j md

Hello all,
I just have a few questions that i was wondering if anyone might be able to answer?We have recently decided to try unschooling last week.We are homeschooling our 3 daughters 8, 5 and 3 1/2.Our elsedt had a lot of bulling and sexual harrasment at school last year, our 5 year old gets tired really easy and could not cope with the school day...she couldnt even cope with kindy well and that was just 2 1/2 hours!The education dept here was very helpful in getting our homeschool exemption (we are in australia) at the time we were working with a school based curriculum.The problem is my eldest just hated it and would fight tooth and nail about working (cant blame her) i had read so much about homeschooling and unschooling but just couldnt make the leap earlier.Last week a friend said that she was de schooling her daughter for the same reason so my husband said..lets give this a go..it cant get worse than what it is now....I agreed and after researching on the
net we found the idea of radical/whole life unschooling which just struck a real chord with me....Sorry to go on...my questions are....How can i go about deschooling my eldest?Are there anythings we should be doing to make her life easier after her experiences last year?
Does anyone here have to work within an education framework and how do you make sure that each area is met....and i dont mean making the kids do each area?Here we have to cover Maths, english, art, design and technology, health, science and society and enviroment....we dont have to cover LOTE if we dont want to or are unable to cover it.Can anyone give me some hints here?
If anyone else here has taken kids out of the school system can you tell me how long it was for your children to stop worrying so much...at the moment being so close to us beginning and still at the research stage where we are working thingss into our life as we find out about them i think my daughter is still a bit unsure...was just wondering how others got through this intial stage.
I will be greatful for anything anyone can tell me,
Luna


Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.
www.yahoo7.com.au/y7mail



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

Sandra Dodd

-=-How can i go about deschooling my eldest?Are there anythings we
should be doing to make her life easier after her experiences last
year?-=-

http://sandradodd.com/deschooling
Please read that and all the links. It will help.

Every time you lapse and "do school," even just a little, restart the
clock on that deschooling.

-=-Here we have to cover Maths, english, art, design and technology,
health, science and society and enviroment....we dont have to cover
LOTE if we dont want to or are unable to cover it.Can anyone give me
some hints here?-=-

When you read the deschooling stuff, reconsider your own ideas and
terminology such as "cover." This will help, too:
http://sandradodd.com/wordswords

http://sandradodd.com/unschoolingcurriculum
Links, too, to Acme Academy.
You can see things differently.

Sandra

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

j md

Thankyou Sandra,
I came across your website the other day when i first started researching unschooling.I am reading through all the infomation on the site as i want to take things in!I must thank you for your great advice.I am trying hard not to do school as we know it....just letting their interests and hearts lead the way.I know it will not be easy as i deprograme myself and my DH deprogrames himself from schoolmind to learning mind.Thankyou again,
luna




----- Original Message ----
From: Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, 1 April, 2008 12:41:38 AM
Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] can anyone answer these questions?

-=-How can i go about deschooling my eldest?Are there anythings we
should be doing to make her life easier after her experiences last
year?-=-

http://sandradodd. com/deschooling
Please read that and all the links. It will help.

Every time you lapse and "do school," even just a little, restart the
clock on that deschooling.

-=-Here we have to cover Maths, english, art, design and technology,
health, science and society and enviroment.. ..we dont have to cover
LOTE if we dont want to or are unable to cover it.Can anyone give me
some hints here?-=-

When you read the deschooling stuff, reconsider your own ideas and
terminology such as "cover." This will help, too:
http://sandradodd. com/wordswords

http://sandradodd. com/unschoolingc urriculum
Links, too, to Acme Academy.
You can see things differently.

Sandra

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





Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.
www.yahoo7.com.au/y7mail



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

Shileen Nixon

On Mar 31, 2008, at 9:05 AM, j md wrote:
>
> ***Does anyone here have to work within an education framework and
> how do you make sure that each area is met....and i dont mean
> making the kids do each area?***
>







Hi Luna!

I am sure that there will be others who can answer much better than I
but I can still share what I've been doing this year. We have a
framework as well - I live in Pennsylvania which by the way if there
are other PA people on the list I'd love to hear from you!!! Anyway,
we have a framework although IMO I think our framework is fairly
lose. In other words there's room for "play". I have been keeping a
daily list of things DS does that can be plugged into the different
subjects. I don't list the subjects. I just list what he does
throughout the day. So when it's time for "reporting" I will go
through this list and create a report or what we call a portfolio.
Learning to think outside the box has been very helpful in dealing
with our homeschool requirements. I also think in terms of 7 days a
week not just Mon-Fri ... after all learning does happen 24/7.
Again, I just observe what he's doing and jot it down. There will
also be days that I miss so it's not a strict regimen either. I
know there will be plenty of things at the end of the year to
"report" on. Hope this makes sense.

Shileen








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

Sandra Dodd

-=-I am reading through all the infomation on the site as i want to
take things in!I-=-

All the information on the site is too much.
Try this for a starting place instead:
http://sandradodd.com/beginning

Sandra
http://sandradodd.blogspot.com (my anniversary)

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

Bob Collier

--- In [email protected], j md <lunawillowmoon@...> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
> I just have a few questions that i was wondering if anyone might be
able to answer?We have recently decided to try unschooling last
week.We are homeschooling our 3 daughters 8, 5 and 3 1/2.Our elsedt
had a lot of bulling and sexual harrasment at school last year, our 5
year old gets tired really easy and could not cope with the school
day...she couldnt even cope with kindy well and that was just 2 1/2
hours!The education dept here was very helpful in getting our
homeschool exemption (we are in australia) at the time we were working
with a school based curriculum.The problem is my eldest just hated it
and would fight tooth and nail about working (cant blame her) i had
read so much about homeschooling and unschooling but just couldnt make
the leap earlier.Last week a friend said that she was de schooling her
daughter for the same reason so my husband said..lets give this a
go..it cant get worse than what it is now....I agreed and after
researching on the
> net we found the idea of radical/whole life unschooling which just
struck a real chord with me....Sorry to go on...my questions
are....How can i go about deschooling my eldest?Are there anythings we
should be doing to make her life easier after her experiences last year?
> Does anyone here have to work within an education framework and how
do you make sure that each area is met....and i dont mean making the
kids do each area?Here we have to cover Maths, english, art, design
and technology, health, science and society and enviroment....we dont
have to cover LOTE if we dont want to or are unable to cover it.Can
anyone give me some hints here?
> If anyone else here has taken kids out of the school system can you
tell me how long it was for your children to stop worrying so
much...at the moment being so close to us beginning and still at the
research stage where we are working thingss into our life as we find
out about them i think my daughter is still a bit unsure...was just
wondering how others got through this intial stage.
> I will be greatful for anything anyone can tell me,
> Luna
>
>
>



Hi, Luna

I'm in Canberra. I have a son, now 12, at home with me who went to
school for two years. My wife and I took him out of school in December
2002 at his request.

