Lisa Blocker

I watched bits and pieces of the wife swap thing.... I also was not impressed. I think the mother of the unschooling family did show herself as someone willing to learn about different things more than anyone else involved but as usual they showed only extremes and no middle ground so any good points were lost!
She did make several good points about learning but I am sure people who weren't looking for that sort of thing didn't catch them!


Re: unschooling large families

I have 4 kids (I don't consider that a large family but most folks do) we have homeschooled for 10 yrs and unschooled for a good bit of that even before I knew what it was called! Basically what happens at my house is when the kids want to learn about something that I have no clue about (and even some things I do know about) they figure out a way to learn on their own with help from Mom and Dad or they find an "expert" in the field. When my now 13 yr old was 9 yrs old she had attended a vet school open house at NC State ....in the lobby they have tons of skeletons of various animals that she was fascinated by and she wanted to sketch them. The crowds were large and noisy and it just wasn't a feasible pursuit while the open house was going on. A few days later she came to me and asked me to drive her over there so she could sketch for a while. I suggested that perhaps we should call and make sure it was okay.....well at 9 yrs old she had looked up the vet
school phone number , called over there and been transferred around to find a person that had the information she needed and gotten permission to go over there to sketch!!! She also had a lengthy conversation with a man who we later found out was the dean of students at the vet school about her desire to be a vet , she had asked him what she should be focusing on in high school and what things would help her be a good vet!!! There have been many other situations where my kids have come to me and asked for a book on this subject or that or if I knew where they could find out about whatever. I figure I could spend my time telling them what they should learn or I can let them explore what's right for them and not rob them of the satisfaction of having achieved their goals after having set their OWN goals. It's easy to get caught up in what we want for our children and lose sight of what they might want. In our house the bit of advice I give my kids about the
future is that my wish for them is that they can find something that will feed their souls as well as their bellies. I want them to want to do what they have chosen each day and not get out of bed in the morning dreading the heavy responsibility of doing something that pays the bills but robs their souls.
You will also find with lots of kids that the older ones will automatically "teach" the younger ones and vice versa! My younger ones often know something the older ones don't ... my kids don't have any problems playing with kids of all ages because they have siblings of all ages, they love to do things together... whether it's just hanging out , building something, doing a science experiment etc I don't think they would have this same closeness if they were in school all day or even if I had a structured school at home type schedule. We don't talk about what grade anyone is in either so I think that helps in the level playing field of learning ... we don't fill them with superior being attitudes. The younger ones do look up to the older ones but not because they are told they should. They feel that way because they have the experience of having an older sibling that is kind to them, loves them, plays with them and has experiences and knowledge in many areas that
they are willing to share.
For the record...I went to college and grad school... I don't find it has any advantage in homeschooling or unschooling .... since my background is in education I mostly see how poorly teachers are educated about how kids learn and how to be a good teacher. I prefer to see myself as a facilitator to my children's learning rather than a teacher.

Lisa Blocker (unschooling mom to Sarah 16, Anna 13, Ainsley 11 and Jack age 5)





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