Curriculum of Conversation

Atypical Homeschool post on The Value of Expression:

"For all of the talking that I’ve done, what I’m really trying to encourage you to do is to provide your children with avenues of expression. Talk to them as though they were another person. Debate and discuss issues with them. Allow them to disagree with you on those issues. Assume that they things they say to you are serious and legitimate and important from their perspective. Your children will benefit from this far more than any instruction/training you will provide them with."

I have been thinking about this post and how the simple art of the conversation has developed as a mainstay of the unschooling "curriculum" in our home. Sort of funny, because we are a family of introverts and a large part of our conversation is the silences in between the conversation! One teenage son admits to being drained by extended conversation and I admit I sometimes feel the same way, with an at-home husband plus seven children of all ages and intellectual levels and interests. But I don't think this is contradictory -- something doesn't have to be continual in order to be deeply meaningful in one's life. And when I compare the tiredness after several deep discussion about "lifetheuniverseandeverythinginitandbeyond" to the tiredness of a long day of school assignments -- well, there is really no comparison.

The conversations are are uniquely US. The school assignments narrow down to one expected outcome while the conversations include all that we are. They are not conversations that would happen that way anywhere else in the world. They involve relationship, intellectual, courtesy, gestures, the whole gamut. It is no wonder that traditional Catholic education pedagogy emphasized the spoken word. It is a rich diverse tool and without it, the door to the written word stays closed for lack of interest and familiarity.

Our family's interests are diverse and our natural way of doing things is to go off on our own or in smaller groups. Some of the things that went on today: writing stories, computer programming, computer games, reading and telling about election commentaries, playing the piano (well, the keyboard anyway), doing algebra problems, going to the high school track to run practice sprints. The conversations are the pivots -- they bring us together and then send us out with new ideas or a new perspective and a new thread in our relationship.

Some random selections from today:
Paddy, 3: "I like you, Mama. You are.... lovely!"
Aidan, 7: "The Pikas are at mass; they are praying. Now they need to stand up to sing. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless gloory!"
Kieron, 10: "Mom, am I really a natural historian? How long have I been one? Am I more of one than anyone else in the family?"
Sean, 13: "My legs are still hurting....Dad's are too? ... Good."
Brendan, 17: "Well, I've done it. I'm on page 50!" (of the new book he is writing).
Kevin, 45: "I could have beaten Sean in that race, when I was 20 years younger!"