During the 'school summer holiday' that followed, we put together with
him a very informal, no need to sit at a desk, maximum three hours a
day timetable of weekly 'lessons' that he said he was happy with.
Subject based - from memory, English, Mathematics, Science, Geography,
History - not tied to a particular curriculum or syllabus.

In February 2003 (the start of the new school year), I wrote to the
principal of the school officially confirming that my son wouldn't be
returning to school and would be educated at home. I wrote to the
Department of Schools and asked them to send me the registration
package so that I could register my son as home educated. I received
the package. I read through the forms. I decided that it was
impossible for me to adequately convey my educational philosophy in
the terms that they required and chucked the forms in the bin. I've
had no further contact with the Department of Schools.

My son's 'lessons' lasted about two weeks. And even in that time, I
don't think we ever spent more than an hour on them before he decided
to 'take the rest of the day off'. Though he'd agreed to the idea, in
practice he didn't like it. If he didn't like it, nor did I. My wife
and I had taken our son out of a situation that had made him unhappy
because we wanted him to be happy, so we sure as heck weren't going to
put him into another situation that made him unhappy. From that moment
on, my son has simply done what he likes. Mostly, that has been
playing videogames, watching TV and surfing the internet. (I do a lot
of that with him too!)

In his second year at school, my son had been in the remedial reading
class because his reading had fallen behind. I was a parent helper in
the reading program (I was inside his school in some way practically
every day) and he was constantly being compelled to read silly little
stories about nothing he was even remotely interested in, so perhaps
that wasn't totally unrelated. When my son came out of school, he
refused to even look at a book and, to this day, he won't read one. By
the end of his first year at home, however, without any reading
lessons whatsoever, my son's reading was excellent. He'd dramatically
improved his reading from his everyday interactions with videogaming
instructions and online walkthroughs - stuff *he* knew he had to be
able to read to achieve his gaming objectives. Interestingly, the
number of times he asked me to identify a specific word for him was
probably in single digits. He really did figure virtually all of it
out for himself.

There have been many such revelations. The (positive) difference
between what my 12 year old son knows about the world he lives in and
what I knew about the world I lived in when I was 12 (which would be
1964, btw) is truly awesome. I have no doubt whatsoever that he's
well educated.

Yet he doesn't know - or, at least, he's unable to recite - the months
of the year. Is that important? Perhaps a school teacher would be
appalled! Well, we have calendars around the house if he needs to
check; I listed the months on a sheet of paper and bluetacked it to
his bedroom wall for reference if he wants to glance at it every so
often. I know that if he decides one day that he really *needs* to be
able to recite the months of the year in order, he can permanently
memorise the sequence in less than half an hour. He didn't learn to
tie his shoelaces until he was nine. I used to say to him, "Pat, one
day you'll wake up in the morning not knowing how to tie your
shoelaces and you'll go to bed that night knowing how to tie your
shoelaces. It really is that simple." One day he asked me to show him
how. So I showed him and he said, "I can't see clearly what you're
doing"; so I drew a set of six diagrams - very rough drawings of my
actions. By following the diagrams, he tied his shoelaces, practised a
few times to be sure and that was it. Skill acquired.

It's amazing what children learn when they don't have education forced
on them. We all naturally want to be successful in our lives, so why
would they be an exception to that as many people seem to believe?

I have a daughter who's ten years older than her brother. She was
always formally educated in the school system and just graduated from
university this year. Before she started school, she lived exactly as
her brother lives now - she did whatever she liked. After she started
school, that became a part-time lifestyle for when she was at home. In
school, she was a "star pupil" from day one, throughout her school
years always amongst what Robert Kiyosaki calls "the favored five per
cent" - those students who are specially cared for because their
achievements bring credit to the school. I'm very grateful for that.
It enabled my daughter to successfully accommodate the less than life
enhancing aspects of school culture. The incredible self-motivation on
which her success at school was based didn't come from the school
system though. It came from parents who honoured her self-authority.

No different in the case of our son, except that it's resulted in him
taking a very different path.

The point in mentioning my experiences with both of my children, I
think, is because I want to say that, as a parent, I believe my
allegiance must be to the development of my children as human beings
NOT to somebody else's ideas about how they would best fit into society.

To be honest, I get a little emotional these days when I read of 'home
educating' parents who allow themselves to be pulled around by
supposed 'educational authorities'. That's because I know from my own
experiences over eight years on the internet - and especially since
the advent of Web 2.0 - that we're now in a golden age of
self-motivated learning that gifts today's growing children the power
to create (should they choose to do so) an education of their own
that's superior to anything any Department of Schools wants for them;
and because I've spent the past five years observing the phenomenal
difference between my son's self-determined 'learning at the speed of
thought' lifestyle and the learning at the speed of watching paint dry
experiences he went through at school.

Anyway, just some random neural firings in response to your post.

Bob

Jenny C

>He didn't learn to
> tie his shoelaces until he was nine. I used to say to him, "Pat, one
> day you'll wake up in the morning not knowing how to tie your
> shoelaces and you'll go to bed that night knowing how to tie your
> shoelaces. It really is that simple." One day he asked me to show him
> how. So I showed him and he said, "I can't see clearly what you're
> doing"; so I drew a set of six diagrams - very rough drawings of my
> actions. By following the diagrams, he tied his shoelaces, practised a
> few times to be sure and that was it. Skill acquired.

My youngest daughter, 6, wanted to learn how to tie bows about a month
ago. I showed her how to do it the way that I do it, the around the
tree into the bunny hole way. She figured it out and apparently has
been practicing because just today, she came up to me and showed me a
"better" way to tie a bow, using the rabbit ear and tie them together
method.

