Julie Stauffer

<<I almost jumped in the car and headed back North at that point.>>

Now my experience has been just the opposite. I was born and raised in
Texas and have a racially mixed family, so we notice racial undercurrents
pretty quickly.

The two most racially intolerant places I have ever been, at least in my
experience, are Michigan and Pennsylvania. Yuck.

Julie

[email protected]

In a message dated 9/2/02 2:06:42 PM Central Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:

<< The duration of captivity seems to continue into adulthood for some people.
I wonder what makes the difference in those of us who reject school? >>

We never got the "stockholm syndrome"? Nah, I did think school was a
necessary, wonderful thing when my first child was born. I think some of us
in this world are able to be very uncomfortable with an idea, but not let it
go until it's thought through, evaluated and held up to the light of our
beliefs.
When something seems to speak to my heart, or make me uncomfortable, I have
to know why, I have to read about and seek information on it from all angles.
Some people don't have a need to know. They'd rather NOT know. It is this
willingness to examine things from other perspectives that makes it possible
to overcome programming in my opinion.
I like to think of it as a strong constitution. But maybe I'm giving myself
too much credit...lol

Ren

Robin

Greetings everyone,
I thought I'd introduce myself. My name is Robin, my dh is Mark and
we have an 18 yr old daughter (in college), a 5 yr old son and a 3 yr
old daughter.

My daughter went to Montessori school in Michigan until we moved to
California, there she went to public school for 2 years. After the
9th grade finished, she stayed home on a mutual decision. She was
always labeled "gifted" for what it's worth, and was an excellent
student, but the social aspects of the public school were horrible.
We homeschooled for a year, but she was doing 12th grade work so she
took the CHSPE and started community college. She is now in Santa
Monica and is working toward Otis a wonderful art college).

I have attachment parented, breastfed, and homeschooled my two
youngest, they know nothing different and have never stepped foot in
an institutionalized school setting.

Currently, we live in Las Vegas, but have bought a 3 acre home in a
small, rural community one hour away. We are looking forward to our
move and want to raise chickens, own horses again and whatever
animals suit our fancy!

I have read all of John Holt's books and just recently decided that
our style of homeschooling is definitely unschooling. Unfortunately,
I had a panic attack around the time Kindergarten would have started
for my son, and purchased a very expensive curriculum. Now it sits
gathering dust while we do what we've been enjoying all along:
reading, reading, reading, playing with many, many games, play-dough
(we make our own), blocks, library, ice skating, parks, and learning
as nature provides. I've tried using the pre-packaged curriculum, but
it's so boring and and turns my son (and I) off to learning! I've
learned a valuable lesson and perhaps, I needed to buy this
curriculum so I could be absolutely positive about who we are and
what works for us. I have much more confidence now!

I'm looking forward to the words of wisdom from those of you who are
on this loop, and am looking forward to reading the archives!
Warmly,
Robin

Nancy Wooton

on 9/29/02 3:37 PM, Robin at afreespirit@... wrote:

> I've tried using the pre-packaged curriculum, but
> it's so boring and and turns my son (and I) off to learning! I've
> learned a valuable lesson and perhaps, I needed to buy this
> curriculum so I could be absolutely positive about who we are and
> what works for us. I have much more confidence now!

Your story sounds familiar, but it was second grade for us; we skipped
kindergarten, and did all of first grade. I let the kids play with the
second grade stuff, even retrieving the Test Booklet from the locked filing
cabinet! They played "baby school" with the Cabbage Patch dolls <g>

Nancy

Betsy

**I had a panic attack around the time Kindergarten would have started
for my son, and purchased a very expensive curriculum. Now it sits
gathering dust while we do what we've been enjoying all along:... **


There are quite a few places online to sell used curriculum. (You
aren't the first or last person to want the comfort of a curriculum
without finding it to be much good. ;-) )

A friend of mine uses Vegsource and TheSwap, I think. I've also heard of
people selling used homeschooling materials on Ebay and on Half.com.

Betsy

Robin

> There are quite a few places online to sell used curriculum. (You
> aren't the first or last person to want the comfort of a curriculum
> without finding it to be much good. ;-) )
>
> A friend of mine uses Vegsource and TheSwap, I think. I've also
heard of
> people selling used homeschooling materials on Ebay and on Half.com.
>
> Betsy

Thank you for the info, Betsy. Unfortunately, we bought into the very
expensive and non-sellable K12. :-(
SIGH, live and learn!
Robin

Betsy

**Thank you for the info, Betsy. Unfortunately, we bought into the very
expensive and non-sellable K12. :-( **

I was going to ask "what makes it non-sellable? But I realized it's a
computer-based instruction service. (Right?)

Do you want to write an article, or at least a more detailed post, about
what's good and bad about K12? It might be a valuable service for others.

I'll bet most of the online instruction people (below college level)
have a darned high drop out rate.

Betsy

princessdee20012001

Hello,
I am not sure if i am in the right place. as I have never read the
book. I am consdering Home schooling my 13 year old . as she has
reactive attacment disorder and is adhd. I feel that the school
system is counter prodive for her. How ever as you can quickly tell
my spelling is not up to her grade level and my math is worse. so I
have been checking out how I can acomplish this so her needs can be
ment.
Dee

[email protected]

In a message dated 4/21/03 9:55:14 AM, ladymagic@... writes:

<< I am not sure if i am in the right place. as I have never read the

book. >>

John Holt?
There's some John Holt online. But if you know nothing at all about
unschooling and would like to, go here and click "library"
www.unschooling.com

or here if that's not enough
sandradodd.com/unschooling

This is probably not a good beginning list for you, but if you go to the
first site above and click "message boards" you can read quite a bit about
people who have taken kids out and you can probably find some information
local to your state/province/city.

Sandra

[email protected]

In a message dated 4/21/2003 8:28:45 PM Central Daylight Time,
SandraDodd@... writes:

> This is probably not a good beginning list for you

While I was looking for another list, I ran across this one in the Attachment
Parenting section at yahoo groups. :) I looked at hundreds of lists trying
to find the other one. There are some real freaks out there...but anyway it
was nice to see a familiar face pop up.

Tuck


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