During the Christmas of 2010, we traveled to my mom's house. I was pregnant, and my husband was overloaded with his classwork. Online universities don't break for the holidays. It was the first time I had seen the Angry Birds game. We downloaded it for something to do. I played it. My husband played it. My 4 year old son sort of played it. Within a couple of months, my husband and I grew tired of playing, but my son started playing more and more. Over the next couple of years, we downloaded each new version (How can you say no to 99 cents and those big blue eyes?) He continued to learn how each game worked and that strategy was definitely involved in order to get past each level. He also got to really practice his creative building skills with Bad Piggies. He grew to love all the birds and those silly pigs.
In May of 2011, my daughter was born, and my son discovered how fun it could be to make videos of all his stories he acted out. One day, I got the brilliant idea to sit out in the Louisiana summer heat and record my son while he sat in the water playing with his toys and creating his stories. It was the beginning of something new. We did a lot of videos that summer. And he watched them over and over. And he laughed and laughed. Having my hands full with a newborn, I grew tired of being the cameraman in all these adventures. I dug out the tripod and taught him how he could tape his own stuff. To this day, he continues to make videos on his own.
Back to Angry Birds. It was not long before Angry Birds took advantage of the popularity of their games. They came out with the board games, which my son still loves playing with. Angry birds and pigs appear in all kinds of stories around here. They also came out with a line of plush toys, which he also began to collect. Much of his allowance went to these little characters. Angry Birds became his new passion, whether he was playing with the toys or playing the games.
Eventually, my son needed help getting past the levels on the different apps, and we could not always figure it out, so we turned to YouTube. You can find just about anything on YouTube. This leads us to the next phase of this story of learning. One day we came across a YouTube series filmed by a child just a few years older. He had several stuffed Angry Birds characters, and he acted out stories. My son watched every single episode. Again and again. Then he wanted to recreate the stories. After reenacting his favorite videos several times, he began creating his own stories. Then he began recording his own stories. Then he began trying to write illustrated stories about Angry Birds. Then he wanted to start posting his own videos. I had to say no to that, for now. I insisted he had to learn how to use the movie making programs and edit the videos, etc. He needed to be proud of what he was going to put out there for the world to see. So guess what he started learning to do a few weeks ago? You guessed it. MovieMaker is his new favorite program.
So over the course of a few years, since my son had the freedom and flexibility to follow his own interests, he has learned how to tell stories with beginnings and ends; he has developed his creativity; he has learned computer software; he has practiced writing stories with illustrations; he has learned how to use a camera; he has practiced typing on the computer; he is learning the ins and outs of researching topics online. And he is not done yet. Only time and flexibility will tell us what door will open up next.
What would you create if you had the time and freedom to truly explore on your own terms? How would that grow you as a person? How would those things spill over into other parts of your life? What would you learn? And could you ever do that sitting in a classroom with a teacher pouring out their knowledge and wisdom and telling you what you need to know instead of you figuring out what you want and need to know?
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