So, not only will your kids learn things when they want to, they may
just find a way to do it differently than you might think they will. My
kids are always surprising me with the things that they've discovered
and ways to look at things that I never would have thought of. I know
the bunny ear method, it always seemed clumsy to me, so I never showed
my daughter, yet she discovered it and it works better for her.
Sometimes, though, they show me things I never knew.

Sandra Dodd

This merited a repeat:

I've spent the past five years observing the phenomenal
difference between my son's self-determined 'learning at the speed of
thought' lifestyle and the learning at the speed of watching paint dry
experiences he went through at school.



(Bob Collier wrote that, and I'm glad.)



Sandra

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

ENSEMBLE S-WAYNFORTH

Linnaea got a pair of heelys for her birthday and has really been amazing to watch as she's moved from stumbling and wobbling to rolling about the house doing turns and fast stops. But one thing she wanted to be able to do was tie them. I took maybe 30 seconds to show her how David ties his shoes, two rabbit ears tied in a granny knot, and that was it. She knows how to tie shoes.

It is thrilling to watch how the little things that can loom in your brain "How will they ever know how to tie their shoes if I don't teach them?!!" can disappear in an instant of real desire to know.

Schuyler
www.waynforth.blogspot.com

----- Original Message ----
From: Jenny C <jenstarc4@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, 1 April, 2008 4:26:52 AM
Subject: [AlwaysLearning] Re: can anyone answer these questions?


>He didn't learn to
> tie his shoelaces until he was nine. I used to say to him, "Pat, one
> day you'll wake up in the morning not knowing how to tie your
> shoelaces and you'll go to bed that night knowing how to tie your
> shoelaces. It really is that simple." One day he asked me to show him
> how. So I showed him and he said, "I can't see clearly what you're
> doing"; so I drew a set of six diagrams - very rough drawings of my
> actions. By following the diagrams, he tied his shoelaces, practised a
> few times to be sure and that was it. Skill acquired.

My youngest daughter, 6, wanted to learn how to tie bows about a month
ago. I showed her how to do it the way that I do it, the around the
tree into the bunny hole way. She figured it out and apparently has
been practicing because just today, she came up to me and showed me a
"better" way to tie a bow, using the rabbit ear and tie them together
method.

So, not only will your kids learn things when they want to, they may
just find a way to do it differently than you might think they will. My
kids are always surprising me with the things that they've discovered
and ways to look at things that I never would have thought of. I know
the bunny ear method, it always seemed clumsy to me, so I never showed
my daughter, yet she discovered it and it works better for her.
Sometimes, though, they show me things I never knew.




------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links








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

j md

Hi Shileen,
what you said makes a lot of sense to us.We ...even before we thought of unschooling....worked weekends too.I though that it was better to do a little each day then to do a lot at once....that ws then now i am learning to let them do what they would like to for the day...yes at the moment its a lot of tv and playstation but after reading about this on Sandras website i am sure that when they are ready they will move on.I will write down what they do each day...I was when they were doing all the book work.Its just learning to see outside the box and working out what is suitable for our portfolio at the end of the year.
We live in Adelaide south australia so a little too far from PA.
One more question...I have started letting the kids stay up as long as they "need " at night.No biggie here but my 5 yr old gets tired so easy even on a good nights sleep.Now she is getting up for hours over night...again no biggie.Actually i have been enjoying being able to chat about all kinds of things.....the thing is that she is too tired to cope during the day and finds it hard to rest long enough to fall asleep and is getting angry and just well so tired during the day....anyone have advice about what we could do to help her?
Luna



----- Original Message ----
From: Shileen Nixon <shileennixon@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, 1 April, 2008 2:51:00 AM
Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] can anyone answer these questions?


On Mar 31, 2008, at 9:05 AM, j md wrote:
>
> ***Does anyone here have to work within an education framework and
> how do you make sure that each area is met....and i dont mean
> making the kids do each area?***
>

Hi Luna!

I am sure that there will be others who can answer much better than I
but I can still share what I've been doing this year. We have a
framework as well - I live in Pennsylvania which by the way if there
are other PA people on the list I'd love to hear from you!!! Anyway,
we have a framework although IMO I think our framework is fairly
lose. In other words there's room for "play". I have been keeping a
daily list of things DS does that can be plugged into the different
subjects. I don't list the subjects. I just list what he does
throughout the day. So when it's time for "reporting" I will go
through this list and create a report or what we call a portfolio.
Learning to think outside the box has been very helpful in dealing
with our homeschool requirements. I also think in terms of 7 days a
week not just Mon-Fri ... after all learning does happen 24/7.
Again, I just observe what he's doing and jot it down. There will
also be days that I miss so it's not a strict regimen either. I
know there will be plenty of things at the end of the year to
"report" on. Hope this makes sense.

Shileen

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





Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.
www.yahoo7.com.au/y7mail



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

j md

Hi sandra....we began where most people would...the beginning and have been going from there...the grover and the everything in the whole wide world museum made us both smile Dh and myself!When we do things that are new to us i research it to death!My way of learning.
Luna



----- Original Message ----
From: Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, 1 April, 2008 3:10:07 AM
Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] can anyone answer these questions?

-=-I am reading through all the infomation on the site as i want to
take things in!I-=-

All the information on the site is too much.
Try this for a starting place instead:
http://sandradodd. com/beginning

Sandra
http://sandradodd. blogspot. com (my anniversary)

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





Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.
www.yahoo7.com.au/y7mail



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

Sandra Dodd

-=-the thing is that she is too tired to cope during the day and
finds it hard to rest long enough to fall asleep and is getting angry
and just well so tired during the day....anyone have advice about
what we could do to help her?-=-

Speak comfortingly about how good sleep feels, when you get a natural
chance. She might be thinking the freedom will be rescinded any day
now. That happens a lot in families that go back and forth between
unschooling and structure--they think their kids are wild, but their
kids are just wise to the fact that mom's deals are a limited-time
offer, so they grasp and binge. I'm not saying you're doing that or
will, but I'm saying that when something once forbidden is allowed,
kids want lots of it. That's just evidence they felt restrained, I
think, and needy.

