The Puzzle of Unschooling

Puzzling passions

It has been hard for me to let go of many of my old schooling thoughts of how education happens, what is education and how to ensure it's happening for my children. Watching my son with his Rubik's cube, and his other twisty puzzles, has been a great experience for the whole family. It has shown me how child led passions can be motivating, not only for the child, but for those surrounding him with support and feeling his energy.

His interest in twisty puzzles came out of no where. My daughter took a Rubik's Cube solving class a few years ago. We have several cubes in our home. But they have been collecting dust for a long time now, sitting on the shelf unsolved and unloved. All of a sudden, my son can't get enough of them. He worked hard every day teaching himself how to solve the Rubik's Cube. He used printed notations I had laying around (I used to be the "go to" person in the house to fix a scrambled cube), YouTube videos and other websites to help him solve his cube. For the second layer, he watched me as I solved it and he rewrote the algorithms to fit his orientation of the cube (he claimed I was holding it upside down!)

Within a short time (was it a week?), he taught himself how to solve the cube and memorized the steps. Then, to occupy his obsession, he took the next week to teach the rest of the family how to solve the cubes. Now, most of us can solve them (almost as fast as he can). To keep his mind challenged, he began looking at "speed cubing" techniques and other twisty puzzles. Good thing his birthday's was coming up. We were able to ask for all sorts of twisty puzzles, the 4x4x4 cube, the Pyraminx, and more. He worked hard and figured out those quickly.

There are a few cubes left that he hasn't learned how to solve yet. They remain scrambled on the shelf. But his hands are still occupied with the ones he knows how to solve. He continues to work on speed and patterns. He will teach anyone who will take the time to sit with him.

Yes, it has been a great experience to watch his passion drive his learning, teaching and problem solving skills.