An Unschooling Win

Snuggled in bed at night, from when she was consistently working on her numbers

A little story about an unschooling win.
So last night at bedtime, my girl was laying next to me in the dark, practicing spelling random words.  She said “Mom, I can spell Nope.” I said, "Okay, how?"  She spelled “Nop”.  I told her that that was great, and there was actually an “e” at the end of it, and I explained what she had actually spelled, then we giggled about how funny the word “Nop” sounded.
It may seem like a small thing, but for me it was huge.  
To an unschooling mama that is not “teaching” her daughter to read, but facilitating her interests, this is something.  
This tells me that she is beginning to play with letters and words all on her own.  
She is using her imagination and playfulness to naturally begin to grasp how letters get put together to make words, and applying her knowledge of sounds to help her out.  
In a way, she is approaching this like she did with math.  She is really good with numbers, and got that way because she constantly played around with them in her mind.  She also began writing them down, and quizzing us on math problems that she made up.  
She is figuring out her own style of learning and applying that formula to everything that she is interested in expanding on.  I will admit, I have had moments of being unsure about not sitting her down and “teaching” her how to read, but what I do know is this: everyone learns at their own pace, in their own way, on their own time.  That includes reading.  
Being connected to unschooling communities, I know that the range of when children learn how to read on their own varies greatly.  They can grasp it as early as 3, as soon as 6, or eventually at 10 or even 12.  However “early” or “late” (quotations here because there really is no timetable when in the unschooling realm), does not measure their intellect.  It is only a reflection of where their passions lie, and if they are able to pursue their passions with what they possess already.
I can guarantee you though, when something steps in the way of the pursuits of an unschooled child, they find a way to deal with it.  When reading and math become integral to what they are pursuing, you better believe that they will very quickly figure out a way around it, or through.  If it’s around, then they have learned a new way to problem solve.  If it’s through, then they open up a door into a new world.    
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