Maybe she'll start sleeping more, or maybe she'll start learning how
to be kinder even when she's tired. That's a skill people need to
learn too. You could talk to her a bit about that, maybe, that if
she's cranky she might need food, or sleep. But don't shame her
about it. Let her figure it out from experience, from actually
listening to her body.

People who have eaten and slept by the clock have often lost the
ability to even know if they're tired or hungry.

For sleeping: soft familiar music (Marty and Holly both had regular
bedtime tapes, and would use the same one most of the time, because
it was soothing and wasn't going to surprise them. Movies or late
night talk shows, on low, but don't turn it off abruptly, turn it
down gradually until you know they're asleep if you have the urge to
turn it off.

Sandra



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

j md

Hello Bob,
thankyou for telling me some of your story. I find reading through what you have said inspiring.There are stories everywhere about kifds who learn more out of school then when they are in there.I am beginning to see why.Slowly gaining an understanding.I am not sure what the procedure is like in canberra when it comes to getting exemption but here you fill out the form each year then have an interview each year.I think unschooling will work best for us.In regaurds to reading our eldest was reading at a grade 2 level in recption then when we moved schools she was pulled back to reception level.Now she hates it.We go to the libary and gets books but if she dosnt like them they go back.Sometimes she just looks at the pictures.She is only interested in animals at the moment which is fine:)Just not sure how to tell her she isnt getting a horse yet!Our 5 year old likes us to read to her and we like that too....castles at the
moment...and knights!She sits and writes out words....we dont ask her she just does it.I figure this is where she is at the moment and if she was at school she wouldnt be able to follow this as she sees she needs....it would be what the school says she needs to be doing.My DH says as long as they can read and write and are happy thats all he wants for them.I am sutre they will...we read all the time and are on the net.The girls love the computer games like ps2...which the eldest nicked of me a few years ago!Shes getting good with games now and we often play together as i find them fun too....Dh is still a little miffed by them LOL.I have been a little unsure of her using the net but am slowley getting there...its not her i dont trust but some of the other people out there.Both the older ones prefer to find things on the net then in books most times..I think its faster then books which they need to wait till we can get to the libary for.Last night my
eldest wanted to know what stupendous meant...2 minutes later she had her answer.When they are really little sometimes interest can wane when they have to wait too long....has anyone else found that?Today i was talking to my husband and i asked him how much he remembered of what he was taught in school?He said not that much....we agreed it was most likely as he had no interest in the topic.I was the same....i still remember asking my social studies teacher if we could do american histoty as it really interested me but he said only if we get time...which of course we didnt.Still that year i read Bury my heart at wounded knee...and you know i remember more about that book than my SS lessons LOL.I think all kids are the same:)
Luna

j md

I am sure that is what Zini is doing...also she dosnt like to be in bed if someone else is up..(that was her older sister who is unwell too)...Once she realises things are changing then it should be easier on her.We know about the glut:)My girls got so many eggs for easter of us and 4 grandparents and as we are not rationing them out like we normally would they are going nuts LOL.They are not used to yes to things ;like can we have an egg!I figure they will stop eating if they dont feel well and eventually they might feel secure enough to not need it several times a day...maybe:)
We will try the music with Zini...i have a Cd here called songs for the inner child that is full of lullabys and traditional songs.She used to go to sleep with meditation music and i sang these songs on this cd to her when she was a baby before bed(wonder if that will register on her subconsious?)
Macy has gone to bed with a DVD on for the last almost 4 years.She was diagnosed "ADHD" but now is almost completly drug free and better for it.She cant sleep without her movies on.We got some weird looks and comments back then about letting her have movies at night and during the night when she got up.....apparently we were giving into her!We just thought we were getting her to a state wjhere she wasnt worked up[ and could relax to sleep and in turn getting ourselves to sleep too.Zini dosnt winddown with visual stimulation but with audio that might be a lot doifferent.I am now prepared if she gets up in the next hour or so:)
With food she has always helped herself to what she wants in the fridge...even before we decided to relax the rules...she would just go and get what sahe wanted LOL.They always eat when they want...its immportant.Even adults get cranky when they are hungry.Today was definatly tired as she had about 4 hours i guess before she was up four hours thenonly slept another 3 over night...she normally sleeps almost 11 hours a night.She did eventually fall asleep for about 1 1/2 hours in the lounge today which i think she needed...she asked for the fold out bed and lied down to eventually sleep.
Thanks for your help again,
Luna


----- Original Message ----
From: Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, 1 April, 2008 10:18:46 PM
Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] can anyone answer these questions?

-=-the thing is that she is too tired to cope during the day and
finds it hard to rest long enough to fall asleep and is getting angry
and just well so tired during the day....anyone have advice about
what we could do to help her?-=-

Speak comfortingly about how good sleep feels, when you get a natural
chance. She might be thinking the freedom will be rescinded any day
now. That happens a lot in families that go back and forth between
unschooling and structure--they think their kids are wild, but their
kids are just wise to the fact that mom's deals are a limited-time
offer, so they grasp and binge. I'm not saying you're doing that or
will, but I'm saying that when something once forbidden is allowed,
kids want lots of it. That's just evidence they felt restrained, I
think, and needy.

Maybe she'll start sleeping more, or maybe she'll start learning how
to be kinder even when she's tired. That's a skill people need to
learn too. You could talk to her a bit about that, maybe, that if
she's cranky she might need food, or sleep. But don't shame her
about it. Let her figure it out from experience, from actually
listening to her body.

People who have eaten and slept by the clock have often lost the
ability to even know if they're tired or hungry.

For sleeping: soft familiar music (Marty and Holly both had regular
bedtime tapes, and would use the same one most of the time, because
it was soothing and wasn't going to surprise them. Movies or late
night talk shows, on low, but don't turn it off abruptly, turn it
down gradually until you know they're asleep if you have the urge to
turn it off.

Sandra

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





Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.
www.yahoo7.com.au/y7mail



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

Shileen Nixon

Hi Luna!

