My Magical Boy

From The Magical B...

Last week Kevin commented to me that he thought that Alder was a magical kid. You know the type who just seem to have their own path clearly set out and who don't seem bound by the regular rules. Ever since he said it I have been trying to see what it.

I don't mean that I think Alder is boring or bland, I just never used the word magic to describe him. But as I watched him over the past week I have seen glimpses of the magic. It is hard to see more in a kid whose main goal in life at the moment is to master stair climbing, even though crawling is still only hit or miss. He spends literally hours at the bottom of the stairs pushing up on them and trying to get his hands one step higher. Unlike crawling in this activity it is the hands that he has figured out first.

From The Magical B...

Even in the middle of being change he has one thing on his mind.

No matter where in the room we put him he makes his way back over to the stairs to try. Yesterday evening he was so tired but he would not stop trying, even though he was in tears he continued to work at the stairs. I finally closed the screen over them so he would calm down.

All of this determination to figure things out on his own when he wants to adds to our reasons for unschooling. How sad would it be if he became a kid who learned to suppress his curiosity to appease a teacher. Or worse learn to hate learning because the structure did not take into account what his needs or interests.

Back at Thanksgiving when homeschooling came up my dad's only comment was that he couldn't see why we would want to waste our time. If we really wanted to teach him stuff we could do it after school. Luckily explaining this to my family has a longer time frame than homebirth.

Now that I can see the magic Kevin is talking about I would never want to snuff it out.