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Thursday, January 25, 2007

The Pain of Natural Learning.

All these natural learning experiences that we manipulate and facilitate for Boy are well and good. His home school rewards and excursions are something that he really looks forward to. However, he has now had yet another learning experience that we had not bargained for.

Boy has been limping since Monday. Yesterday his leg was swollen and painful so off we went to the Doctor.

Achilles tendonitis. Treatment is either steroids injected into the area (noooooo, Boy howled), physiotherapy or stay off your foot for 4 weeks – no laser tag, no jumping, no snorkeling, no bike riding, no cable skiing, NOTHING but a gentle daily swim and resting with his foot up.

We have opted for the latter option of being grounded. The Doctor suggested that the initial irritation might have occurred when Boy had a fall at Laser Tag and hurt his shoulder. It is probable that our huge day of snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef made it worse and that the cable skiing just finished it off.

Searching for teachable moments in this, I am planning to introduce reading and writing activities around the human body. Concentrating on the Achilles Tendonitis leads into some history and Greek mythology about the mighty Achilles. Without the lure of being able to go and play I hope Boy will write up some of his learning as blog entries. That is far more palatable to Boy that having to write and decorate a project book.

If anyone has some groovy and inventive ideas on how Boy can pass his learning onto others, I sure would be glad to hear them.

2 comments:

Elisheva Hannah Levin said...

I think that having Boy blog his learning at your site or making his own blog is a really good way for him to share his learning.

I am considering doing the same with N.--he loves computers. I am not sure if he should have his own blog or if it would be better to have him make occassional entries on mine!

Best wishes for a complete recovery!

Megan Bayliss said...

Yes, I like the blogging as a forum for showcasing his learning too. He did three blogs and he was over the moon with responses he received from people.

From a safety aspect I think blogging though our blogs is better but it would be great experience for the boys to start and manage their own blog site.

Boy's leg is not much better yet. The swelling is still up and he is hobbling around. Step Dad came home last night so I hope to get a break from playing nurse maid and grouch that says, "Keep your leg up."

Thanks for your best wishes. Boy is LOVING the attention.

This blog is no longer kept. I am instead blogging only to Imaginif Child Protection became Serious Business