Marcie

Good morning all. After nearly a year of love, sweat and fear, I finally took the ultimate leap of faith yesterday by pulling my son from public school. He was a fifth grader at one of our local schools. I have been lurking on this list, among others, for over a year, absorbing inspiration, hope and knowledge while riding out a very tumultuous year. Whilst we continue to heal from the ravages of years of domestic violence, followed by the loss of my job due to the current economy, to being bound to the social contracts of life (eg a rental lease)I have been struggling to create a peaceful and joyful life ~ a new beginning for my son and I ~ that an unschooling lifestyle appears to provide. Amid the past several years of conflict, I have witnessed a steady developmental process in the way my son views his world and absorbs wisdom and knowledge. He "gets" it the first time, thus preferring not to replicate, duplicate, practice, practice, practice as the "teachers" have demanded. He is not perfect, none of us are, his math skills are minimal, but his reading and processing skills are above and beyond, "advanced" as the IEP testing revealed and what I already knew. So, without further rambling, I welcome the change. I give thanks and praise to all of your voices and look forward to exchanges as Eli and I navigate our way towards peaceful attached parenting filling our hearts with joy long overdue!

Sandra Dodd

I hope things go really well for you!

It's hard to unthink something or to unknow, but if you can let these
things float back down into the background and not think about them,
it will give unschooling more room to flow into:

"his math skills are minimal, but his reading and processing skills
are above and beyond, "advanced" as the IEP testing revealed and what
I already knew."

It's just one person now, no assembly line, no comparisons. Let the
school stuff go as soon and as well as you can.

Sandra

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

Pam Sorooshian

You have a great attitude, Marcie, for unschooling!! Be sure to allow
for deschooling to take place - reading more about deschooling, focusing
on that, will be useful for you right now, most likely. And - have FUN.
Remember - this IS life, not preparation for life.

-pam

On 9/30/2009 7:38 AM, Marcie wrote:
> He is
> not perfect, none of us are, his math skills are minimal, but his reading and processing skills are above and beyond, "advanced" as the IEP testing revealed and what I already knew. So, without further rambling, I welcome the change. I give thanks and praise to all of your voices and look forward to exchanges as Eli and I navigate our way towards peaceful attached parenting filling our hearts with joy long overdue!
>

Sandra Dodd

-=-Be sure to allow
for deschooling to take place - reading more about deschooling, focusing
on that, will be useful for you right now, most likely. -=-

http://sandradodd.com/deschooling

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

Marcie

--- In [email protected], Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
>
> I hope things go really well for you!
>
> It's hard to unthink something or to unknow, but if you can let these
> things float back down into the background and not think about them,
> it will give unschooling more room to flow into:
>
> "his math skills are minimal, but his reading and processing skills
> are above and beyond, "advanced" as the IEP testing revealed and what
> I already knew."
>
> It's just one person now, no assembly line, no comparisons. Let the
> school stuff go as soon and as well as you can.
>
> Sandra
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
Giggle!!! The first step is awareness of my thoughts as I being the deschooling process....silly me! Thanks Sandra

melidi7

--- And - have FUN.
Remember - this IS life, not preparation for life.---

This is what I love about this list.
thanks for the reminder :o)
xxmelissa
in italy
mamma di 7
unschooling shanti (9yr) and Giacomo leo (6yr--he tried first grade and enjoyed it, but likes "at home" better! :o) )