My son does lots of WoW and tv. It used to concern me but I've
learned to let go of the judgement around it and I now see those
activities as valuable. One thing I want to do soon is to learn how
to play WoW. DS would love for me to learn the game. I've given it
a half-hearted attempt in the past ... I'm just not really into that
type of gaming but I would really like to see what my DS is doing.
My oldest DS tells me from time to time how brilliantly he (Austyn)
plays this game. I'd like to see for myself and understand. Plus I
bet that I can think outside the box and put what he's doing in
schooly terms for our portfolio at the end of the school year.

Shileen

On Apr 1, 2008, at 5:07 AM, j md wrote:

> Hi Shileen,
> what you said makes a lot of sense to us.We ...even before we
> thought of unschooling....worked weekends too.I though that it was
> better to do a little each day then to do a lot at once....that ws
> then now i am learning to let them do what they would like to for
> the day...yes at the moment its a lot of tv and playstation but
> after reading about this on Sandras website i am sure that when
> they are ready they will move on.I will write down what they do
> each day...I was when they were doing all the book work.Its just
> learning to see outside the box and working out what is suitable
> for our portfolio at the end of the year.
> We live in Adelaide south australia so a little too far from PA.
> One more question...I have started letting the kids stay up as long
> as they "need " at night.No biggie here but my 5 yr old gets tired
> so easy even on a good nights sleep.Now she is getting up for hours
> over night...again no biggie.Actually i have been enjoying being
> able to chat about all kinds of things.....the thing is that she is
> too tired to cope during the day and finds it hard to rest long
> enough to fall asleep and is getting angry and just well so tired
> during the day....anyone have advice about what we could do to help
> her?
> Luna
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Shileen Nixon <shileennixon@...>
> To: [email protected]
> Sent: Tuesday, 1 April, 2008 2:51:00 AM
> Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] can anyone answer these questions?
>
> On Mar 31, 2008, at 9:05 AM, j md wrote:
> >
> > ***Does anyone here have to work within an education framework and
> > how do you make sure that each area is met....and i dont mean
> > making the kids do each area?***
> >
>
> Hi Luna!
>
> I am sure that there will be others who can answer much better than I
> but I can still share what I've been doing this year. We have a
> framework as well - I live in Pennsylvania which by the way if there
> are other PA people on the list I'd love to hear from you!!! Anyway,
> we have a framework although IMO I think our framework is fairly
> lose. In other words there's room for "play". I have been keeping a
> daily list of things DS does that can be plugged into the different
> subjects. I don't list the subjects. I just list what he does
> throughout the day. So when it's time for "reporting" I will go
> through this list and create a report or what we call a portfolio.
> Learning to think outside the box has been very helpful in dealing
> with our homeschool requirements. I also think in terms of 7 days a
> week not just Mon-Fri ... after all learning does happen 24/7.
> Again, I just observe what he's doing and jot it down. There will
> also be days that I miss so it's not a strict regimen either. I
> know there will be plenty of things at the end of the year to
> "report" on. Hope this makes sense.
>
> Shileen
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
> Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.
> www.yahoo7.com.au/y7mail
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>



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

Sandra Dodd

-=-She was diagnosed "ADHD" but now is almost completly drug free and
better for it.-=-

If you can put that behind you and out of your mind, it will be
better for all concerned. Let it go. Do what needs to be done
without labelling as much as you can.

Sandra

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

Jenny C

"When they are really little sometimes interest can wane when they have
to wait too long....has anyone else found that?"

Sometimes I make a mental check list of things to look at or find and
answer the question or interest as best I can in the moment. When I
keep that check list running in my head, I can keep my eyes and ears
open for other things to give my kids. Sometimes they are still
interested and sometimes not, but when they are, they are so awesomely
surprised that I've brought them something that I remember from days,
weeks, or months ago. They'll say something like "hey remember the
other day we were just talking about that" or something like that.
Sometimes I tell them that I planned it and remembered and sometimes I
let it feel like magic.

The internet is great for that, but my youngest isn't as interested in
things from the internet as my oldest. Sometimes she likes videos or
music, or games, but she really is a more "gotta touch it" kind of kid.

j md

Hello again Shileen,
I havnt come across WoW...Is that one which is on the computer/internet?At the moment Macy loves to play the crash bandicoot games.She has been so excited when she has got through some of the harder levels on her own lately and got gems from some of those harder levels.She is only 8 and its only recently she has wanted to play the PS2 on her own for hours...but she likes us to watch and comes and tells us all the exciting news when something new happens.I thinkit would be good for you to learn to play WoW.It would be another way to spend time with your son and you might actually find you enjoy doing it too:)You could challenge each other or work with teamwork depending on how the game is played.We usually go one life and you swap over....depends on how WoW works as to how you could play it!Like you i think i will need to look at what the "educational value" acording to the government of each activite is for the portfolio at the end of the year.Its hard
to pigeon hole some of their activities but with a bit of paractice I am sure it wont be too bad!
Luna



----- Original Message ----
From: Shileen Nixon <shileennixon@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, 2 April, 2008 12:46:00 AM
Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] can anyone answer these questions?

Hi Luna!

My son does lots of WoW and tv. It used to concern me but I've
learned to let go of the judgement around it and I now see those
activities as valuable. One thing I want to do soon is to learn how
to play WoW. DS would love for me to learn the game. I've given it
a half-hearted attempt in the past ... I'm just not really into that
type of gaming but I would really like to see what my DS is doing.
My oldest DS tells me from time to time how brilliantly he (Austyn)
plays this game. I'd like to see for myself and understand. Plus I
bet that I can think outside the box and put what he's doing in
schooly terms for our portfolio at the end of the school year.

