Broken Crayons

 I've been doing this unschooling thing for 6 years now. When I think about it being almost all of Bug's life, it seems so long, but when I type it out right now that seems so very little time. So, no wonder I'm still not a pro. I still have my days when I feel terribly inadequate and I'm failing the kids. I have days when I fear the kids will resent me when they're grown for not raising them differently.

I battle those feelings by relying on my supportive community, and continually reading and rereading the staples. Most recently I read Free to Learn by Peter Gray. An interview with Peter Gray is what set us on the path to unschooling in the first place. I love his work and highly recommend the book.

The point of the story- We've got a jar full of crayons, no broken ones because I tend to throw them out. I cope with my anxiety by controlling my environment. However, there wasn't a black crayon and Bug needed one. So I stopped at the store and got him a fresh box of 24 Crayola crayons, then added them to the jar.

He drew for a minute, and then proceeded to snap every. single. one. of the the crayons in half. Let me tell you, this STRESSED ME OUT. I bit my tongue and just watched. After a few moments he started talking aloud about how when he broke 4 crayons in half he then had 8. 16 to 32, so on and so forth. He was learning math skills for the low price of a 50 cent box of crayons. The snap each made as it broke was very satisfying to him.

I am grateful for having read Free to Learn when this happened, as it reminded me to just stay out of his way and let him learn. I could have so easily interrupted this situation and robbed him of a learning moment. Our society is more tolerant of infants and toddlers "making messes" to learn, but childhood curiosity and drive to learn through exploration doesn't stop once kids reach "school age".