billyandjoanne

Hello :-)

I've been lurking here for quite a while and just replied to Ren's
request for how unschooling promotes family healing. I decided to
introduce myself and I'll use basically what I e-mailed to her as my
intro.

I'm a member of a few unschooling groups and boards (billyandjoanne
at the yahoo groups and MamaWitch at unschooling.info).

Removing our family from the school system AND choosing to unschool
is helping our family of five to bond, grow and heal. My husband & I
adopted our three beautiful children in October of 2003. They are
siblings and had been in foster care for 4 years at the time we met
them. Needless to say, they came with a lot of unhealthy baggage and
emotional issues, mostly the older two, and the younger one
mimicking her siblings. At first, we sent them to school
because...well, that's the way it's done....it never occured to me
NOT to send them to school.

By the start of the next school year (04-05) I felt that we needed
to find a way to bond on a deeper, more emotional level. We were
done with all the "getting to know you" stuff about each other such
as, who likes which cereal and who needs a night light on. I wanted
more for us than that. That's when I stumbled across unschooling. I
knew that this was what we needed...I knew my children needed to be
with us more...being away from us for 30-35 hours a week did nothing
to help promote the feeling of unity we wanted as a family. My
husband backed me up 100% and we took the plunge!

Since then (it's been only 7 months so this in an ongoing healing
process) I've seen communication open up, feelings being talked
about and issues and solutions being worked out. When we first met
our kids, they were in occupational/physical therapy,
speech/language therapy and also mental health therapy. In the last
2 months, we dropped each one and we feel free! Free to just
BE....just be a family. Trust is being built up (on all sides)
slowly and steadily. It's only been a short time and I'm excited to
see what the future holds for us. Taking my children out of school
and then embracing unschooling has given us a way to be a real
family.

I always suggest to any family who adopts older children, that they
remove them from school the day the adoption is finalized...and
never look back.

Thanks, Joanne

[email protected]

In a message dated 7/25/2005 11:00:39 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
billyandjoanne@... writes:

Removing our family from the school system AND choosing to unschool
is helping our family of five to bond, grow and heal.


This is just a most wonderful story...Thanks for sharing it and welcome.
Will you coming to the Live and Learn Conference in St. Louis?

Gail


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

billyandjoanne

--- In [email protected], gailbrocop@a... wrote:
This is just a most wonderful story...Thanks for sharing it and
welcome. Will you coming to the Live and Learn Conference in St.
Louis?>>>>>>>


Hi Gail and thanks for the welcome. :-)
No, a family trip out of state is not in our budget right now. My
husband just quit his (well paying) job and started a new one (at
lower pay) just so he could spend more time with us. :-)

J. Stauffer

<<<I always suggest to any family who adopts older children, that they
remove them from school the day the adoption is finalized...and
never look back. >>>

I couldn't agree more.

Julie S.--adoptive mom to 5


----- Original Message -----
From: billyandjoanne
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2005 10:00 AM
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] Hello!


Hello :-)

I've been lurking here for quite a while and just replied to Ren's
request for how unschooling promotes family healing. I decided to
introduce myself and I'll use basically what I e-mailed to her as my
intro.

I'm a member of a few unschooling groups and boards (billyandjoanne
at the yahoo groups and MamaWitch at unschooling.info).

Removing our family from the school system AND choosing to unschool
is helping our family of five to bond, grow and heal. My husband & I
adopted our three beautiful children in October of 2003. They are
siblings and had been in foster care for 4 years at the time we met
them. Needless to say, they came with a lot of unhealthy baggage and
emotional issues, mostly the older two, and the younger one
mimicking her siblings. At first, we sent them to school
because...well, that's the way it's done....it never occured to me
NOT to send them to school.

By the start of the next school year (04-05) I felt that we needed
to find a way to bond on a deeper, more emotional level. We were
done with all the "getting to know you" stuff about each other such
as, who likes which cereal and who needs a night light on. I wanted
more for us than that. That's when I stumbled across unschooling. I
knew that this was what we needed...I knew my children needed to be
with us more...being away from us for 30-35 hours a week did nothing
to help promote the feeling of unity we wanted as a family. My
husband backed me up 100% and we took the plunge!

