I wonder how life would have been different....
saturnfire16
Someone on a message board I'm on was talking about unschooling and I
ended up writing a book about what our unschooling days look like.
Then I copied it and sent it to my mom. She wrote back and
said "That's how it's done! I used to live like that with you." Of
course, she was talking about what she did with me when I was 3, the
age that my daughter is now. Then she had to work, so I went to
private school. Then the school closed and my parent's split up and
she still had to work, so my best friend's mom homeschooled me with a
curriculum. Then I begged to go to private school for 8th grade and
then public school for highschool.
But I bet if my mom had homeschooled me like she wanted to, she would
have found unschooling. Even if she never found the
term "unschooling," I think our lives would have looked a lot like
it. We were always living and learning. I learned more from her
than I ever did from homeschool or school. She was pretty relaxed
and respectful.
She says that she rarely spanked me (and I don't remember her ever
spanking) and never grounded me because I "was a good kid and never
needed it." But I wasn't *that* good of a kid. And when I was, it
was because of my relationship with her. I think she was afraid to
take those things out of her parenting tool box, but she didn't use
them either.
It's just strange to think about how life might have been
different....
ended up writing a book about what our unschooling days look like.
Then I copied it and sent it to my mom. She wrote back and
said "That's how it's done! I used to live like that with you." Of
course, she was talking about what she did with me when I was 3, the
age that my daughter is now. Then she had to work, so I went to
private school. Then the school closed and my parent's split up and
she still had to work, so my best friend's mom homeschooled me with a
curriculum. Then I begged to go to private school for 8th grade and
then public school for highschool.
But I bet if my mom had homeschooled me like she wanted to, she would
have found unschooling. Even if she never found the
term "unschooling," I think our lives would have looked a lot like
it. We were always living and learning. I learned more from her
than I ever did from homeschool or school. She was pretty relaxed
and respectful.
She says that she rarely spanked me (and I don't remember her ever
spanking) and never grounded me because I "was a good kid and never
needed it." But I wasn't *that* good of a kid. And when I was, it
was because of my relationship with her. I think she was afraid to
take those things out of her parenting tool box, but she didn't use
them either.
It's just strange to think about how life might have been
different....
Jenny C
>Well, I think all kids are good kids, sometimes kids make bigger
> She says that she rarely spanked me (and I don't remember her ever
> spanking) and never grounded me because I "was a good kid and never
> needed it." But I wasn't *that* good of a kid.
mistakes than other times and sometimes those mistakes have bigger
impacts on others, but still, good kid. Parental expectations and views
on those mistakes, can make a kid feel like a "bad" kid, and sometimes
kids internalize that, and sometimes kids will learn to live up to it!
I see it clearly as a parent created dynamic!
Sandra Dodd
-=-Someone on a message board I'm on was talking about unschooling and I
ended up writing a book about what our unschooling days look like.
Then I copied it and sent it to my mom.-=-
Do you want me to add it to the typical days collection here?
http://sandradodd.com/typical
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
ended up writing a book about what our unschooling days look like.
Then I copied it and sent it to my mom.-=-
Do you want me to add it to the typical days collection here?
http://sandradodd.com/typical
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
saturnfire16
Wow! If you want to. You might want to read it first and make sure
it fits. That would be cool if it does, but if you change your mind
after reading it I won't be offended. The topic on the board
was "help me get a list of minimum daily goals ( as an unschool
leaning mom)" I said:
We're radical unschoolers.
My minimum daily goal is to talk about everything that is going on
around us and pursue anything dd finds interesting. I also try to go
somewhere new every week. The week before last we went to the zoo.
Last week we went out to the forest for the day, hiked, started a
little fire, saw the wildlife. I haven't made plans for this week
yet. Some future ideas are the children's museum, the beach, the
wildlife refuge.
Here are some things we've talked about/done in the last 2 or 3
days:
Dd dictated a letter for me to write to her cousin and drew her a
picture. We put that in the mail and talked about post offices, what
they do, where the mail goes. We went to the bank and talked about
depositing money. We went to the creek behind our house and saw
ducks. We talked about where they live, what they eat, which ones
are male and female. She found some red berries and we talked about
those. I meant to bring some inside and find out what they were.
I'll have to do that next time. We talked about how some berries are
good to eat and some are poisonous and that I didn't know which those
were. We talked about how the drier works and electricity. We
watched Zathura and talked about robots and cryogenics. She
pretended to make crabby patties at her own restaurant, and we bought
some from her and talked about money. We took a walk in the dark to
look at the stars, but the stars weren't out so we ended up talking
about clouds and fog and what those are made of and where the sun
goes when it gets dark.
We went to the library and got books on horses and Aesopes Fables.
We talked about the different parts of a horse's body and different
breeds. Aesopes Fables led to discussions about turtles and eagles.
We talked about the Davidic dance at our church and worshipping God.
We soaked some nuts and talked about how that makes them easier to
digest and what digestion is. She brought me her Bible and wanted me
to tell her all the letters on the front. So, I told her the letters
and that it said The Toddlers Bible and then she said it after me and
said "I read it!" She did the same thing with half of the Green Eggs
and Ham book.
She played on starfall.com and did puzzles, letters and stories. She
counted while we threw a football back and forth. She asked me to
read a Tiger counting book and she wanted to point at each of the
numbers as I said it. She is really looking forward to her birthday
so we looked at a calendar and talked about today's date and the day
of her birthday and the day of her party. We planned her party. She
watched Survivor Man with dh and they talked about making fire and
fishing. She watched a show about bears with him and they talked
about the bears.