Shileen

On Apr 1, 2008, at 5:07 AM, j md wrote:

> Hi Shileen,
> what you said makes a lot of sense to us.We ...even before we
> thought of unschooling. ...worked weekends too.I though that it was
> better to do a little each day then to do a lot at once....that ws
> then now i am learning to let them do what they would like to for
> the day...yes at the moment its a lot of tv and playstation but
> after reading about this on Sandras website i am sure that when
> they are ready they will move on.I will write down what they do
> each day...I was when they were doing all the book work.Its just
> learning to see outside the box and working out what is suitable
> for our portfolio at the end of the year.
> We live in Adelaide south australia so a little too far from PA.
> One more question...I have started letting the kids stay up as long
> as they "need " at night.No biggie here but my 5 yr old gets tired
> so easy even on a good nights sleep.Now she is getting up for hours
> over night...again no biggie.Actually i have been enjoying being
> able to chat about all kinds of things.....the thing is that she is
> too tired to cope during the day and finds it hard to rest long
> enough to fall asleep and is getting angry and just well so tired
> during the day....anyone have advice about what we could do to help
> her?
> Luna
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Shileen Nixon <shileennixon@ mac.com>
> To: AlwaysLearning@ yahoogroups. com
> Sent: Tuesday, 1 April, 2008 2:51:00 AM
> Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] can anyone answer these questions?
>
> On Mar 31, 2008, at 9:05 AM, j md wrote:
> >
> > ***Does anyone here have to work within an education framework and
> > how do you make sure that each area is met....and i dont mean
> > making the kids do each area?***
> >
>
> Hi Luna!
>
> I am sure that there will be others who can answer much better than I
> but I can still share what I've been doing this year. We have a
> framework as well - I live in Pennsylvania which by the way if there
> are other PA people on the list I'd love to hear from you!!! Anyway,
> we have a framework although IMO I think our framework is fairly
> lose. In other words there's room for "play". I have been keeping a
> daily list of things DS does that can be plugged into the different
> subjects. I don't list the subjects. I just list what he does
> throughout the day. So when it's time for "reporting" I will go
> through this list and create a report or what we call a portfolio.
> Learning to think outside the box has been very helpful in dealing
> with our homeschool requirements. I also think in terms of 7 days a
> week not just Mon-Fri ... after all learning does happen 24/7.
> Again, I just observe what he's doing and jot it down. There will
> also be days that I miss so it's not a strict regimen either. I
> know there will be plenty of things at the end of the year to
> "report" on. Hope this makes sense.
>
> Shileen
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
> Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.
> www.yahoo7.com. au/y7mail
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>

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





Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.
www.yahoo7.com.au/y7mail



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

j md

You are right....I dont see her that way.In about 2 weeks time she will be off the sleeping tablets too.She will be able to slowly work her way back to HER normal sleep pattern.That has to be good for her.Children eat and sleep when they need its adults that try to make them fit into a "normal" schedule.
Luna



-=-She was diagnosed "ADHD" but now is almost completly drug free and
better for it.-=-

If you can put that behind you and out of your mind, it will be
better for all concerned. Let it go. Do what needs to be done
without labelling as much as you can.

Sandra

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





Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.
www.yahoo7.com.au/y7mail



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

Sandra Dodd

-=-You are right....I dont see her that way.-=-

You DO see her that way.
When you posted to a thousand strangers all over the place, you told
us "-=-She was diagnosed "ADHD" but now is almost completly drug free
and better for it.-=-"

With a total choice about what to write down and what to send, you
chose to tell us something about ADHD.

So please don't tell us it's not something you see. It's something
you *SHARE* about her.

Let it go. Really. Figure out a way to let it dissolve. You're
still drugging her, at least at night, right?

-=-Children eat and sleep when they need its adults that try to make
them fit into a "normal" schedule.-=-

I don't where or how you grew up, but in my experience (primary and
secondary) most children have no possible way to eat when they need
to. They eat on a schedule, with food that's chosen by others, and
they're often pressed to finish it all on some threat of punishment
or deprivation. And children do NOT sleep when they need, in most
situations. They are put to bed "at bedtime," woken up harshly, and
are in trouble if they fall asleep in class.

Sandra



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

Bob Collier

--- In [email protected], j md <lunawillowmoon@...> wrote:
>
> I am not sure what the procedure is like in canberra when it comes
to getting exemption but here you fill out the form each year then
have an interview each year.


I'm not sure either. I heard a rumour that I'm required by law to be
registered as a "homeschooler". That was five years ago, but as I've
had no contact with the Department of Schools, I'm none the wiser. If
it's really important to them, I'm sure they'll let me know. It's not
my responsibility to do the Department of Schools' work for them. Why
would I? I don't require an "exemption" from anybody on this planet to
parent my own child.

Bob

Bob Collier

--- In [email protected], j md <lunawillowmoon@...> wrote:
>
> i still remember asking my social studies teacher if we could do
american histoty as it really interested me but he said only if we get
time...which of course we didnt.Still that year i read Bury my heart
at wounded knee...and you know i remember more about that book than my
SS lessons LOL.I think all kids are the same:)
> Luna
>


I read that book too! I love reading about the 'Wild West' - and
watching Westerns on TV and at the movies. Ever since I was about nine
or ten when my family got our first TV. The first TV show I ever
watched in my life was an episode of The Cisco Kid. Then there were
all the others - Bonanza, Maverick, Have Gun Will Travel, Rifleman,
Laramie, Lone Ranger, Bronco, Range Rider, Wagon Train, Rawhide, High
Chaparral ...

Then, as I grew up I became interested in the real life history of the
Wild West, the true stories (or true-ish, depending on who was telling
the story!). And no chance of any of that finding its way into my
school classroom either. British history was it.

Not so long ago, I spent a very informative half an hour or so with my
son at the official Texas Rangers website (the law enforcement agency
not the baseball club) because we had been discussing the design of
the weapons in the shoot 'em up videogames he likes to play - and
which guns are real guns and which are made up - and I'd mentioned
that I loved the design of the Colt 1851 Navy pistol (as used by Clint
Eastwood in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly which we'd watched not long
before), so I googled it, found a page at the Texas Rangers site and
we stayed to have a look around.

Shortly afterwards, I watched Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp movie. I was
curious about how historically accurate the movie was and that led me
to 'The Old West' at a website called Legends of America
(www.legendsofamerica.com) - "Travel, History, Old West, Route 66,
Ghost Towns, Treasure Tales & More!" I spent almost three hours there
the day I found it and still visit from time to time.

Another time, a couple of years ago, I watched the Second World War
movie The Battle of the Bulge. I was pretty sure some liberties had
been taken with the story, so I googled it and found a website - don't
recall now what it was called - that had been created by some guy in
America who had actually been there. It included a critique of the
Battle of the Bulge movie that told me everything I needed to know
about the (numerous) discrepancies between the dramatised account and
the actual events. And there was a whole lot more. The website was a
huge, huge collection of real life stories, photos and maps related to
the battle that this guy had painstakingly put together over the space
of years. I was so moved by it, I emailed the guy to thank him for all
his work.

