Whether or not to intervene...
All three are playing in the backyard, laughing uproariously and falling down onto the grass from time to time, laughing so hard that Seth reported a few minutes ago that he almost threw up his lunch.
The activity?
They pulled a short (four foot?) board out of the garage and have balanced it, teeter-totter-like, overtop of a log that they have placed in the middle of the board. After a few moments' conversation about procedural aspects, Lizzie stood on one end of the board as it rested on the ground. The boys counted to three and jumped onto the other end of the board.
It is a homemade catapult and they are attempting to catapult Lizzie...and, to a small degree, it's working. She's bounced a couple of feet into the air and landed, feet first, on the ground.
To intervene or not...
On the pro side of intervention, I'd (obviously) hate for Lizzie to be injured. But on the other hand, she lands on grass, mitigating injury factors, and she's laughing; and it's teaching all three, at a hands-on (grass-roots!) level, about catapults.
Unschooling at its finest or evidence of the need for a public school system....
I think we'll do some reading on catapults a little later on. :)
Hi Ruth! I haven't checked in with your blog for a while but was delighted to read this post - I regularly face the challenge of intervene or not when Owen plays with the boys down the street (whom I look after part-time). I wish you can posted a video of the catapult.... ;) next time perhaps.
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