We went for a hike and talked about the plants we saw. We made a
fire and talked about flint and steel, and watched dh struggle with
it instead of just using his lighter. She watched dh and I shoot
our gun, and we talked about what guns are for. We got out my
Usborne books and talked about the moon and astronaunts and zoo
animals and moving and moving trucks.
We haven't done much youtube.com in the last few days, but we often
to there to look at anything she's interested in. Horses, belly
dancing, the nutcracker ballet, frogs, bears, monkeys, dogs, cats....
let's just say animals! Also, motorcycles, trains and all kinds of
other things. In the last few weeks we did paper mache and I got a
library book on it a few days ago, so we're going to do that again.
We made our own dominoes by printing them off the computer and taping
the paper to cardboard. We play with cards, and poker chips. We
read a lot. She draws a lot. For her birthday I'm getting her
puzzles, art supplies, and chalk.
I don't think of any of this as "school" stuff. We just live life
and talk about everything going on. I try to make life fun and
interesting and sparkly. That's my minumum daily goal. I don't
force anything. I only make suggestions- not based on some arbitrary
subject I think she should be learning- but based on what she is
interested in or what I think she might like to do or see or what
sounds fun. And learning happens!
it fits. That would be cool if it does, but if you change your mind
after reading it I won't be offended. The topic on the board
was "help me get a list of minimum daily goals ( as an unschool
leaning mom)" I said:
We're radical unschoolers.
My minimum daily goal is to talk about everything that is going on
around us and pursue anything dd finds interesting. I also try to go
somewhere new every week. The week before last we went to the zoo.
Last week we went out to the forest for the day, hiked, started a
little fire, saw the wildlife. I haven't made plans for this week
yet. Some future ideas are the children's museum, the beach, the
wildlife refuge.
Here are some things we've talked about/done in the last 2 or 3
days:
Dd dictated a letter for me to write to her cousin and drew her a
picture. We put that in the mail and talked about post offices, what
they do, where the mail goes. We went to the bank and talked about
depositing money. We went to the creek behind our house and saw
ducks. We talked about where they live, what they eat, which ones
are male and female. She found some red berries and we talked about
those. I meant to bring some inside and find out what they were.
I'll have to do that next time. We talked about how some berries are
good to eat and some are poisonous and that I didn't know which those
were. We talked about how the drier works and electricity. We
watched Zathura and talked about robots and cryogenics. She
pretended to make crabby patties at her own restaurant, and we bought
some from her and talked about money. We took a walk in the dark to
look at the stars, but the stars weren't out so we ended up talking
about clouds and fog and what those are made of and where the sun
goes when it gets dark.
We went to the library and got books on horses and Aesopes Fables.
We talked about the different parts of a horse's body and different
breeds. Aesopes Fables led to discussions about turtles and eagles.
We talked about the Davidic dance at our church and worshipping God.
We soaked some nuts and talked about how that makes them easier to
digest and what digestion is. She brought me her Bible and wanted me
to tell her all the letters on the front. So, I told her the letters
and that it said The Toddlers Bible and then she said it after me and
said "I read it!" She did the same thing with half of the Green Eggs
and Ham book.
She played on starfall.com and did puzzles, letters and stories. She
counted while we threw a football back and forth. She asked me to
read a Tiger counting book and she wanted to point at each of the
numbers as I said it. She is really looking forward to her birthday
so we looked at a calendar and talked about today's date and the day
of her birthday and the day of her party. We planned her party. She
watched Survivor Man with dh and they talked about making fire and
fishing. She watched a show about bears with him and they talked
about the bears.
We went for a hike and talked about the plants we saw. We made a
fire and talked about flint and steel, and watched dh struggle with
it instead of just using his lighter. She watched dh and I shoot
our gun, and we talked about what guns are for. We got out my
Usborne books and talked about the moon and astronaunts and zoo
animals and moving and moving trucks.
We haven't done much youtube.com in the last few days, but we often
to there to look at anything she's interested in. Horses, belly
dancing, the nutcracker ballet, frogs, bears, monkeys, dogs, cats....
let's just say animals! Also, motorcycles, trains and all kinds of
other things. In the last few weeks we did paper mache and I got a
library book on it a few days ago, so we're going to do that again.
We made our own dominoes by printing them off the computer and taping
the paper to cardboard. We play with cards, and poker chips. We
read a lot. She draws a lot. For her birthday I'm getting her
puzzles, art supplies, and chalk.
I don't think of any of this as "school" stuff. We just live life
and talk about everything going on. I try to make life fun and
interesting and sparkly. That's my minumum daily goal. I don't
force anything. I only make suggestions- not based on some arbitrary
subject I think she should be learning- but based on what she is
interested in or what I think she might like to do or see or what
sounds fun. And learning happens!
--- In [email protected], Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
>
> -=-Someone on a message board I'm on was talking about unschooling
and I
> ended up writing a book about what our unschooling days look like.
> Then I copied it and sent it to my mom.-=-
>
>
>
> Do you want me to add it to the typical days collection here?
>
> http://sandradodd.com/typical
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
Sandra Dodd
-=-. You might want to read it first and make sure
it fits.-=-
I love those stories!
Tomorrow I'll try to get to all the things I've said I'd do in the
past few days.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
it fits.-=-
I love those stories!
Tomorrow I'll try to get to all the things I've said I'd do in the
past few days.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]