I love all that. The internet is a dream come true for people of my
generation (I'm a 'child of the 1950s') - for those of us who wanted
to know but had no way of knowing. I've never been better educated in
my life than I have been over the past eight years. And the best
thing of all is that I get to choose what's important to me and what
isn't. That's priceless.

Bob

j md

hello Sandra,
I just wanted to clarify a few things.Firstly when i say almost drug free in re to catapres that is beacause you can not take a child straight off this drug.You remove 1/4 tablet per fortnight as removal of this medication can cause a rise in blood pressure....the dose was 2 tablets...to be completly off this medication will take her 16 weeks...only 2 weeks left and we should be onto 0...this has made a huge difference for us as a family as i feel we can now feel that she will now be able to find her natural cycle.
Why did i mention this...this hads been the biggest step...even before looking at unschooling...for our family.If you could see the difference you would know why i chose to tell people about something so positive.These changes are exciting...its like seeing a path in the woods after being lost for so long.I guess i mentioned it because these steps are a major change in our lives and in thinking.We are listing to what we feel is right not to what others are telling us we need to belive is right.For us this is huge.
Here the fridge door is always open and the girls can get fruit and snacks and drinks when they need.Well when they are home.That was a problem when miss 8 was at school though....she could not eat when her body told her she needed to and when she could she didnt eat as she was teased.now she eats....she grazes.As for if they dont like what is on the table well then they are free to tell us and get something else more appealing.Though i did make the mistake of limiting sweets till i began to read your writtings.This is my issue not theirs of course.I am beginning to learn to consiously override the thoughts that i have had since i was a kid when it comes to food.Now something else more appealing means anything they want.It also means when they are hungry...even if its 30 mins before tea is cooked...even if its an hour after tea.(they often eat before bed...always have if they wanted it...)I dont belive kids can go to sleep easily if they are hungry so if
they are hungry the eat before bed , my guys also love a milk before bed usually when they are in bed.
We are not perfect but we are trying our best...every step in the right direction is exciting.I am sorry if i offended anyone it wasnt the intention.
Luna




Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.
www.yahoo7.com.au/y7mail



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

Sandra Dodd

-=-. It's not
my responsibility to do the Department of Schools' work for them. Why
would I? I don't require an "exemption" from anybody on this planet to
parent my own child.-=-



I don't register either, but if the law requires this (school) or
that (whatever the jurisdiction might have as an option), then it's
not their work, it's yours to follow the law. If you want to. I
took my dog for a walk without a leash the night before last.

It sometimes takes an exemption to parent your child the way you
choose and still meet the law.

I figure if I'm as "out there" as I am and the state hasn't inquired,
others are pretty safe (in New Mexico--I'm no proof against other
places at all).

The schools would lose, not profit, by keeping an accurate accounting
of how many families are bailing, and at what rate. I think it's to
their advantage to let a few hundred slip quietly by.



Sandra

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

Sandra Dodd

-=-We are not perfect but we are trying our best...every step in the
right direction is exciting.I am sorry if i offended anyone it wasnt
the intention.-=-

Nobody's offended. People here will point out what looks
counterproductive. You can take it or leave it. You're not here to
impress us, we figure you're here to put your thoughts out where more
experienced unschoolers can help you see "getting cold" and help you
toward "getting warm."

Sandra

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

Sandra Dodd

-=-The first TV show I ever
watched in my life was an episode of The Cisco Kid.-=-

Cisco and Pancho! I remember them vaguely. Same days I was wathing
"Whirlybird," and thinking yeah, I could fly a helicopter, easy. I
must've been five. I was in Texas. Not much better for learning
American history than Australia is, I think. In Texas, they teach
Texas history. Over, and over, and over.

I've lived in New Mexico since I was six, but we visited relatives.
Ignorant, alcoholic relatives on one side, and easy-going non-
ignorant non-alcoholic but too religious relatives on the other
side. Mamaw had a storm cellar just like the one in The Wizard of
Oz. They had used it many times. I used to want to play down there
every time I went, until they reminded me (every time) there were
very likely snakes and spiders. Oh yeah.

Wagon Train is the reason I stopped taking piano lessons. I didn't
want to miss Wagon Train. My last name was Adams and the wagonmaster
was Adams, I think I remember.

-=-Then, as I grew up I became interested in the real life history of
the

Wild West, the true stories (or true-ish, depending on who was telling
the story!). And no chance of any of that finding its way into my
school classroom either. British history was it.-=-

I'm a big Anglophile, and the first time I was in England I hit a lot
of bookstores. There was a postal strike and the two boxes of books
I shipped home went into the brink somewhere. But I remember being
impressed and embarrassed that their kids' histories of the north
American native tribes were WAY better than anything I'd seen in the
U.S. The history the Brits get of the U.S. and Canada is what the
Canadians and Americans would do well to have (and probably the
Canadians have always had it).

There are book publishing and sales realities that are a mystery to
me, but we have a hard time getting books from the U.K.

-=-The website was a

huge, huge collection of real life stories, photos and maps related to
the battle that this guy had painstakingly put together over the space
of years. I was so moved by it, I emailed the guy to thank him for all
his work.

I love all that. The internet is a dream come true for people of my
generation (I'm a 'child of the 1950s') - for those of us who wanted
to know but had no way of knowing.-=-



YES!!! I got a nice note from a guy who found my page on my pump
organ, and I added it there just Tuesday:

http://sandradodd.com/organ

I sent him a note:

THANK YOU!!
I love these little stories that tie all kinds of people and places
and times together.

And he opted to leave his name on it.

Sandra








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

Bob Collier

--- In [email protected], Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
>
> -=-. It's not
> my responsibility to do the Department of Schools' work for them. Why
> would I? I don't require an "exemption" from anybody on this planet to
> parent my own child.-=-
>
>
>
> I don't register either, but if the law requires this (school) or
> that (whatever the jurisdiction might have as an option), then it's
> not their work, it's yours to follow the law. If you want to. I
> took my dog for a walk without a leash the night before last.
>
> It sometimes takes an exemption to parent your child the way you
> choose and still meet the law.
>
> I figure if I'm as "out there" as I am and the state hasn't inquired,
> others are pretty safe (in New Mexico--I'm no proof against other
> places at all).
>
> The schools would lose, not profit, by keeping an accurate accounting
> of how many families are bailing, and at what rate. I think it's to
> their advantage to let a few hundred slip quietly by.
>
>
>
> Sandra
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>



Perhaps that's what's happened with my local Department of Schools.
It's to their advantage to let me slip by.

