eBay Math and World Studies

Musa asked me the other day if he could sell a few of his old toys on eBay. (We frequently sell used items or handmade items for extra cash). My initial response was one of discouragement, as I thought it would be quite complicated and over his head. Then, I started thinking...hum...to sell something on eBay you would have to do the following: read, have computer skills, work with a digital camera, type, spell, understand money, profit and loss margins, record keeping, customer service, understand the bidding process, weighing and using a scale and shipping, catagorizing. The more subtle hidden learning could be endless....social studies, geography, the list goes on.

Musa is very computer savy and I apologized for not believing in him. I sat down showed him how to enter the information, how to keep the records, and he got it first time around. He now can independently check on his auctions and see how they are doing and last night entered an item for sale with very little assistance from me. Some of the...*understanding money*....struggles he was having are gone...it now seems to all make sense to him. So wonderful.

I flashed back to John Holt's teachings of letting your children be very involved with family money and budgeting. eBay seemed to fit right into that way of thinking. 

Last night Dad was working on an invoice for his book business and had the calculator out and was adding numbers sort of out loud. He said the amount $8.38. Retta went running over to his desk and said..."Dad, you don't need that" and grabbed the calculator out of his hand. She pointed to the invoice and said, "First you write the 8, then you write a dot, then write the 38 cents. The cents always go to the right of the dot and the dollars go on the left." His mouth dropped open and he just stared at me. (When Musa and I were working on eBay, she was sitting playing with playdoh at her desk. She obviously overheard the conversation Musa and I were having and retained the information.) 

These moments make such a strong arguement for unschooling. I can't imagine going back to the days of workbooks and struggles. I am so thrilled to be able to give these children the opportunity to be free.