iahp.org/I was always frightened to leave babies on their tummies, it would give me a heart attack that I will choke them. After reading the Glenn Doman’s baby book, I applied those techniques on my 4th baby. Babies adapt to challenges, babies are super learners. Not aided babies learn to glide & crawl a lot earlier. If we let them try and test things, they learn quite independently. Throw and spill, deal with failures. The curiosity to do something and whether to be successful or not is a driving force for the child. For them ‘walking’ on the path to success, is success. Thriving baby, eager to crawl and climb stairs are examples of life. Living things are those who do stuff to live and survive. The way a child learns to speak is out of necessity. Early survivors did things which made their life going on. Each living organism acts to sustain its life. Plants receive sunlight and nutrients, or they will die. Animals act according to their nature to survive. Tropical fish seeks warm water, grizzly bears seek their particuler habitat. Humans pursue spiritual values such as honest friendship and Taqwa, consciousness of Allah. Every action we take is either for or against our survival and thriving; there is no in-between. Our survival undermines if we compromise our values.
The same way a child builds on his needs. If he needs to ‘read’ he will. If reading words makes a change in his life he will read. Watching adults reading fascinates them to read, to get some things done. If written words make sense they will read. Children see words everywhere; like patrol station, juice, macaroni, toothpaste, welcome. Things around the the city. Things written on walls, in the supermarkets, the signboards and newspapers. In my house I have put up a flashcard saying chair on the dining table’s chair and door stuck on the door!
PRACTICAL LIFE EXAMPLES OF LEARNING IN A SOCIETY:
I have posters stuck on the walls of my living room, and numbers on the stairs. A world map on the dining table slid under the plastic cover. French Days of the Week poster and Urdu names of body parts. Sometimes I need more walls; I try to change them and provide other reading varieties. My 4 years old son Hisham, who has never been to school is a pure organic child. I have not instructed him alot,he is independent and has a lot of freedom of choice in his life. He was born in 2018, that is one year right before covid’19. He was 2.5 years old when Covid hit us, and his terrible twos were kicking in hard on us. Hisham’s indulgence in outdoor activities has been immense. 2020 was a year of policing children’s outdoor play and maintaining social distance. But from 2021, people in the neighborhood gave up on the restrictions. Children got room to maneuver. Hisham has been racing with his friends on tricycle, playing outdoor hide & seek. He has great exposure to animals, cats, ducks & pigeons which children keep as pets in their houses.
Hisham started reading R, O, B, L, O, X because he loves to play roblox as a team with his siblings. Glenn Doman (From The Institude of Achieving Human Potentials) teaches parents about the 5 seconds enjoyable way of reading. Practiced only when a child is well-fed and comfortable. Parents do this ‘5 second reading activity’ three times in a day. This did take a toll on me because I had to create, print and laminate flashcards (6’ by 12’ inches paper in red ink.) But this method boosts child's visual reading skills. Whatever the child experiences, we make a list of these words and make flashcards. For example, car, cat, tricycle, mango, mama, tayo. I started using these flashcards for Hisham thrice a day when he was in a mood. The method is short and sweet. The main idea is to bathe his eyes in words. I have now put up these flashcards on the ‘Reading Wall’ in our house. Have dangled the flashcards in a ring on a rod, hung on the wall and he can turn them if he wants to read or teach his baby sister. I am not sure how much time this will take for him to pick up reading? Any skill needs 30 hours to learn, as says John Holt. It is helpful when a child can read. They read cooking recipes, type their favorite cartoon name in the search bar. Hisham scribbles some love words on the paper for me while sitting with his sister drawing. He can draw a bus and car with baba as a driver.
He has read his favourite book with me. With me putting my finger under each word I read loud. With lots of cuddles and warmth. I read the book 10 times to him in this way. Now he can read the book all by himself. He loves Bayyenah as his teacher because she makes learning fun for him.
This is pure example of uncoerced, unforced learning. Child is self motivated and unthreatened. He is visually stimulated.
Stay tuned for more Unschooling stories.
Inspired by Joht Holt.
The same way a child builds on his needs. If he needs to ‘read’ he will. If reading words makes a change in his life he will read. Watching adults reading fascinates them to read, to get some things done. If written words make sense they will read. Children see words everywhere; like patrol station, juice, macaroni, toothpaste, welcome. Things around the the city. Things written on walls, in the supermarkets, the signboards and newspapers. In my house I have put up a flashcard saying chair on the dining table’s chair and door stuck on the door!
PRACTICAL LIFE EXAMPLES OF LEARNING IN A SOCIETY:
I have posters stuck on the walls of my living room, and numbers on the stairs. A world map on the dining table slid under the plastic cover. French Days of the Week poster and Urdu names of body parts. Sometimes I need more walls; I try to change them and provide other reading varieties. My 4 years old son Hisham, who has never been to school is a pure organic child. I have not instructed him alot,he is independent and has a lot of freedom of choice in his life. He was born in 2018, that is one year right before covid’19. He was 2.5 years old when Covid hit us, and his terrible twos were kicking in hard on us. Hisham’s indulgence in outdoor activities has been immense. 2020 was a year of policing children’s outdoor play and maintaining social distance. But from 2021, people in the neighborhood gave up on the restrictions. Children got room to maneuver. Hisham has been racing with his friends on tricycle, playing outdoor hide & seek. He has great exposure to animals, cats, ducks & pigeons which children keep as pets in their houses.
Hisham started reading R, O, B, L, O, X because he loves to play roblox as a team with his siblings. Glenn Doman (From The Institude of Achieving Human Potentials) teaches parents about the 5 seconds enjoyable way of reading. Practiced only when a child is well-fed and comfortable. Parents do this ‘5 second reading activity’ three times in a day. This did take a toll on me because I had to create, print and laminate flashcards (6’ by 12’ inches paper in red ink.) But this method boosts child's visual reading skills. Whatever the child experiences, we make a list of these words and make flashcards. For example, car, cat, tricycle, mango, mama, tayo. I started using these flashcards for Hisham thrice a day when he was in a mood. The method is short and sweet. The main idea is to bathe his eyes in words. I have now put up these flashcards on the ‘Reading Wall’ in our house. Have dangled the flashcards in a ring on a rod, hung on the wall and he can turn them if he wants to read or teach his baby sister. I am not sure how much time this will take for him to pick up reading? Any skill needs 30 hours to learn, as says John Holt. It is helpful when a child can read. They read cooking recipes, type their favorite cartoon name in the search bar. Hisham scribbles some love words on the paper for me while sitting with his sister drawing. He can draw a bus and car with baba as a driver.
He has read his favourite book with me. With me putting my finger under each word I read loud. With lots of cuddles and warmth. I read the book 10 times to him in this way. Now he can read the book all by himself. He loves Bayyenah as his teacher because she makes learning fun for him.
This is pure example of uncoerced, unforced learning. Child is self motivated and unthreatened. He is visually stimulated.
Stay tuned for more Unschooling stories.
Inspired by Joht Holt.
