katzcandles

I don't post much, mostly read and learn. I am mom to 3 boys James
10, Jacob 5, and Joshua 3. My oldest has been homeschooling since
Nov. 03 and unschooling since Jan 04. We have adopted unschooling
for the entire family and just this week my middle son made the
choice to be home and unschool with his brothers. Yeah, I felt
great.

Today, he wanted to know if "today was a school day". I replied
that we homeschool now and that he is done having to go to school.
He replied to me by saying he wants to "do school" here. He wants
to do "math". Which is one of his reasons for wanting to
homeschool. Because they don't do math in Kindergarten. My
question is this. While I do not want to "do school", I do want
Jacob to decide how and what he wants to learn. He is asking for
math problems on paper, like school worksheets. I have NEVER done
worksheets with him. What should I do. Do I just print off one
from a website when he asks for them, or do I buy a workbook and
leave it on the book shelf with all the other books for him to pick
up when he feels like it.

Another thing, do I sit there with him and do it if that is what he
asks. I am assuming he wants me to replace his teacher's role at
home from what he is saying because that is what he envisions
homeschool to be. Keep in mind that he has never seen James and I
at the kitchen table with "school work". How can I open his mind
back up to everything if he is stuck on "doing school at home". He
is a persistent little guy. Any advice would be welcomed.
Kathy Johnson from NY

[email protected]

I'd talk to him more about what he wants, and about how big "math" really
is. Talk about patterns, logic problems, fractions, money, puzzles,
arithmetic. When Rain was that age she really liked solving arithmetic
problems orally, and she'd ask for some pluses or timeses and I'd give
her one, and she'd come up with an answer and ask if that was right, and
I'd tell her, and maybe we'd talk more if it wasn't... usually we'd be
walking somewhere, or waiting in a line. It was just a fun thing to do,
like playing 20 questions or I'm Going On a Trip.

When she first learned the traditional addition algorithm at 7, she
thought it was so cool and would ask me to write out lots of huge
addition problems for her, with 10 or more digits. That happened on and
off for a year or so. Mostly she would just do them and be excited
abouthow big the numbers were, she didn't ever really ask if her answers
were right - actually, they always were when I looked, so maybe she just
knew and didn't need to ask.

Anyway, I do think writing out your own arithmetic problems would work
better than printing them out or buying a workbook, because then you can
give him just what he asks for - it's his agenda, not some textbook
company's idea of what he should do. It doesn't have to just be
arithmetic - patterns are cool, or some geometry puzzles...

Dar
On Sun, 15 Feb 2004 17:38:43 -0000 "katzcandles" <KAMES97@...>
writes:
> He replied to me by saying he wants to "do school" here. He wants
> to do "math". Which is one of his reasons for wanting to
> homeschool. Because they don't do math in Kindergarten. My
> question is this. While I do not want to "do school", I do want
> Jacob to decide how and what he wants to learn. He is asking for
> math problems on paper, like school worksheets. I have NEVER done
> worksheets with him. What should I do. Do I just print off one
> from a website when he asks for them, or do I buy a workbook and
> leave it on the book shelf with all the other books for him to pick
> up when he feels like it.
>

Penn Acres

What a great opportunity for your son to see that you are absolutely on his side helping with his interests.
I would show him how you find the worksheets sites-show him how to use google-show him how to find the sites that you save on your "favorites" -show him how to use the printer to print them off. Let him do it by himself while you are there.
Our girls (age 8) use the "favorites" listing and Google a lot. I usually show them what I have listed the site as. They don't read much but usually have no problem finding what they want.
Take him to a store that sells workbooks etc-if he finds some dice-cardgames-etc as well -get them (or some of them). I would try not to make any value judgements on any "ways" to do it.
Ask him-if he would like you to sit with him-let him decide how it will all be done-or not. Let him "own" the entire process-make sure he has paper-chalk-whatever to make his own-.
Be available for how he wants to do it and watch that you don't fall into the trap of asking if he would like to "try" this now-or do you want to do your math workbook today etc. Leave the stuff available but not in a place of "more importance" than his other "stuff".
Do what I wish I had done in the beginning...L(OL
have fun-
grace

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

Kathleen Gehrke

If he wants to do worksheets let him.I have workbooks on bookshelves
from the days we did "do school". Every once in a while I have a kid
that will pick one up and do some.. Its okay just let them lead. Ask
if he wants you to sit with him.. Or better yet just let him know
what you are doing in case he has any questions. He will let you
know what he needs.
Kathleen
--- In [email protected], "katzcandles" <KAMES97@A...>
wrote:
> I don't post much, mostly read and learn. I am mom to 3 boys
James
> 10, Jacob 5, and Joshua 3. My oldest has been homeschooling since
> Nov. 03 and unschooling since Jan 04. We have adopted unschooling
> for the entire family and just this week my middle son made the
> choice to be home and unschool with his brothers. Yeah, I felt
> great.
>
> Today, he wanted to know if "today was a school day". I replied
> that we homeschool now and that he is done having to go to
school.
> He replied to me by saying he wants to "do school" here. He wants
> to do "math". Which is one of his reasons for wanting to
> homeschool. Because they don't do math in Kindergarten. My
> question is this. While I do not want to "do school", I do want
> Jacob to decide how and what he wants to learn. He is asking for
> math problems on paper, like school worksheets. I have NEVER done
> worksheets with him. What should I do. Do I just print off one
> from a website when he asks for them, or do I buy a workbook and
> leave it on the book shelf with all the other books for him to
pick
> up when he feels like it.
>
> Another thing, do I sit there with him and do it if that is what
he
> asks. I am assuming he wants me to replace his teacher's role at
> home from what he is saying because that is what he envisions
> homeschool to be. Keep in mind that he has never seen James and I
> at the kitchen table with "school work". How can I open his
mind
> back up to everything if he is stuck on "doing school at home".
He
> is a persistent little guy. Any advice would be welcomed.
> Kathy Johnson from NY

