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Writing is a challenge for Julian, which is such a struggle for his mom, a
writer. What we've discovered is he'll write if it's real, and not just a
"schooly" thing (which he got in his very few years of school). This is his writing
story.

Interestingly, he says he hates to write, but has begun writing songs :), and
intends to be a singer/songwriter.

When he was little (well, 8) and we started homeschooling, we lived across
the street from a funky little restaurant (three tables). One day I invited him
to go there and have lunch and write poetry. I think he was so startled he
agreed. LOL So we went over, and I taught him about haiku. He liked the
structure, the fact that it was short, and that it was usually about nature, being an
animal freak. This was his first poem, about our cat:

Simone

soft loving kitty
a tortoise shell cat in the sun
a very patient feline.

He was happy with it, and impressed that he could write a poem he felt was
"good."

He was happy with that, and that same day wrote this poem, about our friend
Sarah's guide dog, who Julian was good friends with and took care of sometimes.
At the time, Sarah's old guide dog was retiring, and she was getting a new
one. Julian loved the first dog very much. The poem is advice from the old dog
to the new dog.

Sarah's eyes

"Walk with pride.
Be the best guide dog
you can possibly be.
Be a loving friend.
Keep her safe.
Wear the harness well.

His next big writing adventure was pretty dramatic. The church we belonged to
had a very serious mouse problem. They'd started out putting out a few humane
traps, and it didn't help. Finally, they had to call an exterminator, who
laughed at them, saying there were hundreds of mice in the dropped ceiling of the
basement.

Julian heard about this, and was devastated. He had worked at the food pantry
at church, and knew the mice had to go, but he was very upset at the loss of
life. We talked about the problem of people leaving food around at the church,
etc. He ended up writing an article for the church newsletter about it. An
excerpt: "This makes me sad because they killed hundreds of small mice and their
babies. I understand why they had to get rid of the mice. They were spoiling
the food for the food pantry and because having that many mice around can
cause disease.

I want people to not leave food out so mice don't smell it and come into the
church so we don't have another disaster. I want people to do this because
more than 200 mice died in this disaster...."

In the past few years, Julian's done some other writing. A couple years ago
my sister sent something about an essay writing contest about vegetarianism. I
didn't think Juls would be interested (because he doesn't like to write much),
but he was. We talked a bit about why he was a vegetarian, and I gave him a
few materials on what other people thought about it, and he wrote an amazing
essay about vegetarianism as a spitirual practice. He quoted Plutarch and Gandhi
in it!!! He ended up doing his essay as a sermon at church, as well as
entering the contest.

So, Julian is actually a pretty good writer, but doesn't do it much, and
doesn't love it. But when there's a purpose, he does a good job at it.

He's decided to take a course at Harvard University Extension this fall, on
Evolution and Society. He's excited. We told him we thought there might be
writing he had to do for it, and that we'd help him learn to write an academic
paper if he wanted (in the context of writing his first one). He's excited enough
about the course that he feels that it's worth doing the writing.

Kathryn



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

badolbilz

Thank you for sharing that, Kathryn. I've been avidly reading what you
have all written because I'm already getting a lot of pressure from
family about Aislinn and her inability and complete disinterest in
reading and writing. It's so comforting to hear about everyone else's
children. Aislinn's only 7 and busy living her life which doesn't, at
this point, involve writing or reading.

My dh understands what unschooling is, but doesn't wholeheartedly agree.
Last week he told Aislinn (when I wasn't around) that he wanted to sit
with her at night and work on her reading. Aislinn told me about it and
I asked her how she felt about it and she said it was okay. But Aislinn
would say that if she thought she should even if it wasn't true (a sad
fact of the way our life used to be). The thing is...my dh spends so
little time with the girls that part of me feels maybe it wouldn't be a
bad thing. I asked him about it and he said he felt she needed to start
working harder on it. I asked him if he was going to do this with both
older girls because Elysia not only wants to do EVERYTHING Aislinn does,
Elysia is actually more inclined to write stuff and can write more than
Aislinn can. Elysia is 5. Dh said he only wanted to work with Aislinn
because she'll just feel bad if Elysia's quicker about it than her. I
agree with that, but he can't tell Elysia to just go away when it's
something she's interested in. I don't know what to do. Probably I
won't have to do anything, because I doubt dh will do anything.
Unfortunately it's these little episodes that, I think, make Aislinn
less interested in writing (and reading) because she closes down when
pressured. To keep commenting on her inability to read is like jabbing
at her and then walking away. Oh...if only everyone would just let it
go and try to understand more.

