When I first started looking into interest-led learning, I looked online for examples of what this might look like. All I could find were beautiful photos of preschool aged kids playing with play-dough or throwing rocks in a river. I couldn't find what it might look like for older kids, and in particular, boys who love video games.
In fact, I found one joke in a blog that said, the reason no one is blogging about unschooling for middle school ages is because you can only post so many photos of your kid playing video games. While funny, the joke didn't give me much hope that unschooling would work in my family. It probably added to my fear that my kids would just play video games all day.
Fast forward a few years, I started to see more accounts pop up with older kids making crafts and sewing and nature journaling. Guess what? Their families had all or mostly girls. It wasn't true, but my family of then three growing boys seemed to be the odd ball.
I found myself saying, I love the ideas of self-directed learning that is interest-led and play-based. BUT what if their interest is Minecraft!?!?!
Now, one thing I needed to work through was my own mindset and views on what learning looks like. (That's something I LOVE coaching people on, so check out my coaching page if that's you). But the other thing was just trusting the process of play-based or interest-led learning.
Here is some interesting research in this area I found fascinating. Check it out. It's about a 15 minute read.
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