Deirdre Aycock

Kathy - I'm new to unschooling, but I wanted to let you know my experience with my son. He's 11 now, but when he was 5 and in 4yo preschool ( I had "held him back"), he was drawn to math work books when we were in the book stores. I finally bought him some. He taught himself to add using a Dr. Suess workbook. He never was much for coloring, but that's kind of how he used that book. His brain still loves numbers. His brain works circles around mine whenever we are figuring out something mathematical. On several occassions, he has looked at two two-digit numbers and multiplied them practically instantly--in his head!
Sooo... my vote is to let him pick out whatever interests him. My son loved Richard Scary's Best Math Program on the computer. He had a ball with that!
Deirdre in AL

He replied to me by saying he wants to "do school" here. He wants
to do "math". Which is one of his reasons for wanting to
homeschool. Because they don't do math in Kindergarten. My
question is this. While I do not want to "do school", I do want
Jacob to decide how and what he wants to learn. He is asking for
math problems on paper, like school worksheets. I have NEVER done
worksheets with him. What should I do. Do I just print off one
from a website when he asks for them, or do I buy a workbook and
leave it on the book shelf with all the other books for him to pick
up when he feels like it.


Kathy Johnson from NY





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

nellebelle

Ask him if he would like to balance your checkbook.

Mary Ellen

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

[email protected]

In a message dated 2/16/2004 1:45:55 PM Mountain Standard Time,
freeform@... writes:
He is asking for
> math problems on paper, like school worksheets. I have NEVER done
> worksheets with him. What should I do. Do I just print off one
> from a website when he asks for them, or do I buy a workbook and
> leave it on the book shelf with all the other books for him to pick
> up when he feels like it.
----------------

Holly used to want pages of math problems. I'd fix them so that the answers
made patterns, or the problems made patterns for her to discover.

We've always had a few workbooks around, usually Animaniacs or something
funny. Kids might pick up and do some pages just for fun the same way they will
puzzle books or coloring books.

But for math ideas, there are some here, and there are links to Pam
Sorooshian's site which has some wonderful dice games.

http://sandradodd.com/math

Sandra


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

Diane

My kids love workbooks--on and off! My four-year-old had a maps workbook
for her bedtime "story" tonight. She also loves math. Someone
recommended Logical Journey Of The Zoombinis as a "mathy" resource, and
she *loves* it! She's not old enough to play it yet, but loves to sit
with me and have me explain why I'm doing what I am. She creates the
characters and I walk them through the journey with her on my lap.

Buy workbooks if you have the money, *and* write out problems *and* show
him how to add on the calculator (my dd loves this--the she asks me the
answer to check the calculator's work!) *and* play math and dice games
*and* whatever else seems like a cool idea at the time, and he'll let
you know where to go from there.

:-) Diane

>>He replied to me by saying he wants to "do school" here. He wants
>>to do "math". Which is one of his reasons for wanting to
>>homeschool. Because they don't do math in Kindergarten. My
>>question is this. While I do not want to "do school", I do want
>>Jacob to decide how and what he wants to learn. He is asking for
>>math problems on paper, like school worksheets.
>>

Krisula Moyer

He might think of it as "doing school" but you may think of it as "playing
school" My dd loves to play at school. It's a fun fantasy to her and I
don't take it at all personally. Use all your creativity to show him that
he can think about numbers and their relationships in all kinds of ways.
It's fun. But to some kids, finishing a worksheet is also fun even if it's
for obviously different reasons. Don't spoil his fun. It's all learning
and its all good.
Krisula

pam sorooshian

So write down a bunch of math problems on a sheet of paper and let him
figure them out. I've done that many times for my kids when they want
to practice some new thing they've learned. Ask him what kind of math
problems he wants, first.

-pam
On Feb 15, 2004, at 9:38 AM, katzcandles wrote:

> Because they don't do math in Kindergarten. My
> question is this. While I do not want to "do school", I do want
> Jacob to decide how and what he wants to learn. He is asking for
> math problems on paper, like school worksheets. I have NEVER done
> worksheets with him. What should I do. Do I just print off one
> from a website when he asks for them, or do I buy a workbook and
> leave it on the book shelf with all the other books for him to pick
> up when he feels like it.
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