Thank you all for your stories about your children. I'm printing them
to make a little booklet. All part of my Unschooling Bible.
Heidi

KathrynJB@... wrote:

>Writing is a challenge for Julian, which is such a struggle for his mom, a
>writer. What we've discovered is he'll write if it's real, and not just a
>"schooly" thing (which he got in his very few years of school). This is his writing
>story.
>
>Interestingly, he says he hates to write, but has begun writing songs :), and
>intends to be a singer/songwriter.
>
>When he was little (well, 8) and we started homeschooling, we lived across
>the street from a funky little restaurant (three tables). One day I invited him
>to go there and have lunch and write poetry. I think he was so startled he
>agreed. LOL So we went over, and I taught him about haiku. He liked the
>structure, the fact that it was short, and that it was usually about nature, being an
>animal freak. This was his first poem, about our cat:
>
>Simone
>
>soft loving kitty
>a tortoise shell cat in the sun
>a very patient feline.
>
>He was happy with it, and impressed that he could write a poem he felt was
>"good."
>
>He was happy with that, and that same day wrote this poem, about our friend
>Sarah's guide dog, who Julian was good friends with and took care of sometimes.
>At the time, Sarah's old guide dog was retiring, and she was getting a new
>one. Julian loved the first dog very much. The poem is advice from the old dog
>to the new dog.
>
>Sarah's eyes
>
>"Walk with pride.
>Be the best guide dog
>you can possibly be.
>Be a loving friend.
>Keep her safe.
>Wear the harness well.
>
>His next big writing adventure was pretty dramatic. The church we belonged to
>had a very serious mouse problem. They'd started out putting out a few humane
>traps, and it didn't help. Finally, they had to call an exterminator, who
>laughed at them, saying there were hundreds of mice in the dropped ceiling of the
>basement.
>
>Julian heard about this, and was devastated. He had worked at the food pantry
>at church, and knew the mice had to go, but he was very upset at the loss of
>life. We talked about the problem of people leaving food around at the church,
>etc. He ended up writing an article for the church newsletter about it. An
>excerpt: "This makes me sad because they killed hundreds of small mice and their
>babies. I understand why they had to get rid of the mice. They were spoiling
>the food for the food pantry and because having that many mice around can
>cause disease.
>
>I want people to not leave food out so mice don't smell it and come into the
>church so we don't have another disaster. I want people to do this because
>more than 200 mice died in this disaster...."
>
>In the past few years, Julian's done some other writing. A couple years ago
>my sister sent something about an essay writing contest about vegetarianism. I
>didn't think Juls would be interested (because he doesn't like to write much),
>but he was. We talked a bit about why he was a vegetarian, and I gave him a
>few materials on what other people thought about it, and he wrote an amazing
>essay about vegetarianism as a spitirual practice. He quoted Plutarch and Gandhi
>in it!!! He ended up doing his essay as a sermon at church, as well as
>entering the contest.
>
>So, Julian is actually a pretty good writer, but doesn't do it much, and
>doesn't love it. But when there's a purpose, he does a good job at it.
>
>He's decided to take a course at Harvard University Extension this fall, on
>Evolution and Society. He's excited. We told him we thought there might be
>writing he had to do for it, and that we'd help him learn to write an academic
>paper if he wanted (in the context of writing his first one). He's excited enough
>about the course that he feels that it's worth doing the writing.
>
>Kathryn
>