Since then (it's been only 7 months so this in an ongoing healing
process) I've seen communication open up, feelings being talked
about and issues and solutions being worked out. When we first met
our kids, they were in occupational/physical therapy,
speech/language therapy and also mental health therapy. In the last
2 months, we dropped each one and we feel free! Free to just
BE....just be a family. Trust is being built up (on all sides)
slowly and steadily. It's only been a short time and I'm excited to
see what the future holds for us. Taking my children out of school
and then embracing unschooling has given us a way to be a real
family.

I always suggest to any family who adopts older children, that they
remove them from school the day the adoption is finalized...and
never look back.

Thanks, Joanne







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

matranga6

Hi Everyone, I would like to introduce myself and give some of my
background to the group. My name is Alisia I have three children 8yrs,
6yrs, 3yrs, and one due in 8weeks. Last year was our first year
homeschooling. After a long year of trying to figure out the teacher
manuals I realized that my children learn better with experiences and
hands on. I also learned that when they started with a problems and
then we read and researched the problem they remembered everything
(For example:my 8yrs. old asked about earthquakes we researched and
learned together and he knows all about them now)! So, this year we
will be unschooling but I can use all the advice I can get.

Thanks for letting me share, Alisia

DJ250

Hi, Alisia,

Welcome to unschooling! We found our way into unschooling in pretty much the same way. Enjoy!

~Melissa :)

----- Original Message -----
From: matranga6
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 5:02 PM
Subject: [unschoolingbasics] Hello!


Hi Everyone, I would like to introduce myself and give some of my
background to the group. My name is Alisia I have three children 8yrs,
6yrs, 3yrs, and one due in 8weeks. Last year was our first year
homeschooling. After a long year of trying to figure out the teacher
manuals I realized that my children learn better with experiences and
hands on. I also learned that when they started with a problems and
then we read and researched the problem they remembered everything
(For example:my 8yrs. old asked about earthquakes we researched and
learned together and he knows all about them now)! So, this year we
will be unschooling but I can use all the advice I can get.

Thanks for letting me share, Alisia






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

Susan Caisse

Hello!

I am new to this group and new to unschooling.  This is my 4th year homeschooling and we had been using a curriculum that seemed to work for my 2nd grader and my kindergartener.  We loved it last year but it the girls seemed bored with it this year.  We started in July  this past year and made it  through September.  My husband has a chronic illness and was out on short term disability until Jan. We also have a 2 yr old that likes to disrupt reading time and just about anything! We couldn't get back into the swing of things and I hadn't really kept as good  records of what they were learning as I had previous years.  It has been an bit of an overwhelming period of time for me.  I started looking into child led learning and thought they would like this and I would like this!  I created a worksheet for me to keep track of what they were learning and what interests they have and want to explore.   I fill in daily what they do and how much time
spent. It is amazing what they learn on a daily basis! I have to report to my school district  and have been putting together a portfolio at the end of each year.  What I am not sure about is the letter of intent that I will need to send for next year.  Are any of you required to send in a curriculum plan and number of hours per subject?  Just wondering what you all do about this.  I have been reading posts over the past few days since I found the site and enjoy reading about what others are doing!  Thanks for any advice you can give!  

Susan  

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

Meredith

Susan Caisse <mytillytwo@...> wrote:
>Are any of you required to send in a curriculum plan and number of hours per subject?  Just wondering what you all do about this.
**************

Be sure to check on local lists for details about specific, local needs.

That being said, here's a potentially useful link with examples of how other unschoolers have written up "learning plan" sorts of things:
http://sandradodd.com/unschoolingcurriculum.html

Something I used to do for Ray was to use whatever he'd been doing the previous six months as his "learning plan" for the upcoming reporting period. That way I didn't have to play some kind of guessing game, and he always met all his goals, and I didn't have to worry I'd get the urge to push him to continue with something when he had lost interest.

---Meredith