(Our artist friend Johanna showed Mail how to make clay landscapes)

Do you learn through hearing? Well, I guess we all do to some extent. Up until very recently it seemed my kids could only learn through movement. To this day they still fidget and do things like knitting or push-ups while listening to books on tape or their parents reading them something. My son’s piano teacher calls him the noodler, because he is constantly noodling on the piano in between moments of instruction. This penchant for movement will probably never change, and I am glad that in most cases we are in a place where moving and learning aren’t mutually exclusive.

Still, now that they are getting older I notice long stretches of silence in the house. An hour will go by with very little fanfare. One kid might be lying on the bed reading, while another might be sculpting a tiny village with sculpey.

On a normal day with not much running about needed, there might be some listening to audiobooks, watching a documentary, writing of short stories and comic books, making of movies,building of 3-D mazes, exploring physics with experiments or collaborative presentations prepared online with friends. Reading this, you might think I am exaggerating or have extraordinarily ambitious children. Not at all. There are days when projects are slim or not happening too, but in short, (are you listening new homeschooling parents?) homeschooling or unschooling my kids has become everything I hoped and dreamed it would become for them when we began this journey 8 years ago. More experienced homeschoolers told me this many times over the years. Trust them. Follow their interests. Let them set the pace. Don’t fuss over what exactly needs to be done and when but listen instead to where they are and what they need. At times that sounded like a bunch of mumbo jumbo designed to calm a jittery newbie. Or it sounded hopelessly vague. Describe how exactly one can follow an interest please ma’am? Should I buy every dinosaur book ever printed and plan a vacation around a dig for my 5 year old? Oh, I’ve overdone it at first like most parents who only want their kids to have passions which drive them to satisfying careers.

Nevertheless, over the years things have calmed down clearly and we’ve reached a point where the kids can live and learn and I can not spazz about it so much. In some part this is due to my maturing and gaining experience and finding a coffee with lower doses of caffeine. But I’ve done some reflecting and I now know that in another large part this is due to the fact that technology has been a tool which suits our natures and learning styles. Yes, I wanted my kids to grow up like Laura Ingalls and they have had their fair share of shooting bows and arrows, building with their hands, canning jams, gardening, stalking footprints in the woods and building survival shelters (well, mostly just for fun on a hot afternoon in the nearby woods). I’ve been careful to convey my favorite things about childhood to them, namely the outdoors. But in the meantime they have been conveying some of their favorite things about childhood to me.

There is something to be had for audio and kinesthetic learners in the world of computers, DVD’s, podcasts, radio, television, video gaming and social networks. Not convinced? I’ll argue what isn’t there and comprehensive in some other post, but here are some examples of how it does work:

Social networks- I finally have a kid old enough to use one. In addition to keeping up to the minute on who posted a goofy video of themselves versus who is out of a committed relationship, there is also the grapevine on clubs and activities. Yes, it turns out, homeschoolers do have a social life and technology really helps them to organize it and share the joys and pitfalls of it.

Video- I mean, not just the ones you get from Netflix but also the documentaries and endless educational videos available on Youtube. Last month we were stuck on the concept of Newton’s first law of motion, we simply had to pop over to Youtube to see about 20 student projects describing unbalanced forces in 20 different ways. When an interest pops up, be it Jane Austen or black holes, we simply have to go rearrange our queue at Netflix and in some cases we can watch them immediately.

Podcasts,radio and books on tape- As I type my son stands behind me spinning poi and listening to the end of Coraline on CD. It came from the library and he is hooked. Some books we get from iTunes or the bookstore or the library, some on tape and some in print. Some we listen to in the car only to make the drive fly, others at bedtime. Some we read aloud to each other or silently. Some we have book club meetings over or impromptu family discussions. We get each other interested and take turns reading books we love. Just recently I started a weekly playlist for the kids. The current one has introductory Japanese lessons, Spanish lessons, beginner German lessons, some Schoolhouse Rock songs about grammar, a chapter from a history audio book we’re all reading on the side and a science podcast that always blows our minds. I’ve got plans to add some public domain books read on podcasts and a fabulous history show on BBC called In Our Time. But we’re starting off easy.

Video Games-Well, obviously the Wii was our greatest investment ever in games. The kids do yoga, skateboarding and dancesteps when the snow is piled 16 inches deep outside and ice storms rage. They also take part in design challenges and read about the world news on the Wii. Lets not even talk about the vocabulary building Wii game we all play where my vocabulary is consistently rated far below my own inflated image of it!

Now, needless to say, when we were kids there was mainly the TV, the telephone and Atari. Nobody would have argued much that these were great educational tools, although they served their purposes well. But they evolved and although initially resistent, I am a dedicated user of technology to further my connection with the world. Of couse like all tools, there is the possibility of overdependence.  But Spring is on its way and the warm air, the smell of dirt and the cheeping of birds will see to it that we keep things in balance.