Free Range Kids

[Tom Sawyer]

I like the idea of Free Range kids... children raised without being indoctrinated. Discovering their place in the world, with supportive guidance, rather than telling them how to think about everything.

If we aren't able to raise children within our own culture, the culture of freedom and responsibility, then we by default lose our culture in a generation or two. This cultural genocide is the most dangerous and insidious form of oppression we are up against. I have seen many examples of how a government doesn't  need to impose all of what they want on us, when they know that long term they prevail by going after our children.

[KBCraig]

"Free Range Kid"... that's a good tag for John David. He "discovers" like crazy, and isn't constrained to what gummint ex-spurts think a kid his age should be learning.

[Tom Sawyer]

Yeah, they really learn what they are interested in... as opposed to what they are "supposed" to or "required" to learn.

I really see the differences when William is in a group of public "school" kids his own age. They just go wild and have a pretty low average level of maturity. They might be past him in some areas of "academics", but the real world stuff he has much more of my confidence not to do something really stupid *read* dangerous.

He is constantly asking me questions about all sorts of topics and I am amazed that months later I'll hear him tell someone almost verbatim what I said. Kind of humbling tho... I want to tell him I'm not the giant, hero guy he thinks I am. But, I do tell him that one day I'll be asking him questions about things he knows that I will be clueless about.

[dalebert]

I want to tell him I'm not the giant, hero guy he thinks I am.

In their more pure state, to some degree yet untainted by the many attempts at indoctrination, children often seem to display an amazing degree of intuitive wisdom. Maybe you ARE the giant, hero guy he thinks you are.

[Lloyd Danforth]

All you have to do is be consistent and you won't fall off that pedestal

[Tom Sawyer]

Kind of makes you become a bit of the myth they create of you.

[Pat McCotter]

He is constantly asking me questions about all sorts of topics and I am amazed that months later I'll hear him tell someone almost verbatim what I said. Kind of humbling tho... I want to tell him I'm not the giant, hero guy he thinks I am. But, I do tell him that one day I'll be asking him questions about things he knows that I will be clueless about.

And that thought is sitting in is brain just waiting for that day. It is awesome how kids look for those signs that they are getting to be like their parents; and humbling at the same time the power a parent can - and too  often does - wield over those young minds.

[KBCraig]

John David has the innate silliness of every six year old boy the world has ever known; that's just biology. At the same time, he isn't constrained to anyone's definition of what a six year old boy should be.

We let him watch TV, and he can pick something as silly as pre-schooler PBS cartoons and giggle his butt off because it's funny and silly. Or he might opt for a documentary about ancient Egypt, and afterwards ask us to reconcile historical mummies versus movie mummies. (It's good for the 'rents' intellectual stimulation, too!)

He reads anything and everything, including street signs as we drive down the road. (This is not unexpected in a child who was literally been read to every day of his life until he started reading on his own.) His biggest joy is a trip to the library or bookstore. He has a subscription to National Geographic Kids, but he reads our regular "grown-up" NatGeo with equal fervor (and he likes the big maps even more).

We recently bumped into one of my coworkers who hadn't seen JD since he was about 2. She was amazed at how he'd grown, had to ask all about his schooling and activities, etc. She said her little great-niece was 7, and couldn't read, "despite" ( ) having been in school since K3. Mary picked a random box out of the cart and asked John David to read it: Lipton Tea "...is important because antioxidants help our body protect itself against free radicals -- molecules that can damage cells." ... "Mom, what are molecules?"

He didn't know what it meant, but by-golly he didn't stumble over a word he'd never seen before!

BTW, we weren't trying to show off. This friend had raised her own kids with a combination of home-schooling and private schooling, and was urging her family to do the same. We blocked the aisle for another 30 minutes while she went on and on about how she wished her grandkids and nieces and nephews had the same advantage.

We just signed JD up for theater camp at the local junior college. He's definitely got a flair for the dramatic. I sat here snickering while Mary was on the phone trying to explain what "grade" he was in. The secretary on the other end of the line just couldn't compute that age + grade != ability. Ability wasn't even a question, nor was age: just "What grade is he in?", as if government school made it all okay.

Pardon my rantramble. I'll shut up now. 

[Tom Sawyer]

Cool KB. Wow great reading ability he has there.

I am constantly rediscovering things around me I take for granted because of "teaching" William. Man is it a weird mix that we have or what. 24 hours in a day, broken up into 2-12 hour periods, 7 days in a week, some months 30 days others 31 except the one that is 28 but 29 every 4 years etc etc. What a freakin' hodge podge of stuph.

[Russell Kanning]

Kind of humbling tho... I want to tell him I'm not the giant, hero guy he thinks I am.

behind your back he calls you a wee man who he tries to amuse

[Tom Sawyer]

Ouch... dang Russell that one stung
Worst of all, you are closer to the mark than you know. Sometimes he looks at me like what the heck is with you, he is the more mature one.

Poor kid, I'm just glad he tolerates me.

[Russell Kanning]

don't you have one of those free hillside kids ... I picture the range as flatter and with less trees

[Tom Sawyer]

Billy goat kid, one leg longer than the other living on a mountainside.

[KBCraig]

Cool KB. Wow great reading ability he has there.

There's hardly any trip to the store that doesn't result in at least one new book for the kid.

Today's new book (which he picked out) was Coraline. The state says he should be in kindergarten, learning his ABCs and pasting construction paper, but he's reading Neil Gaiman instead.

My dad wisely said that all children are home-schooled; anything they learn in public school is a bonus on top of what they learn at home. Sadly, he opposed home schooling for the "socialization" argument, because the only family we ever knew who tried it were a pair of hippies who had one son in their middle years, lived on a remote hilltop, and were pretty much isolated. (Ooops, no offense intended!  ) Naw, seriously, their son was (is) a genius, but never had a chance to interact with anyone in a social setting (quite unlike William and John David). Thirty years later, he's pretty much confirmed as a genius sociopath. Darn shame.

[Tom Sawyer]