, so much as, look what children will do when you don't make them do anything. Just underscoring the point of unschool. Kids are learning all the time. And, in the process, often doing a much better job with their own curriculum than all the scholars and professionals in all the schools.

Anonymous said...

Well, Katherine, we KNOW your son is special! So are all those kids out there. It is sad they are stuck in a classroom for 6 hours a day!

Unschooling is wonderful! That same 9 year old knows ever type of tree we have on our 25 acres. She remembered when we identified them in leaf back when she was about 4 and then just observed the bark in winter, seeds, tree shape, etc. Now I ask HER what trees are what!

AMAZING!!