So I'm downstairs painting some scenery for a friend, and I hear my kids fighting upstairs over a video game. They had been playing video games all day except for when we went to work out. I was really beginning to think that this "unschooling" idea might not work for us because Jake just doesn't seem to be interested or curious about anything but Dragonball Z. He can regale me all day about Goku and Broly, and Vegeta, and who fused and who's a super sayan, and it makes as little sense to me as it does to you. He rarely writes, he only colors or draws if I ask him to, and then it looks like chicken scratches. He reads really well though, and loves to read to me. At night he stays up late reading (Dragonball series of course). But anyway, he just never seems to want to do anything else unless asked. My philosophy was just to let him Dragonball until he was sick of it and moved on. Josie as well with her gaming. My patience was just about out today, and I was really thinking that unschooling is nice for the ideal unschooling child, but it just wasn't going to work for us. So they're fighting and I yell upstairs that they have to turn off the game, and because Jake was especially whiny, he should sit down and read a library book.
Fifteen minutes later, Jake comes downstairs and tells me "I have to paint a sky!" He has a book in his hand about an Indian boy who painted the sky. He was really inspired. I went and got him a canvas, and he picked out the paint colors. He wanted me to set up the easel outside, so we put it out under the basketball goal. First he painted the blue on top, then he painted yellow and orange. He said wanted a sky "You know, when it first starts getting dark." He later added grass and dirt, and told Josie it was a Kansas sky. I sat and watched them both paint pictures.
Later I took pictures of him jumping off the swing, and playing with the dog. They also had fun letting a daddy long legs crawl all over them, even their faces. At that point I got the heebies and went in, but I did love seeing them just get out of their rut and do something interesting, without me having to force anything. And my boy has decided he is a great artist.
2 comments:
That painting looks so much better than any of his drawings. What a great picture of him painting. Maybe he would rather work on canvas than paper.
Yes. He is strictly a canvas artist. If you would like him to do an installation piece, please be aware that he is backed up for 7 months, and client must provide a bowl full of M&M's, with the blue ones removed daily. Thank You, His Agent.
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