Curiousity.

“For it seems to me a fact that, in our struggle to make sense out of life, the things we most need to learn are the things we most want to learn. To put this another way, curiosity is hardly ever idle.” - John Holt in How Children Learn .

Children are naturally curious.

And my children are very rarely ever idle.

Right now, curiousity is leading Anthony to read Horrible History and Horrible Science magazines, to writing scenarios and character descriptions for role playing games, to trampolining, to playing the theme from Never Ending Story on the piano, to learning about the Australian states while enjoying the handwriting book he chose from the bookstore Five Senses.

Thomas is into baking bread ( we have a bread machine on loan from a friend who is away), reading about how yeast works and carbon dioxide, enjoying "The Talisman" by Sir Walter Scott, playing collaborative computer games now that our computers are networked and into fitness - specifically weights from the book Toning for Teens.

Alexander's curiousity is steeping him in Latin ( he works on Latin exercises from a text nearly every day), in music and guitar tutorials online, in playing billiards with our new billiards table, in reading "Lord Have Mercy" by Scott Hahn and arguing with Mr Hahn's writing style. ( lol!)

Jonathon is enjoying his current university course ( Text, Image and Culture) and music and blogs and his artwork.

The things these sons most want to learn *do* appear to be those things that they most need to learn ~ right now. I think John Holt was right - curiousity means learning and is not necesarily idle.