At the time my son was taken out of school, there was a review of the
legal requirements for homeschoolers in progress, I recall. Now I
think of it, I included a reference to that in my letter to the
Principal of my son's ex-school, and wrote that I was waiting to find
out what the registration requirements would be before proceeding.
Until that time, registration had merely been 'encouraged' - that is,
it was implied that you had to register unless you specifically asked
what your options were (in which case, you were given the facts). The
review made registration mandatory. So I heard. I never checked to
find out for sure. I was anticipating that the Department of Schools
would get back to me to ask why I hadn't returned their forms. They
didn't. I had no inclination to ask *them* if they wanted the forms
returned because I couldn't complete them and, in fact, had thrown
them away. As time passed and nothing happened and, metaphorically
speaking, my educational ship sailed off over the horizon to new
lands, I ended up in a non-relationship with the Department of
Schools. I suppose it *could* be argued that I'm breaking the law, but
the D of S doesn't seem to be in the least bothered by it. When they
care about it, perhaps I will too. :)

Bob

Bob Collier

--- In [email protected], Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
>
>
> I'm a big Anglophile, and the first time I was in England I hit a lot
> of bookstores. There was a postal strike and the two boxes of books
> I shipped home went into the brink somewhere. But I remember being
> impressed and embarrassed that their kids' histories of the north
> American native tribes were WAY better than anything I'd seen in the
> U.S.


I'm told too - don't know if it's true - that blues music was saved
from obscurity thanks to the interest shown in it in the early 1960s
by British musicians exploring the history of rock and roll.

Even though I grew up in England, I didn't become an Anglophile myself
until I was twenty. Until then, I'd lived all my life in London and
that had been more or less my entire world. Then I left London to live
in a small village a hundred miles to the west and I discovered
England and fell in love with it. Eye opening times!

But I'd still rather watch baseball than cricket. :)

Bob

j md

Thankyou Sandra...
All advice is appreciated.The warmer (sunnier?!)things get the better things will be.It takes a while to learn to live by your heart after living by what others see as right.
Luna



----- Original Message ----
From: Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, 4 April, 2008 4:02:22 AM
Subject: Re: [AlwaysLearning] can anyone answer these questions?

-=-We are not perfect but we are trying our best...every step in the
right direction is exciting.I am sorry if i offended anyone it wasnt
the intention.-= -

Nobody's offended. People here will point out what looks
counterproductive. You can take it or leave it. You're not here to
impress us, we figure you're here to put your thoughts out where more
experienced unschoolers can help you see "getting cold" and help you
toward "getting warm."

Sandra

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





Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email address.
www.yahoo7.com.au/y7mail



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

Sandra Dodd

-=-The
review made registration mandatory. So I heard. I never checked to
find out for sure. I was anticipating that the Department of Schools
would get back to me to ask why I hadn't returned their forms. They
didn't. I had no inclination to ask *them* if they wanted the forms
returned because I couldn't complete them and, in fact, had thrown
them away. As time passed and nothing happened and, metaphorically
speaking, my educational ship sailed off over the horizon to new
lands, I ended up in a non-relationship with the Department of
Schools. -=-

Sounds very familiar.

When Kirby was eight, in the old days when there were nominal test
requirements in New Mexico (three tests, when kids were about 8, 10
and 13, later changed to another arbitrary set of years, later
dropped) I was still in the state homeschooling group, getting their
newsletters, going to their conferences. Unschoolers were the bright
end of the room, but not the majority. They were more competent, but
less driven (and so forth).

A test year came, we were all reminded, a place and date were set, I
went to the meeting before where they explain and coach and we sign
up. I signed up.

I went home and realized Kirby wasn't going to have any fun or do
well, therefore it was going to be a big detriment. He didn't read
well enough to do something like that independently, at eight, and he
didn't like being surrounded by strangers yet (he got to love it
later, and to read like any rules lawyer that ever played games with
150 page rules books). So we just ditched. I drove him sixty miles
north to Santa Fe to have a leisurely stroll and food, so I could
honestly say "We were out of town."

I didn't tell him "There was this test, and we're ditching out." We
just had a really nice several hours far from home.

I got a letter saying there was a makeup test and if he missed that
one he had to have a very good excuse or else.

Remember that scene in Galaxy Quest with the dramatic count-down on
the computer? Very scary. It gets to 1. That's all. Nothing happens.

Nothing happened.

I felt free and invisible!



The reason I wasn't very worried is that I worked in the public
schools. I know what the scores of tests are used for, and we didn't
need any of it. And as little as school counsellors use the scores,
the MAIN purpose of them is the group averages. Kirby was going to
bring the average down, and and mostly-conservative curriculum-using
creationist-teaching leaders of the "everyone has to be tested" were
after high scores, not lower, and so I didn't feel we had let the
team down at all, either.

I know that in any school, there are kids who miss the test and then
miss the make-up date. Or they move from one school to another and
miss both. If the child is a likely candidate for extra funding
(special ed one way or the other), they might administer it
privately. But if the kid's an average kid not worth daily cash,
it's probably not worth the time and expense of getting it scored.

Another way to do the testing was to have a psychologist or a
certified teacher (lapsed certification was okay with them) proctor/
sign off. So my sister's kids took theirs at home, she sent them to
me, and I signed off on it. I couldn't have done my own kids', just
someone else's. I told her I wanted nothing to do with it if she
really followed the times and the rules. She didn't give them
answers, but she let them quit when they felt done. So I was fine to
sign it. She also gave the time-honored advice that if they thought
a question was stupid or they were tired of it, just guess or make a
pattern on the answer sheet. The bad thing about the test-at-home
option was that the tests were purchased for $35 apiece from Bob
Jones University, an odious institution, and mailed back to them for
scoring.

The end of very long story I don't think I've told. Very long isn't
unusual. "Haven't told" is. <bwg>



Sandra




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