Science Class, so to speak

Jack went through a k'nex phase last year where he really enjoyed building things from instructions so we got him a bunch of kits.  He spent hours building them.  He played with them a bit (and then didn't want to break them, hence they were at first hanging out in our guest room in the basement, and then had to be moved when we had guests and are duly stored in the storage room, gathering dust and spiders, but they are still fully built).

 

Now he built Elazar's birthday present.  Elazar got a science kit from my dad for his birthday and Jack spent the afternoon building it with his friend.  I didn't even know we had it in the house.  (PS #konmari is slowly falling apart, especially in the basement where their vision for the space is "we never have to clean it up.")  Then he asked me to check how much money he has in his account, so that he can buy another kit to build.

I checked it out online, and there are a bunch of cute science kits by this brand.  In the unschooling group I read, they make a big point about how when kids are interested in something, and we facilitate it, THAT is the curriculum.  Getting your kids video games when they want is their curriculum.  Getting them a netflix subscription is their curriculum.  Buying them all the lego sets they want that you can afford is their curriculum.

This is a little (a lot) different than my approach which is that my kids earn their electronics and many of their toys. 

I've mentioned before that studies show that being more strict vs. more permissive doesn't really make a significant difference in terms of parenting outcomes. (Too strict and too permissive does cause problems, and different ones from each other.)  So just like classical vs. eclectic styles of homeschooling have different details of outcomes but still both have positive outcomes, different styles of parenting likewise can all come out with happy, healthy children.  So I generally don't stress too much over whether it's better to foster joy and abundance or a stricter sense of responsibility, even though I do ponder the philosophical implications. (I do feel somewhat duty bound to point out that radical unschoolers maintain, and in my experience this is true, that a life of joy and abundance DOES end up with grateful and very responsible adults, and one does not need to impose responsibility on them but that the attitude of respect, concern, and paying attention to their needs ends up fostering caring and responsibility in them.  However, for the sake of this post, let's say that in my mind sometimes I feel like I'm choosing things so my children won't end up spoiled and so that they will have a sense of responsibility, and that although they go against radical unschooling principles, I still feel that it is a legitimate way to raise children.  Just as although I personally do not restrict media, I believe that restricting media is a legitimate parenting choice and can result in happy and healthy children.)

However, in this case, I was not feeling conflict.  Buying Jack a bunch of science electronic and circuitry kits is very definitely science.  And it's a legitimate allocation of curriculum funds. 

The very best thing about this is that I don't have to help him.  One of the big disappointments that I discovered about myself is that I hate science and art projects.  I had accept that I should no longer buy science project kits or science project books because I hate doing them.  I hated admitting that about myself, because I had an image of a crafty, science, project doing homeschool mom.  But that's not me.  So it is super exciting that all I have to do is hand Jack a pile of science kits and he's happily occupied and learning for hours.  With the neighbors--so it's also socialization ;) 

This is about as wonderful as when Chen wanted a $300 video editing software, and after downloading the free version for a month and her using all the time and assuring me she wanted it, we bought it for her.  Because it was basically signing her up for a video editing class except that she taught it to herself and we didn't have to carpool her anywhere.  Win-win!