heatherrheyne

Our situation is quite unique. My husband and I, both in our thirties -
have decided to take our three children ages 13, 15 and 7 on the road.
We want the world to be our classroom. My son has Bi-Polar Disorder.
Because of his condition and the tremendous amount of problems at
school, the bulling, teachers that didn't understand -or care, we
decided to begin home schooling last year. The experience has been so
successful and rewarding, we've decided to home school our other two
children as well and we're eagerly anticipating the many educational
experiences to come while on the road...
I have just recently heard of un schooling and the idea intrigue's me.
I would love to hear more on the subject. If anyone has any books on
the topic that they are not in need of any longer, I would be
interested in purchasing your used copies. I would buy some new, but we
live on a pretty tight budget.

Thanks,

Heather

Vicki Dennis

Go to www.sandradodd.com and click on unschooling.
Follow the links and you can see some articles for FREE.
As well as links to various resources.

Maybe even some books that would be available form a public library.

vicki


On 7/27/06, heatherrheyne <heatherrheyne@...> wrote:
>
> I have just recently heard of un schooling and the idea intrigue's me.
> I would love to hear more on the subject. If anyone has any books on
> the topic that they are not in need of any longer, I would be
> interested in purchasing your used copies. I would buy some new, but we
> live on a pretty tight budget.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Heather
>
>
>


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

Karen

Hi Heather,

I too would go the public library option, well at least until you start your
road trip. How wonderful, I am dreadfully envious, that was one of my home
ed fantasies too. However, our circumstances prevent us from taking off at
the moment, keep it in my dream folder!!!

Some authors - Wendy Priesnitz, John Taylor Gatto, Alfie Kohn, Mary Griffith

For sites - type something like unschooling, child led learning,
deschooling, natural learning and let the search engine show you an amazing
array of interesting sites.

Here are a few to start with:-

www.unschooling.info/collectedposts.htm

connections.organiclearning.org

www.lifemedia.ca/wendy/blog.html

www.besthomeschooling.org/articles/linda_dobson_gems

www.spinninglobe.net/homed.htm

Homeschooling the Teen Years by Cafi Cohen ISBN 0-7615-2093-7 is a good book
for natural learning ideas for older children.

Good luck with it all, perhaps you could email this group occasionally with
some travel tales?

Karen


On 28/07/06, heatherrheyne <heatherrheyne@...> wrote:
>
> Our situation is quite unique. My husband and I, both in our thirties -
> have decided to take our three children ages 13, 15 and 7 on the road.
> We want the world to be our classroom. My son has Bi-Polar Disorder.
> Because of his condition and the tremendous amount of problems at
> school, the bulling, teachers that didn't understand -or care, we
> decided to begin home schooling last year. The experience has been so
> successful and rewarding, we've decided to home school our other two
> children as well and we're eagerly anticipating the many educational
> experiences to come while on the road...
> I have just recently heard of un schooling and the idea intrigue's me.
> I would love to hear more on the subject. If anyone has any books on
> the topic that they are not in need of any longer, I would be
> interested in purchasing your used copies. I would buy some new, but we
> live on a pretty tight budget.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Heather
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


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

Karen

Sorry one of the links is dodgy

try

www.besthomeschooling.org/articles/linda_dobson_gems.html

Karen D


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

Gold Standard

>>have decided to take our three children ages 13, 15 and 7 on the road.<<

What did the kids think about the idea?

>>My son has Bi-Polar Disorder.<<

What kinds of needs does he have that might need special thought before
embarking on this journey? How about for your other two? We've found that
prevention of irritants and prethinking what triggers our guy with special
issues helps us to put together a more gratifying trip for everyone. For
that matter, thinking about each person individually in the family and what
they like and don't like is very helpful in planning a great trip. It may
not look anything at all like it would have if the parents just proceeded
without everyone's inclusion of ideas, desires and input.

We just went on a road trip recently and things were MUCH different than
they would have been if I planned the trip on my own. For instance, we took
two vehicles...a mini-van with a TV and dvd player and dh's 4 door sedan
with a good sound system. There were 7 of us on the trip, and the mini-van
fit 8 plus storage, so we could have done that. But two of the kids had the
idea that it would potentially be hell at times with all our different
personalities and needs trying to come to consensus on whether to watch TV
or sing or listen to music, etc. Two of our family members are kind of "high
need", maybe similar to your son. What a world of difference it made to have
a choice of two places to ride. And the extra space. And the many different
variations of different people together. I would have just planned on the
one van, gas prices and all, and that was indeed part of the picture. But we
weighed it all out and dh and I figured out a way to do it. And it was a
great trip.

That's probably not feasible for what you guys are doing, but I just bring
it up as an example of how flexibility, including everyone's ideas, and
really thinking about each person going and their needs, can really make it
a great trip.

We also agreed to stop when ANYONE asked. This alleviated stress
immediately...dh and I didn't realize that, because of previous trips,
people now hesitated to ask to stop for the bathroom or whatever because of
adult or sibling reaction because we had stopped not too long before. Doh!
There was a visible relaxation when we were talking about this as people
were listened to. And it worked well! No one batted an eyelash when someone
asked to stop no matter how recently we had already stopped. And it didn't
happen too often either. Happiness in the vehicle is a pretty dang awesome
gift on a road trip!

So my point is that in unschooling, even doing something that seems so
wonderful and adventurous as hitting the road still needs thoughtful
planning and inclusion of everyone's ideas in the process. And parents
taking the time to think about what some pitfalls may be from knowing their
children, and working to avoid them, is very helpful as well.

>>and we're eagerly anticipating the many educational
>>experiences to come while on the road...<<

I would suggest subtracting the word "educational" from the sentence above,
and see how it feels. Unschooling has little to do with looking at separate
life experiences as educational, but more enjoying a basking in the
experiences as they come, if they are of interest. Enjoying life and living
fully usually leads to whatever you need to know.

>>I have just recently heard of un schooling and the idea intrigue's me.
>>I would love to hear more on the subject.<<

www.sandradodd.com

Sandra has graciously and meticulously gathered so much information on her
sight about unschooling (and other really neat tidbits!) that most questions
can be answered there, and lots of information can be gained. (Thank you
Sandra)

Sorry that was so long,
Jacki

Sandra Dodd

-=-If anyone has any books on
the topic that they are not in need of any longer, I would be
interested in purchasing your used copies.-=-

Joyce Fetteroll has a list of books that might help at her site
http://home.earthlink.net/~fetteroll/rejoycing/books.html

Few are specifically "unschooling books." Unschooling is much more a
way to be and to think and to see the world than it is a thing to do.

Sandra

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

heatherrheyne

Jacki,

Thank You for your wonderful advice!! We will be taking everyone's
opinions, desires and needs into consideration while planning this
trip. I loved your idea about stopping any time anyone asked to do
so. I agree that this will alivate a lot of stress while on the road.
After all, we are not in any hurry. It's not as if we will only have a
weeks vacation to do all the things we want to do.
I have found Sandra Dodd's web site and there is a wealth of ideas
there. I appreciate your book recommendations also.

Thanks,

Heather