Sandra Dodd

Peter Grey wrote in the comments at the Psychology Today post about reading (the article he did a while back):

As you might expect, I'm not a fan of Waldorf schooling, or of any brand of
schooling that is based on assumptions about what children "should" or
"should not" be learning or doing at a particular age. Some children are
strongly motivate to read at 4 or 5, others not until much later. Children,
including little ones, get lot of value from computers. The computer is the
main tool of our culture today and children can benefit from exploring it
early. I recently heard a mother of a former Waldorf family speak about her
son's experience. He begged for a computer and they wouldn't give him one.
Then he had a terrible bicycle accident and was in the hospital for months.
Because he couldn't do much else, they bought him a computer. His reaction:
"It was worth having that bicycle accident to finally get a computer!"
Needless to say, the family left Waldorf after that.

-Peter

Those comments are a jumbled mess, but because I commented there and subscribed, I get new comments by e-mail, so I'm sharing this one.

It's not about learning to read. It's about parenting.

Sandra

chris ester

When I was exploring homeschooling in general and educational theories there were a few automatic "no go's" for me because I am not a person who follows dogma, not as a philosophical statement, but because I am just not temperamentally suited to dogmatic thinking.  I couldn't see how you could apply dogmatic beliefs to parenting.  

Children are individuals who will be as they are and need what they need, want what they want.  As a parent, I always felt that I should try to respond to my child's ACTUAL needs and wants, not what some theorist wrote my that child SHOULD need and want.  

As an example: My son only ever wanted about 3 or 4 M&M's at a time, my daughter liked to have a small bag or container with many more than that.  So, I had a large bag for the M&M's and a small container for my daughter.  My son would come back for 3/4 at a time and I would help my daughter fill her container (until she got big enough to do so herself) as she wanted.  
Thinking about it, experts would just say that they shouldn't get candy!! Oh well, this is how we did things with any small finger food, including fruits and veggies.  
chris


On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 11:41 AM, Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
 

Peter Grey wrote in the comments at the Psychology Today post about reading (the article he did a while back):

As you might expect, I'm not a fan of Waldorf schooling, or of any brand of
schooling that is based on assumptions about what children "should" or
"should not" be learning or doing at a particular age. Some children are
strongly motivate to read at 4 or 5, others not until much later. Children,
including little ones, get lot of value from computers. The computer is the
main tool of our culture today and children can benefit from exploring it
early. I recently heard a mother of a former Waldorf family speak about her
son's experience. He begged for a computer and they wouldn't give him one.
Then he had a terrible bicycle accident and was in the hospital for months.
Because he couldn't do much else, they bought him a computer. His reaction:
"It was worth having that bicycle accident to finally get a computer!"
Needless to say, the family left Waldorf after that.

-Peter

Those comments are a jumbled mess, but because I commented there and subscribed, I get new comments by e-mail, so I'm sharing this one.

It's not about learning to read. It's about parenting.

Sandra